“I’m not walking into it today,” I said, smiling a little. “But I’ll find out what it wants. What does it mean?”
Lady Limora inclined her head. “We’ll be here. Watching it.”
“All three of you?” I asked, arching a brow.
She gave a rare, almost mischievous smile. “Rotation. We’ve already discussed it. One of us at all times.”
“It’s that dangerous?”
“They can be,” Lady Limora said with a shrug. “Why take a chance? We don’t need the Academy getting in trouble because some nosy witch wandered onto the wrong path.”
Mara stepped forward, boots crunching frost. “This counts as our first real assignment, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” I said. “And a rather important one.”
Even though I had no idea what this was or why it mattered, it was Academy style, as usual. Things had a habit of appearing when they were meant to be found, and I had an unsettling feeling it had to do with me again since I was constantly playing catch-up.
Not to mention, I was really hoping I didn’t conjure it up unknowingly like I did the shimmer in the Academy hallway. I shuddered at the thought.
Opal pulled her cloak tighter and added with a smirk, “Nothing saysback in schoollike mysterious portals and being voluntoldto guard them.”
“Very clever.” I couldn’t help but grin. “If anything changes, any color, scent, flicker, tell me immediately. This could be nothing, or it could be... a trap.” I hesitated, glancing back at the glittering path.
“We’ll keep our fangs sharp,” Mara promised, giving a playful flash of teeth.
“I never doubted that.”
With the agreement settled, I left Lady Limora stationed near the hedge while Opal headed inside for rest, and Mara stayed on to take first watch.
My dad gave the path one last suspicious snort before trudging beside me toward the main gardens. I was halfway across the lawn when I heard footsteps behind me, quick and familiar.
“Maeve!” Stella’s voice chimed over the frost.
I turned to see her approaching, her cloak billowing and her boots kicking up wisps of mist. She carried a satchel full of clinking jars and dried herbs, her cheeks pink with cold and curiosity.
“I figured I’d find you out here,” she said. “This is the same scent that drifted past the tea shop windows this morning. I thought I was imagining things. I hoped I was imagining things.”
“You weren’t,” I said. “Something opened. A new path in the hedge.”
“Ooh,” she said, eyes lighting up. “Tell me more.”
“I was just heading in to—”
But before I could finish, Stella had veered toward the path, her shoes crunching frost as she approached the glow. Shestopped a few feet short and tilted her head, eyes scanning the opening like it was an old friend hiding behind a curtain.
“Careful,” I warned. “We’re not stepping into it until we know what it wants.”
Stella waved a hand. “I’m notthatreckless.”
Just then, Mara bent over to inspect the moss along the edge of the path. Her cloak had fluttered up in the breeze, revealing far more leg than it should’ve and, well… a great deal of Mara’s firmly planted backside.
Stella blinked. “Is she… digging?”
Stella squinted. “Is she wearing heels?”
“I—maybe?”
“Now I know we’re dealing with magic,” she said, grinning. Then she raised her voice. “Mara, darling, if the wind lifts your skirts any higher, we’re going to need a full moon report!”
