The message arrived at midnight.

Theron’s agent, Sable, burst into the intelligence office with snow on her shoulders and fire in her eyes. Her cloak was frozen stiff. Her lips were cracked from the cold. But her voice was clear.

"We found her. Kira Voss. She’s being held in an abandoned watchtower near the eastern border, twenty miles from Elowen’s provincial seat."

Theron was on his feet in an instant. The chair crashed backward against the stone floor. "Guards. Horses. Now."

Kael appeared in the doorway, drawn by the commotion. He had been patrolling the corridors, unable to sleep. His hand was already on his sword.

"What’s happening?"

"Voss’s daughter. We have a location." Theron grabbed his coat from the hook and buckled his crossbow across his back. "I’m leading the rescue."

"Like hell you are." Kael was already buckling his sword belt, his movements quick and efficient. "I’m going with you. You’re a spy, not a soldier. You’ll get yourself killed."

"I’ve killed more men than you have, brother."

"In a room, maybe. Not in a snowstorm." Kael pushed past him toward the door. "Sable, how many guards?"

"Six. Three outside, three inside. Standard rotation. They change shifts at dawn."

"Then we hit them before dawn."

***

Captain Voss knelt in his confinement cell, his head in his hands.

The cell was small, cold, lit by a single flickering torch. He had been here for days, waiting. Wondering. Praying to gods he had stopped believing in years ago.

Seren had come to tell him the news. She stood outside the bars, watching the man who had betrayed them crumble with relief.

"They found her," Seren said. "Kael and Theron are riding east. They’ll bring her home."

Voss looked up. His eyes were red, raw, ringed with dark circles. His uniform was rumpled. He looked like a man who had aged twenty years in twenty days.

"If she’s hurt—if they’ve harmed her—"

"Then Vesper will answer for it." Seren’s voice was firm. "But she’s alive. The agent saw her. Bruised, frightened, but alive. She’s been kept in an old watchtower near the eastern border. Elowen’s patrols missed it because it was off the main roads."

Voss pressed his forehead to the cold stone floor. His shoulders shook. "Thank you. Thank you."

"Don’t thank me yet. Thank Theron’s network. Thank Elowen’s eastern patrols. Thank the people you almost destroyed by your choices."

"I know." His voice was muffled by the stone. "I know what I’ve done. I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it right. If she’s alive, if she’s safe...I’ll do anything. Anything."

Seren turned to leave. Then paused, her hand on the iron bars.

"Your daughter is a good soldier. Brave. Loyal. She survived because of her own strength, not because of anything you or I did. Remember that when you see her again. She doesn’t need a hero. She needs a father."

She walked out.

Behind her, Voss wept.

***

The watchtower was old, crumbling, half-buried in snow.

It had been built decades ago, during a border dispute with the eastern packs. Now it was a ruin...except for the upper chamber, where a fire flickered through a cracked window.

Kael led the strike force; twelve soldiers, all volunteers, all sworn to secrecy. Wolves and humans alike, chosen for their skills in cold weather combat. Theron followed close behind, his crossbow loaded, his breath misting in the frigid air. Sable flanked them, her dagger drawn, her eyes scanning the shadows.

"There are six guards," Sable whispered. "Three outside. Three inside. Standard rotation. The outside guards walk the perimeter every fifteen minutes. The inside guards stay by the fire."

Kael nodded. "We take the outside guards first. Quietly. No alarms. No horns."

The snow muffled their footsteps. The first guard was leaning against the tower wall, smoking a pipe. He never heard Kael approach. The blade across his throat was quick, silent. He crumpled into the snow without a sound.

The second guard was walking the perimeter, his back to the strike force. Theron’s bolt took him in the back of the neck. He fell forward, dead before he hit the ground.

The third guard saw them coming. His hand went to his horn...but Kael was faster. He threw his knife across twenty feet of snow. It buried itself in the guard’s chest. The horn fell from limp fingers.

Kael retrieved his knife and wiped it on the dead man’s coat. "Inside."

***

The remaining three guards were drinking around a fire in the main hall.

They were laughing, passing a bottle between them. They had no idea that death was at the door. Kael signalled. The strike force fanned out.

They never saw the wolves who killed them.

Kael took the first...a blade through the heart. Theron’s bolt took the second through the eye. Sable slit the throat of the third before he could rise from his chair.

The fire crackled. The bottle rolled across the floor.

"Clear," Kael said.

He took the stairs two at a time, Theron close behind.

***

Kael found Kira in the upper chamber, chained to the wall.

Her face was bruised; a black eye, a split lip. Her clothes were torn, her wrists raw from the iron cuffs. But her eyes were alive. Fierce. Unbroken.

She looked up when he entered, her body tensing for a fight. Then she saw his face. The royal colors on his coat.

"Captain Kael?" Her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper. "Is it really you?"

"It’s really me." He knelt in front of her and began working on the chains. "Your father sent us."

"My father." Kira’s voice cracked. Tears spilled down her cheeks. "He didn’t—he wasn’t—"

"He did what he had to do to keep you alive. He loves you. That doesn’t excuse what he did, but it explains it." The chains fell away with a clank. Kael caught her as she slumped forward. "Can you walk?"

"I can run." Kira stood, swaying, then steadied herself against the wall. Her legs were weak, but her jaw was set. "I want to see him. I want to tell him I’m not angry."

"He’ll want to hear that."

***

They rode through the night, Kira wrapped in Theron’s coat, her hands clutched around a cup of warm broth.

The snow had stopped. The stars were bright and cold. Kael rode beside her, silent, watchful. Theron ranged ahead, scouting for pursuit. Sable brought up the rear with two soldiers.

"The guards said Vesper was going to kill me," Kira said quietly. Her voice was steadier now. "After the coronation. They said I was a loose end. That once their work was done, I’d be disposed of."

"He won’t touch you now."

"Why are you helping me? My father betrayed you. He betrayed the crown. He should be dead."

Kael was silent for a long moment. The horses’ hooves crunched on the frozen snow.

"Because you didn’t betray anyone. Because your father did what he did for love, not gold. Because I would have done the same thing in his place." He looked at her. "And because Seren asked me to."

"Seren?"

"The queen. She convinced Aeron to spare your father. She convinced me not to kill him. She’s the reason you’re alive. She’s the reason any of this happened."

Kira stared at him. "I’ve never met her."

"You will. And you’ll understand. She has a way of making you believe in second chances."

Ahead, the lights of the palace appeared on the horizon.

Kira sat up straighter, her eyes fixed on the distant glow.

"Take me home," she said.

Kael kicked his horse into a canter.

Behind them, the watchtower burned.