One wolf lunged without warning, snapping for Luna's leg.Luna twisted aside just in time, her sword flashing in a low arc that caught the wolf across the muzzle.It yelped and recoiled, but another immediately darted in from the opposite side, jaws clamping onto the edge of Thalia's cloak and wrenching her half-around.
She tore free with a violent jerk, slashing at the beast's flank and feeling the jolt as her blade struck bone.It snarled, retreating a few paces but not fleeing.
Ashe's crossbow thunked, an ice-steel bolt burying itself in a wolf's shoulder.The creature staggered but didn't fall, a growl rumbling from its throat as it bared its fangs.
More wolves surged forward in coordinated bursts, testing their defenses, retreating, then attacking again from a different angle.The ring tightened with each pass.
A massive, white-furred alpha pushed through the line, its lips curling back from teeth as long as Thalia's fingers.It feinted left, then launched straight at Ashe, who was struggling to reload her crossbow.Thalia lunged without thinking, ramming her shoulder into the alpha's side and knocking it off balance before it could bring Ashe down.But in doing so, she had left herself exposed.Another wolf took advantage of her distraction, bowling her over from one side.
She hit the pebbles hard, the impact driving the air from her lungs.The wolf pinned her, its weight crushing, its hot breath washing over her face as she struggled to keep its jaws from closing on her throat.Panic surged through her veins, bright and electric.Her arms trembled with the effort of holding the beast at bay, its teeth clacking together just inches from her face.
And then, suddenly, the wolf's snarls turned to whimpers.Its weight lifted as it was hauled bodily off her.
Brynn stood above her, twin ice-steel daggers flashing in the firelight as she drove the wolf away with fierce, precise strikes.The beast snarled one last time before retreating into the shadows beyond the dunes.
Thalia scrambled to her feet, too shocked to speak.Around them, the tide of battle had turned.Luna had backed two wolves toward the water's edge, and Ashe had managed to reload her crossbow and was keeping three more at bay with steady, well-placed shots.
With Brynn's unexpected arrival, the pack seemed to reconsider the wisdom of their attack.The alpha gave a short, sharp bark, and as one, the wolves melted back into the darkness, their eyes glinting once more from beyond the reach of the firelight before disappearing altogether.
For a moment, no one moved.Then Brynn flicked the blood from her blades with a practiced twist of her wrists.
"You're welcome," she said, her voice cool despite the exertion evident in her heaving chest.
Thalia stared at her, still trying to process what had just happened."You followed us," she said finally."You...you saved us."
Brynn made a show of scoffing, stepping forward to prod the dying fire with the toe of her boot, avoiding anyone's direct gaze."Don't flatter yourselves.I'm going to Frostforge to fix the joke of an assignment they gave me.I worked too hard at the academy to be stuck with rank-and-file grunt work."She glanced up, her expression deliberately dismissive."I just happened to come across you.Luckily for you, or you'd be a meal for Rimwolves now."
Ashe checked her crossbow string and began to collect fallen bolts, relief evident in the loosening of her shoulders.Luna grimaced, kneeling to revive the fire with fresh driftwood, saying nothing.
No one pressed Brynn further.They all recognized her pride for what it was: armor, protecting her from having to admit that this wasn't just about attaining an officer's rank.She had come to aid her comrades, whether she'd acknowledge it or not.
As the fire grew stronger, casting its warm light over their small circle, Thalia felt a strange sense of rightness settle over her.Aside from Ashe, they were deserters now, bound by their shared defiance and the long road ahead.Whatever awaited them at Frostforge—Roran's trial, their own punishment, or something else entirely—they would face it together.
CHAPTER THREE
The fjord of Frostforge carved its way through the mountains ahead, a jagged wound in the earth filled with waters so dark they appeared black in the pale dawn light.Thalia's breath plumed before her face, crystallizing in the frigid air as she gazed upon those familiar cliffs that had been both prison and sanctuary for four grueling years.
Ice glazed the pines surrounding the inlet, their needles transformed into countless tiny blades that caught the sun's first rays and fractured them into prisms of gold and silver.She had never thought she would feel such relief at the sight of this place, yet her heart quickened at the recognition that they had, against all odds, made it.
Beside her, Brynn exhaled sharply, the sound hanging between them like a shared confession.
"By the old spirits," Brynn murmured, pressing a hand to her side where a Rimwolf's claws had torn through her furs two nights prior.The wound wasn't deep, but the journey had given it little chance to heal."I never thought I'd be so glad to see those cursed mountains again."
Thalia glanced at her unexpected traveling companion, noting the smudges of exhaustion beneath her eyes, the windburn that had transformed her normally flawless complexion into raw, chapped terrain.None of them had escaped the journey unscathed.Luna's lips were cracked and bleeding; Ashe walked with a slight limp from a twisted knee; and Thalia's own hands were criss-crossed with tiny cuts from the sea lichen they'd harvested for sustenance.
"Don't celebrate yet," Thalia said, her voice rough from disuse.They'd spoken little these past days, conserving energy for the punishing trek."Reaching Frostforge just means exchanging one set of trials for another."
Brynn's mouth twisted into something too bitter to be called a smile."You think I don't know that?But at least within those walls, we stand a chance of being heard.Out here—" She gestured at the vast emptiness behind them, the days of trackless wilderness they'd traversed."Out here, we're nothing but prey."
A week ago, Thalia would have bridled at Brynn's tone, would have read condescension in it.Now, she just nodded.The journey had stripped away much of the artifice between them.
"Look there," Luna said suddenly, lifting one gloved hand to point."On the fjord's southern edge."
Thalia followed her gesture, eyes narrowing against the glare of sunlight on ice.A massive sailing vessel swept along the coastline, its three masts stark against the sky, its hull cutting through the dark waters with purpose.As they watched, it altered course, turning to enter the inlet that led to Frostforge's docks.
"A Selection ship," Ashe said.
Indeed, it was.Even from this distance, Thalia could make out the figures crowded onto its decks—young people bundled against the cold, some leaning over the railings to gaze at the approaching shore, others huddled in tight clusters that spoke of shared origin or newly-formed alliances.Southern recruits, fresh from their Selection.
