“And courage,” Ardetia added.
“And snacks,” Twobble said. “I cannot stress that enough.”
A ripple of laughter moved through the group, easing the tightness in my chest. For a moment, it felt like Stonewick again.
I craved the odd, warm, and familiar sensations that were stitched together by people who showed up even when things got strange…or especially when things got strange.
Keegan shifted beside me and rested his hand on my shoulder. The familiar pull was instant, but the question I’d been holding onto tugged harder now, surfacing like a truth that refused to stay buried.
Before we moved forward, before we closed anything, I realized I needed to understand something.
Something that had haunted me since I’d landed back in town with Gideon.
“Wait,” I said.
They all turned toward me.
I looked at Keegan first, then Stella, whose expression had gone carefully neutral in a way that set off every internal alarm I possessed.
But I needed the answer to the question that had been haunting me since Keegan walked through the fog when I thought there was no hope of him coming back.
“There’s something I need to ask,” I said, my voice quieter now. “Something I’ve been wondering since I came back… since Gideon was on my broomstick, and the sky felt too close to my soul.”
Keegan’s jaw tightened just a fraction.
Stella’s eyes sharpened.
“How did you get away?” I asked. “You and Stella. From the Priestess.”
The Academy went utterly silent.
Even Twobble stopped fidgeting.
Keegan didn’t answer.
He just looked at me, and in that pause, I knew the truth wasn’t simple.
And whatever it was might change everything.
Chapter Two
Keegan didn’t answer right away.
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His left hand rubbed slowly at the back of his neck. His eyes drifted to the tall windows where the light filtered through ivy and stained glass.
For a moment, he looked less like the wolf who guarded Stonewick and more like a man trying to find the right shape for a memory that didn’t want to be remembered.
“It wasn’t a fight,” he said finally. “That’s the strange part. There was no spell to break or clawing our way free. One second, the Priestess was reaching for us, and the next—”
He paused, searching.
“It was like the world blinked,” he said. “As if someone dropped a glass dome over Stonewick.”
My breath caught, and Keegan’s gaze flicked to mine, then away again.
“I don’t mean a protection spell. Not like the ones we know. This wasn’t something woven or cast. It slammed down,completely solid and absolute.” His eyes stayed on mine. “I felt a heaviness in my chest first that was like a pressure, but then I felt it all around as if I was standing too close to a ringing bell. It was as if the world around us slammed down.”
Stella let out a low sound, something between a hum and a curse.
