The patrol warriors left after escorting Thorne over.
But they kept looking back, their hearts tight with anxiety. They watched the two brothers—one standing on higher ground, the other below—staring at each other. 'Why has Thorne returned now, of all times,' they wondered, 'at this critical juncture when the major tribes are all stirring?'
Elias Moretti emerged from a storage cave and looked at Thorne, his crimson Beast Eyes dark and unreadable in the swirling snow.
His voice was flat, devoid of emotion. "Why the sudden return? Is something wrong?"
The blizzard fell in a flurry, freezing the air between the two brothers.
Thorne stood motionless in the deep snow. The wind and blizzard swirled around him, but the bitter cold could not pierce his warm, black cloak.
"I'll only say this once." Thorne raised a hand to brush the snow from his shoulder, his cloak snapping in the wind. He got straight to the point. "Eva sent me to ask if you want to go beyond the Triangle Sea."
