Page 41 of Frostforge: Passage Two

Thalia watched his face, the way the muscles in his jaw tightened with each word, the way his eyes never left the glowing metal before him.Kaine had told her about his father’s abuse before, but there was a new intensity in his voice this time that made her breath catch in her throat.He almost seemed to be pleading for her understanding, desperate to shrug a burden from his shoulders.

"He broke my mother's arm once because dinner was cold.Another time, he held my sister's hand over a candle flame when she dropped a plate."The hammer strikes grew more forceful."The night it happened, I came home from my apprenticeship early.Heard screams from inside the house.Like I told you before, I found him standing over her in the great room.She was unconscious.Bleeding.I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead."

Kaine paused, turning the blade, examining its edge before continuing.His voice had gone flat, emotionless, as if he were reciting facts from a metallurgy text.

"There was a forge hammer on the table.I grabbed it."Kaine's own hammer paused mid-strike."I only meant to knock him away from her.But once I started hitting him, I couldn't stop."His voice dropped lower."They found me still holding the hammer, hours later.My mother tried to claim she did it to protect me.No one believed her."

He resumed hammering, each strike more deliberate than before.

"I needed you to know.Senna's rumors are true."He finally looked up at her, his eyes reflecting the forge fire."I… I lied to you the last time I tried to tell you what really happened.I told you I wasn't a murderer.But I am.I did kill him."

A heavy silence fell between them, broken only by the distant crackle of the forge fire and the soft hiss of cooling metal.Thalia stood perfectly still, processing everything she'd just heard, seeing Kaine — truly seeing him — perhaps for the first time.

“I've never regretted it, either,” he said woodenly.“Only that I wasn't there sooner, before he hurt my mother.That I didn't stop him years before.I’m not just a murderer — I’m an unrepentant one.You… you deserve to know who I am.What kind of person I am.I….”

Without thinking, Thalia stepped closer, her voice soft but firm.

"You did what you had to do."

He looked startled, as if her response was the last thing he expected."I'm a murderer," he repeated, the word hanging between them.It seemed to have more weight when Kaine said it; it was like a brand seared into his skin.Thalia realized then that even if he couldn't bring himself to regret the killing, he still felt guilt over it.His imprisonment hadn't taught him penitence, only self-loathing.

He expected her to hate him for this, the way his clan had hated him.The way his jailers had hated him.She could see it in the way he held himself — rigid, waiting for the blow that always came next.Not a fist, this time, but judgment.Rejection.Distrust.

Thalia shook her head."No," she said with quiet conviction."You were fighting to protect someone.Just like everyone here."

Kaine met her gaze, something unreadable in his expression — vulnerability mingled with disbelief, hope warring with old pain.The falchion lay forgotten on the anvil, its newly shaped edge gleaming in the firelight.

Neither of them moved for what felt like an eternity, the forge's heat wrapping around them like a cocoon, separating them from the rest of the sleeping academy.Then, almost imperceptibly, the distance between them began to close.

The first touch was hesitant — Kaine's hand, rough with callouses but surprisingly gentle, brushing against her cheek.Thalia's heart hammered against her ribs as she leaned into his touch, her eyes never leaving his.

Their lips met slowly at first, a question more than a demand.But then the tension that had been building between them for so long — through shared secrets and dangerous discoveries, through quiet moments of understanding and fierce arguments — snapped like an overdrawn wire.Kaine's arm slid around her waist, pulling her closer as the kiss deepened.

The heat of the forge was nothing compared to this, the fire between them burning hotter than any flame.Thalia's hands found their way to his shoulders, then his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair.All the danger surrounding them, all the mysteries and threats, seemed distant and unimportant compared to this moment of connection.

But before they could sink further into the embrace, there was a sound — the unmistakable scuffle of boots on stone, followed by a metallic scrape.

They broke apart instantly, both going still as statues.Kaine's hand moved to the hammer he'd discarded, while Thalia's fingers curled, ready to call forth ice at a moment's notice.

Someone was in the forge with them.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Thalia held her breath as shadows shifted between the weapon racks, the forge's dying embers casting just enough light to outline the intruders' forms.Her pulse quickened as she pressed herself deeper into the alcove where she and Kaine had hidden at the first sound of approaching footsteps.The air hung thick with metal dust and the lingering heat of their interrupted work, making each silent breath an exercise in control.As the figures moved closer to the central workbench, the subtle glow illuminated familiar faces — Senna, flanked by her two closest allies, their movements precise and practiced as they examined the forge's contents.

Beside her, Kaine tensed.His shoulder pressed against hers in the narrow space, and Thalia felt the slight shift in his posture that meant he was preparing to move.She recognized the taller of Senna's companions as Ingrid, a third-year with a reputation for vicious efficiency in combat training.The other girl, Eira, was shorter but broader, her hands never far from the twin daggers at her belt.

Thalia's fingers brushed against the traced blade they'd been working on, still warm from the forge.The aluminum threads they'd woven into the steel hummed against her magical senses, a beacon she could follow anywhere in Frostforge.Their bait.If Senna was indeed the thief, then she needed to see this blade — but Thalia couldn’t be too obvious in dangling the lure.

Kaine stepped out first, his movement so sudden that Senna's group was startled.Their hands flew to their weapons before recognition dawned.

"What are you doing here?"Kaine's voice cut through the silence, deep and commanding in the cavernous space.

Senna recovered first, straightening her spine as her surprise morphed into cold contempt."I could ask you the same question."Her silver-gray eyes flicked past Kaine to where Thalia emerged from the shadows.Her lip curled."Late-night forging with your Southern pet?"

Thalia stepped forward, refusing to be cowed."Funny, I was about to ask why you're prowling around the weapons stores after curfew.With lookouts, no less."She gestured to Ingrid and Eira, who had positioned themselves near the entrances.

"We're not the ones smuggling weapons out of the academy."Ingrid's accusation landed like a blow."Everyone knows Southerners can't be trusted."

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