Lorraine's POV
The applause and cheers still rang in my ears after Astrid delivered the final words of my death sentence.
They were all looking at me like I was already bleeding out. Like they could taste the 30 Lunars on their tongues. Students whispered behind cupped hands, some outright pointed, others smirked, ready to kill me to earn coin and glory.
I sat still in the back row, Adrian's fingers wrapped tight around my left hand, Felix gripping my right like he might lose me if he let go. But even their touch couldn't stop the boiling inside me.
I wasn't afraid. Not exactly. Fear was too soft, too shallow for what I felt.
I was burning.
I could still feel Astrid's words crawling on my skin like barbed wire.
Brutal public spectacle.
My name on every tongue. My death a game. A reward.
This place wasn't a school. It was a slaughterhouse dressed in stone and steel.
And I was the lamb they wanted to rip apart for sport.
