“That’s not the same as not going,” he said, laughing.
“No,” I agreed. “But it’s the best I can offer.”
He sighed, then nodded slowly. “In one ear and out the other as you’re listening.”
“I retain very well, thank you very much…especially when it doesn’t have to do with spellwork in the kitchen.”
He laughed. “Fine. We plan and choose the path carefully. We’ll bring people who know when to talk and when to step back.”
“And when to run,” I added.
He smirked. “Especially that.”
I smiled, the weight of the decision settling but no longer crushing. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For not trying to stop me,” I replied.
“I don’t want to stop you,” he said. “I just want you to come back.”
His eyes stayed fastened to mine for several beats, and I knew he meant it.
I nodded. “Well, that’s the plan.”
“Good.”
“Good.” We stood there for a moment longer, the quiet wrapping around us, not empty but full of possibility and risk in equal measure.
Somewhere beyond the Academy, orcs were moving, driven by forces that didn’t care who got caught in the middle.
Somewhere else, a Priestess watched and waited, her plans unfolding like a careful game.
And here, in this small pocket of calm, I allowed myself one steady breath.
We weren’t reacting anymore.
We were choosing, and that, I suspected, was exactly what she hadn’t planned for.
The courtyard felt smaller somehow, the Academy’s stone walls holding the moment gently instead of pressing in. The maple leaves overhead whispered again, a sound like encouragement, and the lantern nearest us flickered just enough to warm the space between us.
Keegan sat down next to me. Our shoulders brushed, and neither of us pulled away.
“You know,” he said after a moment, voice low, thoughtful, “I keep waiting for it to feel strange.”
“What?”
“Not carrying the curse anymore,” he said.
I turned to look at him, and his expression was open in a way I wasn’t used to seeing
“Does it?”
He glanced at his hands, flexing his fingers as if reacquainting himself with them.
“For so long, it was always there. It wasn’t always loud, but it was there for me to remember in the silence of the night, offering reminders that I was beholden to something.”
“I can’t imagine how that feels,” I said softly, but then my birthmark warmed. “I know this is in no way what you went through, but sometimes, it feels like that with my birthmark. Before I came to Stonewick, it was just a mark on my skin, andnow it feels like a homing beacon or a warning system I’m not ready for.”
