“Gather everyone. I will meet you soon.”
Keegan’s mom and my grandmother started down the corridor with the others reluctantly following, including Keegan.
I waited until their footsteps faded, until their voices became threads tugging at the air.
Then I slipped away.
My sandals whispered against the flagstones as I moved quickly, keeping to shadows where the lantern light didn’t quite reach. I knew where I was going, even though I hadn’t spoken it aloud. I didn’t need to. My bones remembered. My blood did.
The place called to me in a way nothing else had since I’d arrived in Stonewick.
I should have gone with them. Should have stood tall in the banquet hall, gathered strength with the others, and smiled reassuringly to students who needed me to be a pillar. But some things can’t be shared. Some answers can’t be found in the open.
This place, what it held, what it protected, was too important to leave to chance. And too dangerous to trust to anyone else.
The corridor narrowed, the air cooling as I went deeper. I thought I heard the faint brush of fabric behind me, but when I glanced back, there was nothing. Only shadows stretching long and thin, curling like fingers.
My stomach twisted, but I pressed on.
Each step closer pulled tighter at the thread inside me, the one that had been tugging since the day I first crossed the Wards. Every instinct screamed this was where I needed to be. Not just to protect it, but to find the truth buried within it.
Because the fight with Malore wasn’t just about brute force. It wasn’t just about gathering allies or holding the line. It was about unravelling the lies that had bound us, stitching together what had been torn apart.
And this place held the needle and thread.
My breath caught as I finally reached the archway, its stones older than any part of the Academy I had walked before. Carved vines twined up the pillars, their leaves worn smooth by time. The spells pulsed faintly here. I rested my palm against the cool stone, my heart thudding in my chest.
This was it.
The place I had to protect. The place that might hold the answers we needed.
I drew in a steadying breath, the sound trembling in the stillness. Behind me, faintly, I thought I heard the distant murmur of voices rising from the banquet hall, the students being gathered, the instructors weaving calm through the storm.
But here, it was only me.
And the weight of what waited beyond.
I squared my shoulders, lifted my chin, and stepped forward.
Because no matter what the shadows whispered, no matter how little time we had, I knew this:
The answers were here.
And I would find them.
The corridor narrowed as I went deeper, the lamps thinning to a spaced-out scatter of glow that made the stone look like it held swallowed stars. The stairs did their trick again.
Click, sigh, pivot.
They turned mid-step beneath my feet until up became over and the landing I thought I was aiming for slid away like a frisky cat.
I didn’t fight it. The Academy liked to pretend it was a maze, but once you let it choose for you, it stopped sulking.
I passed my bedroom door, familiar wood, the little scuff where a gargoyle’s talon had nicked it, and kept going. The air changed there, cooler, edged with metal and rain. Somewhere past the next bend, the walls breathed.
“All right,” I whispered, more to my thudding pulse than to anyone else. “I’m coming.”
Something bright fluttered at the corner of my vision. The key.
