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The sharp sound of a blade being drawn cut through the white noise of the blizzard.The last thing Thalia registered before consciousness slipped away was the sight of Brynn's tall figure stepping between her and the golems, twin daggers gleaming in her hands.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Ice crystals formed on Thalia's eyelashes as consciousness flickered through her mind like a sputtering candle.The world resolved itself in fragments — the howl of wind, the crunch of steel against ice, a dark figure darting between hulking shadows.Brynn.The name registered dimly in Thalia's frost-addled brain as she struggled to focus through the whiteout conditions.Her rival was fighting for both their lives, and all Thalia could do was watch through half-frozen eyes as death circled them in triplicate.

The golems were massive, their ice-metal bodies gleaming dully in the storm.One lunged — a grinding, creaking movement like a glacier shifting — its fist aimed squarely at Brynn's head.Thalia tried to call out a warning, but her lips had gone numb, the words freezing before they could form.

She needn't have worried.Brynn moved like water through the snow, ducking beneath the blow and sliding across the ice on one knee.Her twin daggers flashed, cutting deep into what passed for the golem's ankle joint.Ice cracked.Metal shrieked.The massive construct faltered, its momentum carrying it forward as its leg gave way.

Darkness swallowed Thalia's vision again.When it cleared, Brynn was perched on the first golem's back, her daggers buried to the hilt in the nexus point where its neck met torso.The creature's arcane light flickered and died as she twisted the blades with practiced precision.

"Come on," Brynn snarled, though whether at the golems or at Thalia, it was impossible to tell."Just die already!"

The remaining two converged, their movements oddly synchronized.Brynn leapt from her fallen prey, rolling through the snow and coming up in a fighting stance.Her breath plumed before her in rapid bursts, but her hands were steady, her posture rooted.She looked nothing like the haughty student who strutted through Frostforge's halls.Here, in the killing cold, she was transformed — a warrior.

Darkness again.The next time Thalia's eyes focused, one more golem lay shattered across the snow while Brynn danced around the last.Her hair whipped in the wind, frost collecting along its length like tiny diamonds.She moved with the assurance of someone who had trained for years, anticipating each thunderous blow and countering with cruel efficiency.

"Gutter trash," Thalia heard her mutter as she darted beneath the golem's guard, "wasting my time… making me risk my life…."The rest was lost as she ducked a sweeping arm, then sprang upward, driving both daggers into the construct's chest.

A sound like breaking glass echoed across the mountainside, strangely clear despite the howling wind.The golem stood motionless for a heartbeat, then collapsed in a heap of twisted metal and fractured ice.Brynn landed lightly beside it, chest heaving but otherwise unscathed.

She turned toward Thalia, her face a mask of disgust.

"If you die after all that, I'll be very annoyed," she said, stalking over and crouching beside Thalia's crumpled form."Can you walk?"

Thalia tried to nod, but her muscles refused to obey.Cold had seeped into her bones, turning her limbs to lead.The shivering that had wracked her body for hours had eased — a dangerous sign, she knew from her herbalist training.When the cold stopped hurting, death was near.

Brynn cursed, the words catching and freezing in the air."Useless," she muttered, then bent down and hauled Thalia's arm across her shoulders.

The next stretch of time passed in a blur of pain and cold.Thalia's boots dragged through drifts of snow as Brynn half-carried, half-dragged her across the treacherous terrain.Every step sent jolts of agony through Thalia's frozen feet, but the pain was distant, like it belonged to someone else.

"...completely stupid," Brynn was saying, her voice coming and going with the gusting wind."...knew you were incompetent, but this… suicidal levels of idiocy."

Thalia tried to defend herself, to explain about Senna and the sabotage, but her tongue felt swollen and useless in her mouth.Only a weak moan escaped.

"Save it," Brynn snapped."Just focus on staying alive.I didn’t fight three golems for nothing.”

They crested a small rise, and Brynn's pace quickened.Through frost-rimmed eyes, Thalia saw what had caught her attention — a rocky outcropping jutting from the mountainside, offering minimal shelter from the relentless wind.

"There," Brynn grunted, adjusting her hold on Thalia."Think you can make it twenty more steps without collapsing?No, don't answer.It wasn't a real question."

The distance to the outcropping seemed to stretch and contract, a trick of Thalia's fading consciousness.When they finally reached it, Brynn wasted no time.She propped Thalia against the cold stone and began clearing snow with swift, economical movements.

"Don't fall asleep," she ordered, not looking up from her work."I mean it, Greenspire.You sleep, you die."

Thalia fought to keep her eyes open, focusing on Brynn's back as she worked.Once a rough semicircle was cleared, Brynn straightened and pulled off a glove.Her exposed hand was pale, the fingertips tinged faintly blue, but steady as she extended it toward the open side of their makeshift shelter.

The air temperature plummeted even further.Thalia's ears popped as pressure changed.Frost spread from Brynn's outstretched fingers, not in delicate crystals but in thick, architectural planes.Ice grew in sheets and blocks, layering upon itself to form a translucent wall that curved perfectly to match the stone outcropping.

A windbreak.Brynn was creating a windbreak, with cryomancy far beyond what Thalia herself could manage on her best day.The ice was dense and opaque, riddled with air pockets that would insulate rather than conduct the killing cold.

"You're good at that," Thalia managed, her voice a barely audible rasp.

Brynn shot her a withering glance over her shoulder."Yes.I am."She flexed her fingers and the ice wall thickened, acquiring a slight bluish tint."Unlike some who can barely manage a snowflake."

The biting wind dropped to a dull moan as the barrier rose to completion.Brynn stepped back to inspect her work, then nodded once, satisfied.She turned to Thalia, assessing her with clinical detachment.

"Your shivering's getting weaker," she said, frowning."That's not good."