“And maybe,” she added slowly, “seeing all this did change him. But that doesn’t mean he deserves access to it.”
“No,” I said. “It doesn’t.”
She nodded, resolve settling in her posture. “Okay. Then we do it the right way. I’ll help reverse it. And Nova can do the memory spell.”
I felt a pang of something like grief for the simplicity we’d lost before magic, but pride also swelled.
“We’ll make sure it’s done with care.”
She smiled faintly. “And then someday, we’ll laugh about it.”
“Someday,” I agreed. “Just… maybe not today.”
Celeste looked at her dad, and then at me. “He really is going to be fine, right?”
“Yes,” I said. “He’ll go back to being exactly who he was.”
She made a face. “That’s… not reassuring.”
I laughed despite myself. “Fair enough.”
She leaned into me then, resting her head against my shoulder the way she used to when she was little, and I wrapped an arm around her without thinking.
“We’ll figure this out,” I murmured into her hair. “I promise.”
I didn’t know exactly how.
I didn’t know if safeguards were truly foolproof or if magic would always find ways to surprise us.
But I knew we weren’t ignoring the fear. We were naming it, just like with me, and that was the first real step toward control.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I was halfway through convincing myself that sitting down for five uninterrupted minutes might actually be possible when the Academy doors banged open with far less subtlety than usual.
Twobble burst in first, hat crooked, cheeks flushed, eyes bright with the particular intensity that meant he’d come straight from the UnderLoom without stopping to breathe or snack.
Celeste glanced at me, looking like a giggle was waiting on the edge of her expression.
Skonk followed more slowly, his heavy steps measured, his expression unreadable in that way that always made my stomach tighten before he spoke.
“Maeve,” Twobble said, already crossing the room. “We’ve got more news.”
I closed my eyes for half a second. “Of course you do.”
Skonk inclined his head. “You’re going to want to hear this.”
I set my mug aside carefully and stood, motioning them closer. “All right. Tell me.”
Twobble glanced around the room first, lowering his voice instinctively even though the walls here were thick and attentive.
“We’ve been tracking the orc movement more precisely. Mapping the pressure shifts. Comparing the older paths with the newer ones.”
“And?” I asked.
“And they’re not coming toward Stonewick.”
The words landed with a soft thud.
