Third Person POV
The night air hit his face the moment he stepped outside.
Cool and sharp, the kind that carried the smell of earth and grass and nothing else.
The moon was high and nearly full, sitting fat and pale above the tree line, throwing silver light across the clearing in every direction.
The wild grass at the edges had gone silver with it. The cottage behind him glowed faintly from the fire inside, warm and amber, a soft contrast against everything out here that was blue and black and still.
Kai stopped. And took it in.
Men were everywhere.
Not close. Not pressed against the cottage walls. They were spread out across the clearing in a wide half-circle, still on their horses, dark uniforms swallowing the night around them.
The only thing that gave them away from a distance was the crest on their chests, a wolf's head, picked out in silver thread against black fabric, catching the moonlight every time a horse shifted.
Soldiers.
