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No.Not like this.

With a groan that was half defiance, half pain, Thalia pushed herself up onto her hands and knees.Snow clung to her eyelashes, her cheeks, her hair.She needed shelter.A fundamental fact of survival in extreme cold: without protection from the elements, her core temperature would continue to drop until hypothermia claimed her.

Shelter.Another application of cryomancy, one she'd seen Northern students demonstrate with casual ease.Creating structures from ice itself.First-years had practiced building simple ice walls in class.Thalia's had been pathetic compared to those of students like Brynn or Ashe, but any barrier against this wind would help.

Thalia forced herself to stand, legs shaking beneath her.She raised her arms, palms outward, focusing her intention on the snow before her.In her mind, she pictured a curved wall, high enough to block the wind, thick enough to insulate.

"Rise," she commanded through chattering teeth.The snow stirred, particles lifting, swirling, beginning to coalesce.

Then her concentration slipped, exhaustion overwhelming her control.The half-formed wall crumbled, collapsing into a misshapen pile that the wind immediately began to scatter.

She tried again, gathering what remained of her strength, focusing it into a single, desperate effort.This time, the ice rose higher, forming an uneven, crystalline barrier about four feet tall.Thalia fell to her knees, drained by the effort, watching as cracks immediately appeared in her creation.

The wall shattered seconds later, shards of ice exploding outward.One sliced across her cheek, leaving a thin line of blood that froze almost instantly in the bitter cold.The failure left her more exhausted than before, her breath coming in shallow gasps that froze in the air before her.

Movement caught her eye — a shifting in the curtain of falling snow.At first, she thought it might be another student, someone who could help her.Then the shape took form, and her heart sank.

A golem.Its massive form was a hulking silhouette against the white backdrop of the storm, ice and metal fused into a nightmarish approximation of a human shape.Crystal eyes glowed with an eerie blue light, scanning, searching.

For her.

Thalia froze, instinct telling her to remain perfectly still.The golem's senses were attuned to magic and movement.Her failed attempt at cryomancy must have drawn it.If she stayed motionless, maybe it would lose interest, continue its patrol elsewhere.

More shapes materialized in the blizzard.Three golems, not one.They moved with surprising grace for their size, metal joints coated in perpetual frost that never melted, never slowed them down.They were closing in, forming a loose semicircle around her position.

Stay still.Don't breathe.Don't move.

But her body betrayed her.A violent shiver wracked her frame, and a harsh, involuntary gasp escaped her lips as her lungs fought for air.The nearest golem's head swiveled toward her, crystal eyes flaring brighter.It had detected her.

She needed to move.Needed to fight.Needed to live.

With numbed fingers, Thalia reached for the ice-steel dagger at her belt — the blade she'd forged herself, under Kaine's guidance.Her last defense.

The dagger came free, its weight reassuring in her hand despite her weakened grip.The nearest golem shambled forward, its movements oddly fluid for something made of such unyielding materials.Thalia raised the blade, her arm feeling as though it were moving through honey.

The golem continued its advance.In desperation, Thalia lunged forward, driving the point of her dagger toward the construct's chest, where the primary magical core would be housed.

The blade struck with a sound like a distant bell — and shattered.

Fragments of ice-steel scattered across the snow, leaving Thalia holding nothing but a broken hilt.She stared at it in disbelief, her frozen mind struggling to comprehend what had happened.The blade should have been perfect.She'd followed every step meticulously, and Kaine had overseen the entire process.It should have been strong enough to at least deflect a golem's attack, if not penetrate its defenses.

Sabotage.Again.This time, it would prove fatal.

The golem's massive arm swung toward her, and Thalia barely managed to throw herself backward, landing hard in the snow.Her muscles screamed in protest, already pushed beyond their limits by cold and exhaustion.

One last attempt.Cryomancy.Not for warmth this time, but for defense.She thrust her hands forward, channeling every remaining scrap of magical energy into creating a barrier between herself and the advancing constructs.

Nothing happened.Not even the stirring of snow she'd managed before.Her reserves were empty, her connection to the magic severed by exhaustion and cold.

The realization hit her with finality: she was going to die here.Not in some grand battle or heroic sacrifice, but alone in the snow, defeated by sabotage and the elements.Her mother and Mari would never know what happened to her.Another Frostforge casualty, unremarkable in the academy's bloody history.

Thalia forced herself to her feet, refusing to die on her knees.If this was her end, she would meet it standing.Her legs betrayed her immediately, buckling beneath her weight.She fell forward, catching herself on her hands, then collapsed fully into the snow as her strength finally gave out completely.

The world around her began to fade, darkness creeping in from the edges of her vision.The cold no longer hurt — a dangerous sign.Her eyelids fluttered, too heavy to keep open.The golems' glowing eyes were the last things she saw, blue stars in a white void, coming closer.

Then came a sound.Different from the wind's howl or the golems' mechanical grinding.Boots crunching on snow.A voice, cursing loudly and colorfully.

Brynn.It was Brynn Firstborn's voice, impossibly clear through the storm's roar.