Chapter 162

• Zara’s POV
• The School Council Chamber was colder than I expected.
• Not from the weather—but from the way silence pressed against the walls, heavy and unforgiving. The room was carved in semicircle tiers, where the Academy’s teachers sat draped in formal robes, their expressions carved as sharp as statues. Behind them, the insignia of the Academy hung like a banner of judgment: silver and crimson thread stitched into the shape of a wolf’s head engulfed in flame.