The training room was cold and windowless. Weapons lined the walls, catching faint torchlight.
“Sit.”
I sat on the mat in the center. Yesterday’s wounds still ached under my thin clothes.
Victor sat across from me. His big frame pressed down like a mountain. Our knees almost touched.
His scent—blood and frost—wrapped around me completely.
“Now,” those storm-gray eyes held no warmth, “show me your power.”
“I… don’t know how,” I said, throat dry.
“Then try.”
I closed my eyes and reached for the small warmth in my chest, sending it toward him.
It yanked me into an endless frozen plain. Wind howled. The sky stayed gray. Nothing lived.
In the center stood an ice throne.
Victor sat there, steady as frozen stone for millions of years.
But the loneliness… that soul-freezing emptiness h
