Thalia felt something constrict in her chest, a tightness that made each breath shallow and painful.She reached blindly for Luna's hand, finding it already extended toward her, warm fingers interlacing with her cold ones.On her other side, Ashe stood like a sentinel, her expression betraying nothing but her body radiating a tension that matched Thalia's own.
"Roran Bright," Wolfe continued, her gaze fixing on the kneeling figure at the center of the platform, "you have been found guilty of knowingly concealing Isle Warden heritage and practicing forbidden magic techniques."
The pronouncement sent a ripple through the crowd—not surprise, but the collective release of held breath.It was the verdict everyone had expected, the culmination of days of testimony carefully crafted to reach this precise conclusion.Yet hearing it spoken aloud, made real by Wolfe's cold enunciation, drove the air from Thalia's lungs like a physical blow to her chest.
Wolfe paused, allowing the verdict to settle over the assembly before continuing."The tribunal has considered the severity of these crimes, the deliberate nature of the deception, and the threat posed to Frostforge Academy and the united continent it serves.”
Each word fell like an icicle breaking from the eaves—sharp, inevitable, deadly in its descent.Thalia's vision blurred at the edges, her focus narrowing to Wolfe's face, to the cruel set of her mouth as she prepared to deliver the final blow.
"The sentence is death."
The words hung in the air, crystalline and terrible.Thalia swayed on her feet, a strangled sound escaping her throat.Luna's grip on her hand tightened to the point of pain, while Ashe's arm slipped around her waist, supporting her when her knees threatened to buckle.The crowd seemed to inhale as one—a collective gasp that sucked the warmth from the air.
"No," Thalia whispered, the word a prayer without hope of answer."No, they can't—"
A hush fell over the assembled crowd, the initial shock giving way to a spectrum of reactions.Some students whispered frantically to one another, eyes wide with distress; others stared blankly, perhaps wondering if they should feel more than they did.Among the Northern students, Thalia caught glimpses of grim nods, of satisfaction at justice served according to their understanding of the world.
In the awful silence, Instructor Virek rose from his seat.His movements were precise, untouched by emotion.From a pocket within his robes, he withdrew a pair of frost gloves—thin, translucent coverings etched with cryomantic runes that glowed faintly in the winter light.He slipped them on with the methodical care of a surgeon preparing for an operation, his expression blank and professional.
Thalia's heart hammered against her ribs, a desperate animal seeking escape.She looked to Roran, still kneeling, still chained.For the first time since the trial began, his composure cracked, a flicker of fear crossing his features as he watched Virek don the instruments of his execution.The sight of his fear, after days of stoic resignation, broke something inside Thalia, releasing a flood of desperate fury.
"The execution," Wolfe continued, her voice cutting through the stunned silence, "will take place immediately."Her gaze swept the crowd, ensuring she held their attention for what came next."As the accused is evidently of Warden blood, Instructor Virek will demonstrate the power of ice against this tainted lineage.”
Virek flexed his gloved fingers, and frost bloomed across the translucent material like flowers unfurling in time-altered vision.The runes pulsed brighter, drawing power from the cryomancer's innate connection to ice and cold.He descended from the tribunal's platform with measured steps, moving toward Roran with the inexorable pace of winter advancing across autumn fields.
"No!"The shout tried to tear from Thalia's throat but emerged as little more than a choked gasp.She lunged forward, blind instinct driving her to intercept Virek before he could reach Roran.To do what, she didn't know—only that she couldn't stand by and watch this happen, couldn't bear to see the life drain from Roran's eyes as his blood crystallized in his veins.
Strong hands caught her before she could take two steps.Ashe's grip was firm on one arm, while another set of fingers—calloused from forge work—closed around her other wrist.Kaine had materialized beside her, his face grim but determined as he held her back.
"Don't," he whispered fiercely."There’s nothing you can do, Thalia.You'll only join him."
"Let me go!"Tears spilled down Thalia's cheeks, hot against her cold skin.She struggled against their restraint, but they held fast, anchoring her in place as the nightmare unfolded before her.
“I’m sorry,” Kaine breathed.“I can’t.”
Ashe's voice was steel."Look away, Thalia."
She couldn’t look away.Virek reached Roran, towering over his kneeling form like winter personified.A noticeable rime had spread over his frost-gloved hands, transforming them into weapons of gleaming ice.Roran looked up at him, his fear more evident now; it would’ve been gratifying, the way Roran’s eyes finally sparked with emotion, with something other than dull acceptance, if he hadn’t been about to die.
"May your next life bring you better blood," Virek said, his whisper-soft voice somehow carrying in the absolute stillness of the amphitheater.
He extended a single finger toward Roran's forehead, the tip glittering with deadly frost.Everything seemed to slow, time stretching like metal under a smith's hammer.
A faint whistling sound cut through the frozen moment.
It was barely perceptible at first, but it grew louder with alarming speed.Thalia saw the projectile as if it were frozen in the still air—an arrow, a black shaft tipped with a metal that was darker still, arcing over the amphitheater's edge with deadly precision.
Then, as if her ice-steel armor were nothing more than feeble tin, the arrow buried itself in Instructor Wolfe’s shoulder.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The arrow sliced through the air with terrible precision, its black shaft vibrating as it embedded itself in Wolfe's shoulder.Time seemed to fracture—one moment, Virek's frost-gloved finger hovered inches away from the top of Roran’s head; the next, chaos erupted across the amphitheater like a wave breaking against stone.Thalia's breath caught in her throat, her mind struggling to process the impossible sight of Wolfe—invincible, untouchable Wolfe—dropping to her knees, one hand clasped over the arrow's shaft, blood seeping between her fingers in a crimson tide that belied the ice in her veins.
"Freya!"Solberg's voice cut through the rising tide of panicked murmurs, his white beard trembling as he lurched to his feet.
Virek's head snapped up, frost gloves forgotten as he whirled away from Roran, searching for the source of the attack.Roran remained kneeling, chains still binding him to the platform, his eyes wide with the same stunned disbelief that had frozen the crowd in place.
But the paralysis lasted only heartbeats.All around Thalia, soldiers rose as one, ice-metal weapons rasping against scabbards and sheaths.Instructors barked orders that collided in the air, creating a storm of competing commands.Students—the youngest still processing what they were witnessing, the older ones already recognizing the implications—either cowered in place or scrambled for exits that suddenly seemed too few, too narrow.
