Keegan’s gaze flicked to mine. “She usually does.”
“So,” I said, forcing a wry smile, “we’ve got an ancient Priestess with a talent for manipulation, a possible army of orcs and armored boar testing the underground, and a sentient Academy that prefers to be cryptic, and Gideon on the loose like a crazed mage.”
Twobble tilted his head. “When you say it like that, it almost sounds manageable.”
I snorted. “You’re terrible at reassurance.”
“I try.”
Keegan stepped closer and rubbed my back.
“We prepare,” he said. “We don’t panic.”
“Agreed,” I said. “But we also don’t pretend this is nothing.”
“No,” he said quietly. “We don’t.”
My gaze drifted once more to the Academy. Stonewick had weathered storms before, but this one felt heavier.
And as the realization settled fully into place, one truth became impossible to ignore.
This wasn’t about Gideon anymore.
This was about war knocking politely on the edges of a town that had been pretending it was done fighting.
I stood there for a moment longer than anyone else, my mind stubbornly snagging on the image I could not quite reconcile.
Massive, armored boar snorting steam into the underground tunnels and above through the forests. Orcs riding them with brute confidence, pushing forward because that was how they’d always gotten what they wanted.
And just a few steps away, elderly vampire women stood on the Academy steps, shawls tucked close, teacups cradled delicately in their hands as they discussed ward integrity and structural weak points like they were planning a garden party.
The contrast was absurd, and it made me want to laugh and panic in equal measure.
“Well,” I muttered under my breath, shaking my head slightly. “If nothing else, Stonewick has range.”
Keegan glanced at me. “You okay?”
“Ask me again after my brain stops trying to put pigs and porcelain cups in the same sentence,” I replied.
Twobble snorted. “You’ll get used to it. Eventually.”
I wasn’t sure I believed that.
I took a steadying breath and deliberately shook the worry out of my shoulders, rolling them once as if I could physically dislodge the tension.
We’d faced worse before.
Deadly curses with a time limit.
Shadow creatures.
A living Academy with opinions.
We’d survived betrayal and loss and the kind of magic that tried to hollow people out from the inside, where blood relations mean nothing.
This wasn’t the first time Stonewick had been threatened.
But it was the first time the threat felt so… intentional.
