Her lips pressed thin. “Then it knows you. It knows your burden.”
Gideon. Keegan. Bound by something I hadn’t chosen, something I didn’t understand.
The book snapped shut with the crack of thunder.
I gasped, finally tearing my eyes away. My heart pounded like I’d been running.
“I hate that thing,” I whispered.
Nova rested her hand on the cover, firm. “Good. Hatred means distance. Fear means caution. Both are wiser than hunger.”
I sank into the nearest chair, pressing a hand over my chest. “So Malore is using this?”
“Or something like it,” Nova said grimly. “But now you’ve seen. The skies are not angry by chance. They are being pulled, shaped. And if balance requires unity of dark and light…” She trailed off, her gaze unreadable.
“We are the light.”
But who was the sacrifice?
I knew what she was thinking. What it meant.
Keegan. Gideon. Me. My dad.
The shadows outside scraped against the windowpane, as though laughing at me for realizing too late.
Chapter Twenty-One
A heavy pounding rattled the shop door. It was sharp, insistent, and loud enough that one of the herb bundles on the wall fell with a dusty thud.
Nova and I locked eyes, both of us stiff with the thought that perhaps the darkness had come knocking. She rose with her staff, I with my pounding heart, and together we moved to the door.
Nova unlatched it carefully, charms humming low under her touch.
The door swung wide and…
Twobble looked up at us, hunched on the step with his vest crooked.
“Well,” he said, peering up at me. “You look stressed.”
My mouth fell open.
“Terrible,” he repeated with a sage nod. “Stressed. Like you didn’t get any rest at all. I’ve seen carved gourds at market with more life.”
Despite the panic still thudding in my ribs, I laughed.
“You sound just like my mother.”
He recoiled with a horrified scowl. “Low blow, Maeve. Very low blow.”
Nova’s lips twitched, but she kept her composure. “Twobble, why are you here hammering at my door?”
His ears twitched. He shuffled closer, lowering his voice. “It’s Gideon. He’s restless. Stirring. Stella, Bella, and Skonk are sitting on him like chickens on an egg, but the shadows are… shifting. I didn’t want to alarm anyone, but…”
“You’re alarming me,” I said, already grabbing my cloak.
“Good. That was the point.”
I stepped outside, and Nova didn’t hesitate. She locked the shop behind her, beads clinking faintly in the breeze, and we hurried after Twobble as he scuttled down the lane.
