Little hedge witch, it said.If there was not hope, we would already be gone. But the ending is not for us to share.
The breath left me in a shaky rush.
“That’s the closest thing to hope you’ve ever given me,” I said. “Thank you for warning me before. For… nudging me here today. Even if you refuse to give me a neat, bullet-point list of what to do.”
The smoke-gray dragon’s mist brushed my cheek like a cool hand.You do not need a list,it said.You need to remember who you are when the pattern pulls.
“And who is that?” I asked.
Four voices answered at once, overlapping in my mind like chords.
A hinge.
A junction.
A flame.
A refusal.
A light.
Heat rose in my chest, not the panicked burn of anxiety, but something steadier.
“I can work with that,” I said softly.
The silver-blue dragon pulled back, the line of contact between its snout and my mark breaking with a tiny, audible pop of magic. The chamber’s light shifted, subtly, as if whatever conversation we’d had had nudged the threads just enough.
Go, it said.Sleep, if you can. Hug the wolf. Hug the goblin. Hug the child when she arrives. Circles close best when the anchors remember what they’re binding for.
“I’ll try,” I said.
I stood, legs a little shaky but heart… clearer.
At the archway, I paused and looked back.
“Hey,” I said. “One last thing. If this goes sideways tomorrow, if we mess it up, if the priestess rips through, will you…?”
The words stuck.
The opalescent dragon finished them for me.Will we help?
I shook my head.
“Will you be okay?”
The dragons’ eyes gleamed, one by one.
That is an answer for only us to know.
No pressure.
The weave at the doorway parted once more. I stepped through, back into the narrower, more human corridor, the door sealing shut behind me.
The Academy’s normal sounds drifted back in with distant footsteps.
My anxiety hadn’t vanished.
But it no longer filled every corner. The fear had room now to sit beside determination, beside the sharp, quiet knowledge that the dragons had not abandoned us. That Elira was anchored. That Keegan, Dad, Gideon, and I were not the whole story, but we were a piece.
