A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

After a moment of silence, Alice looked up at Erik with determination in her eyes. "Alright, I've made my choice," she said, nodding.

Erik smiled softly, understanding her choice without words—it was glaringly obvious to him.

No way would she give up the chance to bury her father.

With that done, Erik invited Alice to sit down on the couch with him and engaged in light conversation wit her, as the others gradually awakened around them.

After all, Runebound weren't much different from Arcanists in that they didn't have full access to their abilities until the age of ten.

Unlike with Arcanists, however, they didn't need to grow a metaphysical organ allowing them to store aetherium. Instead, their bodies needed to mature enough to handle the power of runes, while aetherium simply didn't start permeating their bodies until that time.

Thus, Alice had awakened to her Runebound powers mere months before her abduction, aware only that she had inherited ice-fire affinity from her father, while her first ability remained a mystery.

This was one of the drawbacks for Runebound: Arcanists discover their ability almost instinctively, while Runebound have to work for it.

So he decided to give Alice some advice on how he discovered his own Runebound abilities, causing the girl to be grateful to him and raise his idol-hood in her mind even higher, despite her mixed feelings.

After everyone was awake again and ready to continue, they moved to leave the hotel and go back to Finnmark, where they now had two immediate objectives: pay a quick visit to Frostvik, assuming Victor doesn't find anything suspicious, and finally check out what his mother wanted Erik to see.

Yet, something entirely unexpected happened when Erik set foot outside the building.

"Crap! Above you!" Elora's tense voice sounded in Erik's head.

At the same time, Erik heard a deep, yet distinctly female chuckle above him. Then, a woman's voice, with a thick, eastern-European accent sounded. "Well, well, Erik. It's good to see you again."

"Shit…" Erik softly cursed when he recognized the voice and looked up to see a woman with sharp blue eyes and a playful, yet arrogant smirk hanging from her lips.

She was sitting on the facade covering the hotel's entrance, as her legs dangled over the side. Her right elbow rested on her knee, and her chin rested on her right fist in a gesture of casualness.

"Hello, Katya," he mumbled a reluctant greeting at the same time as he quickly shifted to wolf form in preparation for a fight.

Immediately, Emily, Emma, and Astrid behind him grew cautious, while Alice was confused. The former three had never actually seen Katya, but they had heard Erik talk about her. Alice, meanwhile, had never even heard the name.

Astrid's eyes also shone with a little interest when she realized this was the woman who gave Erik that training manual. But of course, her priority was with Erik and the others, so she tampered her enthusiasm.

Erik was ahead of them, while they were still under the facade, and they could only see the dangling legs.

Katya's clothes rustled when she jumped down from her perch and landed in front of Erik with a heavy thud. Snow and ice shot into the air around her, but she payed it no mind and neither did she care about the nearly-freezing ground under her uncovered feet.

Katya was a beautiful and mature woman who carried herself with a playful arrogance reminiscent of Elora. But while Katya's playfulness was born from her arrogance, Elora's was simply a part of her personality.

Her light brown hair swayed in a long ponytail. She was dressed much the same as she had been back in London: a simple white crop top, exposing the well-defined muscles on her stomach, camouflage print cargo pants, and bare feet.

Her top also served to snuggly hug her bountiful breasts which, while still not too big, were certainly the largest among the women here, apart from Elora herself.

Her stature and size were no less imposing than Erik's, except that she also had the intimidating aura of an extremely powerful third-rank around her.

"You girls should leave," Erik growled to the women behind him, without taking his cautious gaze of werebear in front of him. He knew Katya could not even be mentioned in the same category as Frostfang.

They may both be third-rankers, but their actual power levels were as different as night and day.

He could offer Frostfang a decent fight before his eventual defeat, but with Katya there was no contest. In a real fight, utter defeat was the only outcome.

The problem was, last time they talked over the phone, Katya warned him that he better be ready to face her when they meet again or suffer the deadly consequences.

Still, he wouldn't simply roll over and submit. He would fight tooth and nail to keep himself and Elora alive. But at least he didn't need to involve the women behind him in this.

"No!" Emily and Astrid both hissed at the same time. "You clearly don't have a plan this time, so we're not going anywhere."

Meanwhile, Emma seemed to struggle a little, as she wanted to trust Erik and following his orders, but the other two girls were right, she could see Erik didn't have a plan.

As for Alice, she simply looked confused and concerned.

Erik could hear in their voices that they wouldn't leave no matter what, and he couldn't just get into an argument with them here. So he just sighed and nodded, "Fine then," and prepared himself for combat.

Katya had been watching their behavior with an approving grin, but when she noticed Erik was about to start things off by being the first to strike, she finally held up her hands in a sign of peace.

"Calm down, Erik," she slightly smirked. "I'm not here to fight you, unlike what I said last time we spoke. The truth is, that I was a little angry at being played back then, but I have no actual desire to kill someone like you without very good reason. I like you!"

Hearing that, Erik quickly held himself back from attacking, but narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the woman in front of him. "So what do you want then? You already know I'd rather blow myself up than go with you to the Council. I still have yet to get my revenge."

"Indeed, you're quite the foolhardy fellow," she laughed loudly. "But that is part of why I like you! Regardless, I'm not here for either of those things, nor do I want to try and kidnap one of your companions again. No, I'm here to make a deal with you…"