The hall stayed silent while every camera held its angle on James.
He stood a few steps from Cormac with blood still drying on his knuckles from the punch. O'Shea remained between them with one hand lowered after stopping the ice attack, and the broken pieces of frost were still melting into dark patches on the marble floor. Near the wall by the exit, his mother held Nyra against her side while keeping one hand flat on the small girl's back, and Nyra had gone quiet in the way children go quiet when they sense something is wrong without understanding what.
Cormac wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand and looked around the room to make sure he still had everyone's attention before he spoke again.
"In case anyone missed it," he said while raising his voice so the press section caught every word, "I'll say it again clearly. Three months from tonight. James Ganner against me. Challenger Blood Writ. No surrender clause. Death decides it."
