Really happy.
And Stella didn’t look annoyed.
Progress.
Something in my chest twisted a little. Not painfully. Just enough to notice.
I changed course, walked across the street, and pushed the tea shop door open, the little bell overhead announcing me with a soft jingle.
Stella looked up first.
“Well, if it isn’t our long-lost daughter of the Academy,” she said, grinning. “Did the books finally spit you back out, or did you escape through the laundry chute?”
My mother turned, eyes wide. “Maeve!”
I blinked. “Hi. It’s been a whirlwind.”
My mom stood, wrapping her arms around me, before I could say anything else.
She smelled like cinnamon and something herbal I couldn’t place.
Familiar. Comforting.
“You look well,” she said, pulling back to study my face. “Tired. But well.”
I glanced at Stella and wondered if she’d put something extra in my mom’s tea. She was much different…almost, jolly?
“I—” I started to say something, but Stella cut in with a whisper as my mom went back to the table.
“She’s been drinking my resurrection blend,” she said, pouring something deep green into a mug. “It’s mostly nettle and mullein bits for inflammation, but don’t tell her. She thinks it’s reserved for the elite.”
“Stella,” I warned, trying not to laugh. “Are you sure you didn’t add a little extra something?”
“She’s fine,” Stella said, waving her hand and still not answering my question. “A little less prickly every week.”
I blinked again and sat with my mom. “Wait. Weeks?”
They both glanced at each other. That look people give when they realize they know something you don’t.
“How long have I been gone?” I asked, slowly.
My mother’s expression shifted, just slightly. She touched my arm. “Three weeks.”
I sat down.
Three?
It hadn’t felt like that. Not at all.
Inside the Academy, time drifted. Sometimes the sun sets when it shouldn’t. Sometimes whole afternoons folded into themselves. But I hadn’t thought it had beenweeks.
“You didn’t worry?” I asked. “You didn’t think I vanished?”
“I did,” she said gently. “But Stella reminded me that the Academy has its sense of timing. And that worrying wouldn’t bring you back any faster.”
Stella refilled my mother’s mug and slid a cookie onto her saucer, and I realized I think she’s been keeping my mom pickled.
“She did try to send Nova in after you. I told her you’d come out when the Academy was done with you,” Stella explained. “Let’s not forget that Nova, Keegan, and I can’t go there. We’d get booted clear across town.”
