They were just about to step inside when a voice hit them from behind.
"What are you doing here?"
All three of them spun around at the same time. Zander stepped in front of the other two without thinking, every muscle locking up at once. Jöstr stumbled back half a step, nearly knocking right into him, while Tösk grabbed Zander's arm with both hands and didn't let go.
None of them had heard anything, and that was the part that didn't sit right. The path was wide open and the snow was frozen solid. People don't move through a mountain trail quietly. There should have been a footstep, a shifting shadow, or some kind of warning. But there had been absolutely nothing. One second the entrance behind them was completely empty and the next he was just standing there, like he had always been part of the landscape and they had only just noticed.
He stood with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on them. He had the kind of total stillness that didn't come from being calm, but from having done this a thousand times before. He knew exactly where he stood and what he was guarding.
The glow was the part none of them could explain. A deep, electric blue was rolling off his markings in slow, steady pulses, catching the rough rock around him and throwing long shadows back into the dark of the cave. It wasn't something you could just shake off or rationalise away.
Jöstr stopped being scared almost immediately. His brain was already moving on to something else entirely, that familiar look spreading across his face like pieces of a puzzle finally sliding into place. Zander hadn't moved an inch, still trying to work out whether this guy was an immediate threat. And Tösk hadn't said a word, still holding onto Zander's arm, but the exact moment he laid eyes on the stranger, his ears started itching worse than ever.
