Chapter 33 The Return

• We came down from the mountain as the sun rose, painting the snow in shades of gold and pink. The heart scale was warm against my chest, wrapped in cloth and tucked inside my coat. It pulsed with a steady rhythm now, like a second heartbeat, and I could feel it responding to the world around me—the cold air, the crunch of snow underfoot, the distant cry of a hunting hawk.
• Roderick walked beside me, his sword still drawn. "The wraiths won't follow us into the light," he said. "They're bound to the mountain's shadow."
• Isabelle shivered. "Let's not test that theory."