The certainty of that sat in my bones like a weight.
And that scared me more than anything that had happened tonight.
I hadn’t asked for the mark.
I didn’t understand what it meant.
But the craving that brushed along the edge of it now—
That wasn’t curiosity.
It was something older.
Something deeper.
The pull flared again, sharper this time.
My fingers curled slightly against my shoulder.
I forced myself to breathe slowly.
I couldn’t react, and I couldn’t let Keegan see it.
It wasn’t the Academy the mark wanted.
I could feel that much now.
The pull stretched past the trees, past the quiet edge of town, into the dark places beyond Stonewick. Once the thought formed, it settled in my chest with the slow certainty of bad news.
The shadow stone.
I closed my eyes for a second and let out a quiet breath.
Of course it was.
Wherever Gideon had hidden it, the mark could sense it. Worse than that, I could feel it too—not clearly, not enoughto march straight out into the woods and find it tonight, but enough to know the direction. A faint thread, steady and patient.
If I wanted to follow it, I probably could.
That realization made my chest tighten.
Because I didn’t want anything to do with that stone. Not its power. Not the kind of magic that had settled into my shoulder like it had every right to be there.
Keegan stepped back beside me then, studying my face the way he did when he thought I might be pretending to be fine.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“Just tired,” I said.
That, at least, wasn’t a lie.
He nodded and turned toward the Ward again, apparently satisfied for the moment. We stepped forward together, the Butterfly Ward drifting around us like soft light as we crossed into its warmth.
Home.
Safe.
At least that was the idea.
