Chapter 69

• “All dinner preparations are complete, sir,” Dice said, her gaze flicking briefly toward Gala, who still stood silently on the balcony.
• The wooden cabin offered a cozy respite from the biting cold outside. Snow blanketed everything in sight, turning the landscape into a quiet, frozen canvas. The rear of the cabin opened onto another balcony, one that faced a dense forest—its trees dusted in white, some branches bare, others heavy with snow.
• Dice hadn’t expected they would all make it here safely. Honestly, she was still in disbelief. Her expectations of her master’s capabilities had already been sky-high but tonight had proven them not only accurate—but underestimated. Perhaps what that man, Xavier the Timekeeper, had said was true: Gala just needed the right trigger to unleash whatever was dormant inside him. And once it surfaced, he became a force of war—cold, calculated, and frighteningly effective.