The stone floor beneath my knees felt like ice, seeping cold through my skin and into my bones. I kept my head bowed, not out of submission but defiance. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing the pain in my eyes.
"Look at her," Cassandra Valois's voice echoed through the Stone Ancestral Hall. "Still so proud, even now."
I raised my gaze slowly, meeting her cold stare. Julian's mother stood before me, her silver-streaked black hair pulled into a severe bun, enhancing the sharp angles of her face. She wore the traditional elder's robe, its rich blue fabric embroidered with silver threads that caught the dim light.
"Nothing to say for yourself?" she asked, circling me like a predator. "No tearful pleas for mercy?"
I remained silent. What was the point? They'd already decided my guilt.
