My mind went straight to my mother walking into the Wilds, leaving a warm teacup behind on the table.
I thought about the Priestess’s compound, and the long halls, the shadows, the glimpse the mirror had shown me of a future I refused to believe in.
And what she reached for or put away in that drawer…the one she worried someone saw…and I did when she didn’t know I could see in.
But now the Academy had woken up completely.
My hands curled into fists without me realizing it.
“Okay,” I said, mostly to keep my thoughts from running away with me. “Okay. So, we—”
The floor shuddered again.
This time it felt different. It wasn’t the building stretching awake, but like it was answering something.
Nova turned toward the window and looked outside. “You feel that?”
“Yes.” The word came out before I had time to think.
Twobble looked between us.
“Feel what? Because I feel my stomach trying to escape through my ribs,” he muttered.
Nova had already crossed the office. She pressed her palm against the stone beside the window as she stilled.
Nothing happened for a moment, and then the faint seams in the wall brightened beneath her hand.
When she opened her eyes, the color had drained from her face.
“Maeve,” she said quietly, “something just touched the Wards.”
My stomach tightened as the Academy rumbled again, low and deep beneath our feet.
“It didn’t break through,” Nova added quickly. “Not even close. The Wards are strong.”
“That’s good,” Twobble said at once. “Strong Wards are excellent. I fully support strong Wards.”
Nova didn’t answer him as her gaze stayed on me.
“But whatever it was,” she said, “it wasn’t trying to break in. It was feeling them out.”
The Priestess.
The thought arrived whole and certain, and I stepped toward Nova as the room tilted.
“I can’t invite her in. I can’t let her get to me in here.” I blinked hard, but the blur stayed at the edges of my vision as I dashed out of the office with Nova calling behind me. I barely made it through the Academy doors, leading down the steps as she and Twobble were on my trail. The midnight darkness was all around me as Twobble’s face warped oddly next to me.
“Maeve?” Nova called again.
Everywhere I looked, it was as if I were seeing bent mirrors.
I tried to focus on her, but the moment our eyes met, something slipped quietly into my thoughts.
It wasn’t sound.
And it wasn’t magic the way mine felt when it moved through the air or along the Wards.
Something else had slipped into my thoughts. It was a presence that was calm, deliberate, and horribly familiar.
