I lowered my head just enough to look obedient.
The Frostfather’s voice carried without effort. “Mortal healer of Hollowmere,” he said, “you have been brought before the Court of Winter to answer for the disturbance between worlds.”
“I caused no disturbance,” I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could soften them. “The ground shook. I only stood on it.”
A ripple of sound passed through the chamber—half gasp, half hiss. Kaelith’s jaw tightened.
The Frostfather leaned forward slightly. The silver glow behind his pupils flared, unnatural. “Your tongue is sharp for one who begs mercy.”
“I haven’t begged,” I said quietly, wishing I could simply shut myself up.
Another murmur. One councilor—tall, draped in robes traced with runes—stepped forward. “The hound’s loyalty marks her. No mortal could bear the touch of frost without binding.”
Fenrir, who had followed despite my warning, padded into the circle of light and sat beside me, massive and silent. His breath plumed against the floor.
The councilor recoiled a fraction. “See? Even now the creature guards its master.”
“I am no one’s master,” I said. “He chooses where to stand.”
The Frostfather’s gaze slid to Kaelith. “And do you choose, my son, to defend this mortal’s insolence?”
Kaelith’s answer came measured, each word carved from ice. “I choose to obey the evidence, not assumption.”
For an instant, the room seemed to contract around him. The Frostfather’s fingers flexed on the throne’s arm; frost spread beneath his touch.
“Then you doubt your king.”
“I doubt coincidence,” Kaelith said evenly.
The temperature plummeted as frost bloomed across the floor in a widening circle that stopped at my feet. The Frostfather’s eyes gleamed brighter, unfocused. “If warmth will not confess, it must be broken to silence.”
Gasps again—this time from the nobles.
Maeryn’s warning echoed in my head:Omen or scapegoat. The ending seldom differs.
The Frostfather raised one hand. The runes on the walls flared in answer, blue to white. “Prepare the chamber.”
Guards moved instantly. Kaelith’s expression didn’t change, but I saw his fingers curl, glove tightening until the frostlight flared bright through the seams.
I didn’t know if that meant anger or control—or both.
When the guards reached me, Fenrir stood first. The growl that left him rolled like thunder, deep enough that the crystal sconces shuddered. Kaelith spoke once, low and sharp in the fae tongue, and the hound stilled but did not move away.
“Take them,” the Frostfather said. “We’ll begin the Trial of the Thaw.”
As they led me toward the stair spiraling down into the ice below, I looked back once. Kaelith hadn’t moved, but his gaze followed me until the doors closed, the frostlight on his hand still flickering like a heartbeat that refused to die.
They led me down stairs carved from living ice.Each step hummed faintly beneath my boots, as if the palace itself objected to what waited below. The air grew thinner, sharp with mineral frost. No torches adorned the area, only veins of light running through the walls, like frozen lightning trapped mid-strike.
At the base, the corridor opened into a cavernous hall, where a ring of pale stone cut into the floor broke the uniform black of the ice. Inside the circle, runes glimmered faintly, feeding off the frostlight suspended above. It looked less like justice than containment.
Kaelith stood at the circle’s edge, helm under one arm, expression unreadable. Two councilors flanked him; behind them, guards lined the walls in disciplined silence. Fenrir strained against the chain they’d fastened around his neck—a token restraint, useless if he chose otherwise.
A tall woman announced, “The Trial of Thaw begins. The mortal will step inside the circle.”
My stomach turned as I moved forward until my boots met the line of etched stone. The moment I crossed it, the temperature plummeted. The frostlight gathered at my ankles, brightening like coals under ice.
Kaelith’s gaze never left the floor, but the tendons in his throat tightened. He raised one gloved hand. The frostlight that traced his fingers pulsed once—signal, command—and the runes awakened.
