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Thalia looked up sharply, certain he was mocking her, but his expression held genuine approval.

"Most first-years can't even get the ice to take at all," he explained, running a finger along one of the frost veins."You achieved partial integration.The shape is poor, yes, but the technique shows promise."He set the blade on a cooling rack."The true masters work for decades to perfect this craft.I've been doing this for six years, and I still fail more often than I succeed."

The praise eased some of Thalia's disappointment, but also sparked her curiosity."Six years?"she asked."I thought you were only twenty-one."

"I am."

"Then you started when you were fifteen?Before Frostforge?"

A shadow passed over Kaine's face, his expression closing like a door.He turned away, busying himself with cleaning tools that were already immaculate."I learned in prison," he said finally, the words falling between them like stones."I spent five years there.It was forge work or breaking rocks.I chose the forge."

The revelation hit Thalia like a physical blow.Prison.She had dismissed Senna's claims as jealous lies, but here was confirmation from Kaine himself.Five years in prison; that much was true.

What about the rest of Senna’s rumors?That Kaine was a murderer?

Her heart raced, suddenly aware of how alone they were in the vast, empty forge, how the tools surrounding them could easily become weapons.The man beside her had spent years incarcerated for a violent crime.He was, quite possibly, a killer.And she'd been spending hours alone with him, reveling in his attention, his touch.

"I should go," she said, her voice higher than normal.She fumbled with the gauntlets, suddenly desperate to be free of them."Ashe and Luna will be waiting.We...we have plans before breakfast."

Kaine turned back, disappointment evident in his furrowed brow.He reached to help her with the gauntlets, but she flinched away — a small movement, but impossible to miss.His hands froze in mid-air, then slowly withdrew.His face settled into the impassive mask he wore with everyone else, the openness he'd shown her vanishing like frost under sunlight.

"Of course," he said, his voice carefully neutral."We'll continue tomorrow."

Thalia placed the gauntlets on the workbench with trembling hands, not meeting his eyes."Yes.Tomorrow."

She gathered her outer clothes, pulling them on with jerky movements.The heat of the forge, so welcome earlier, now felt oppressive.She needed air, space, distance from this man who both attracted and frightened her.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The storm descended upon Frostforge without warning, as if the academy had somehow offended the ancient winter gods.Blinding white snow lashed against stone walls, driven by winds that howled like wounded beasts.Within twenty-four hours, fifteen-foot drifts had sealed every exit, and temperatures plummeted so severely that the air itself seemed brittle enough to shatter.Thalia pressed her palm against the window of her dormitory, the glass so cold it burned her skin, and watched ice crystals form intricate patterns across the pane — beautiful and deadly, like so much of what she'd encountered at the academy.

"Don't touch the glass," Ashe warned from her bed, where she sat cross-legged, sharpening a small blade."That window glass is enchanted to withstand northern temperatures, but too much body heat can weaken the spell work."

Thalia pulled her hand away."Is that true, or are you just trying to scare the Southern girl?"

A rare smile flickered across Ashe's face."Both can be true at once."

Thalia wrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders and shuffled back to her bed.The room wasn't exactly freezing — the network of heat channels from the forges below kept it habitable — but a persistent chill clung to the stone walls, seeping into her bones.Four days into the storm, and Thalia had already developed a routine: add another layer of clothing each morning, huddle near the corridor heat vents for twenty minutes, then retreat to her bed when the constant draft made standing unbearable.

Instructor Maven had made the announcement during breakfast: "All students will remain within the confines of the main building.Exterior training yards, outlying forges, and perimeter patrols are suspended until further notice.Any student attempting to venture outside will not be rescued."Her eyes had swept across the great hall, lingering pointedly on the more rebellious students."Let me be clear — this is not standard winter weather.The weather-watchers in Winterhearth warn this particular storm formation occurs once every fifty years.It has killed experienced ice navigators.It will certainly kill you."

Since then, the academy had folded inward upon itself like a wounded animal.Classes were suspended, meals were distributed in shifts to prevent overcrowding in the already-frigid great hall, and students were encouraged to stay in their dormitory sections.The only constant was the dull, rhythmic pounding from the central forges, which ran day and night to maintain enough heat to prevent the inhabitants from freezing to death.

Thalia had taken to retrieving her rations and retreating to eat in their room.She preferred to deal with crumbs in her bed than shivering through a meal in the great hall, where drafts cut through the air like invisible blades.

"Where's Luna?"Thalia asked, realizing their third roommate hadn't returned from breakfast.

Ashe's knife paused mid-stroke."Not sure.She mumbled something about research in the library, but..."She shrugged, returning to her methodical sharpening."Luna says many things."

The implied skepticism wasn't lost on Thalia.Since Luna had revealed her true nature — not the scattered, forgetful girl she pretended to be, but the sharply observant daughter of a disgraced politician — Thalia had begun noticing how often Luna found reasons to be elsewhere.Before the storm, she'd attributed it to Luna's claimed need to maintain her ditzy facade, but now, confined to the academy's inner sanctum, the frequent disappearances seemed strange.

"I'm going to find her," Thalia decided, pulling on a second pair of wool socks.

"Why bother?"Ashe's question carried no malice, only genuine curiosity."Luna keeps her own counsel."

"Because I'm bored, cold, and curious," Thalia replied."And because something feels...off."

Ashe nodded once, a gesture of respect rather than agreement.In the Northern clans, as Ashe had explained one night, following one's instincts was considered wisdom, not paranoia.