They didn’t know.
I didn’t even know.
That message. The one Keegan brought.
The circle was never broken. Only bent.
Was it a warning?
Or a threat?
Or a clue to the next chapter?
It hadn’t been signed. No marker. No magical signature we could trace. Just a sentence, written in that old, silver script I’d seen in the deep shelves of the Academy's forgotten wings.
But Gideon was clever.
He wouldn’t leave his name.
He never had to because he’d let you doubt yourself first and then let you invite the questions that could unravel everything.
But was what happened outside and the note related?
A warning left long ago by someone who had seen what I was only just beginning to understand?
Either way… the timing wasn’t an accident.
Krina had just broken a tether.
A thread had been severed between her and a man who used shadows like leashes and possibly had ties to Gideon.
Was that a coincidence or a signal?
Was I being tested by the Academy or Gideon?
Did he want to see if I would follow where he pointed?
I leaned my head back against the stone, letting its chill bleed into my thoughts, trying to ground myself.
No answers came to mind, only the same steady silence that crept in when magic was done speaking and was busy waiting, politely, for you to respond.
I wanted to tell someone.
Nova. Keegan. Even Stella.
But my tongue felt too heavy, and my thoughts were still half-soaked in Hedge light.
What if I told them and itwasn’tGideon?
What if it was something worse?
Or nothing at all?
And what if they started looking in the wrong direction because I said his name out loud?
What if saying it gave him power?
I curled my fingers into the fabric of my sleeve.
