Chapter 182: Heading Back Home

Alicarde returned to the cabin riding on Wrath, his black bicorn steed. The village lay in a quiet slumber, sparsely populated. Most of the witches were likely recovering from the chaos of the battle the night before and whatever celebrations had followed.

Which worked perfectly in his favor.

He dismounted Wrath outside the cabin, the snow crunching beneath his boots. Reaching for the heavy saddle, he hoisted it onto his back with practiced ease. As he worked, a faint smile crept onto his lips, a memory of Amena flashing through his mind—her small figure somehow managing to carry the cumbersome saddle with surprising efficiency. 

It had been Amena who first taught him how to mount a saddle properly, a skill he now performed almost instinctively.