Nobody moved for a few seconds after Rendel’s last words. Even the leaves overhead seemed to settle, the wind slipping through the branches softer now, like the forest itself was waiting to see what I’d say next.
I found my voice before the rest of my thoughts caught up.
“How do you know about my mother?” I asked.
The words came out sharper than I intended. My hands had curled into fists without me noticing.
“You know about the Priestess holding her?”
Rendel nodded slowly.
“I make Shadowick my business,” he said, “as well as Stonewick.”
The way he said it made it sound less like a job and more like a long habit.
“And for the record,” he continued, “she’s not exactly holding her.”
Something about the calm in his voice made the air feel colder.
“She can be retrieved.”
A chill skittered across my skin, and I hadn’t realized how tight my chest had been until that moment, until the idea slipped into the room between us like a door cracking open.
If he was to be believed, my mom wasn’t permanently trapped or held in chains.
She could be gotten.
I didn’t know if that made things better or infinitely worse.
My eyes stayed on Rendel.
“So,” I said slowly, “what do you think I have that you want?”
For the first time since we’d stepped into the clearing, something shifted in his expression.
It was small, but I saw it.
His eyes darkened briefly, and his attention flicked over my shoulder toward the deeper woods before returning to me. There was something so familiar about his expression, but it had nothing to do with Keegan, and that bit of information worried me.
“The shadow stone.”
The words landed like a dropped plate, and for a second, I forgot how to think.
Out of everything he could have said…
That hadn’t even crossed my mind.
And because I wasn’t ready for the answer, the truth slipped out before my brain could stop it.
“I don’t have it.” The moment the words left my mouth, I wished I could grab them out of the air.
Rendel’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he wasn’t angry. Perhaps just disappointed.
“That’s a shame.” He pressed his lips into a thin line and let out his breath. “This could have gone a lot quicker.”
Rendel watched me carefully.
“You’re sure?” he asked again.
