“That’s more than fair to ask.”
“Mom. He controls Shadowick. That place was terrifying. You told me yourself it wasn’t safe.”
“It wasn’t,” I said. “And it still isn’t.”
“Then why is he in the Academy?” she pressed. “Isn’t this supposed to be protected? Sacred?”
“Yes,” I said again. “Absolutely.”
Celeste frowned. “Those answers don’t go together.”
I smiled faintly. “They do here.”
She crossed her arms, waiting.
“The Academy,” I began carefully, “doesn’t operate on the same rules we do. It doesn’t judge people based solely on what they’ve done. It judges whether they’re aligned with the balance it’s meant to protect.”
Celeste’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds… dangerously philosophical.”
“It is,” I agreed. “But it’s also how it’s survived this long.”
She tilted her head. “So you’re saying the Academy invited him in.”
“I’m saying the Academyallowedhim in,” I corrected. “There’s a difference.”
Celeste stared at her plate for a moment, then back at me. “Okay. Start from the beginning. Because I feel like I missed several chapters.”
I exhaled slowly and leaned back against the bench, the wood warm against my shoulders. “Alright. But this gets complicated.”
“Magic usually does,” she said dryly.
“You remember the curse,” I said. “The one I told you about. The one that’s been sitting over Stonewick like a lid for decades.”
She nodded. “The one that made everyone stuck.”
“Yes,” I said. “It had been cast by Gideon’s hand, but the plan had been engineered by more than him. He was merely the instrument, tempted by power.” I drew a breath. “Since you were here last, we uncovered several more developments. At the heart of that curse was something called the Hunger Path.”
Her brow furrowed. “That sounds… bad.”
“It was,” I said. “It fed on want. On ambition. On fear. It rewarded taking instead of choosing.”
Celeste’s mouth tightened. “That explains a lot about Gideon.”
“It explains a lot about several people,” I said gently.
She sat back slowly. “That’s… horrifying.”
“It is,” I said. “It traced back to Malore…your great-grandfather, husband of Elira.”
Her face paled slightly. “The name you don’t like to say.”
“Yes. He nearly destroyed everything,” I said. “Because he ignited the Hunger Path, twisting it to his own whims. And because his actions echoed forward in ways no one fully understood until recently.”
Celeste swallowed. “Is he…?”
“Gone,” I said. “Truly gone.”
She let out a breath she’d been holding. “Good.”
