“I will not put up with being ridiculed based on pet selection.” Twobble rested a crumb on his bony shoulder near the snailacorn.
I took a mug from Stella, and the warmth seeped into my palms. This was what the Academy was about.
In this moment, the Academy felt exactly as it should, with students’ voices overlapping, and magic brushing along the edges of the corridors.
I chuckled when I saw a new witch gasp as a portrait waved at her, and a returning goblin student argued with a staircase that insisted on curving when it hadn’t last term.
It was my version of found family in motion.
Yet still, the thought of Gideon pressed deep.
After the meeting with the orcs, he had vanished. His departure wasn’t in a dramatic burst of shadows or a theatrical cloak rippling behind him.
It was simply that one minute, Gideon was present, and the next, he was nowhere to be found.
My fingers tightened slightly around the mug.
“Don’t spiral,” Nova said quietly beside me.
Her words startled me. “I wasn’t.”
“You were.” She glanced at me. “I can see it in your eyes, and I can feel it in the air.”
I exhaled slowly and smiled at her. She was always so…calm.
“I can’t decide what worries me more,” I admitted softly. “That Gideon is acting alone. Or that he isn’t. And he helped us. I think that unsettles me most. Has he aligned with us or…”
Keegan’s posture shifted, and he walked inside toward us.
“Gideon won’t align easily,” he said. “Not with anyone.”
“It felt like he did, at least a little bit.”
Keegan nodded, but I knew he’d never trust the man who’d cast the curse.
“He didn’t have to show up for us, and the Priestess could have gained leverage,” I pressed. “But he did show up.”
Across the foyer, a group of new students paused beneath the floating orbs. They lifted their eyes in awe. One reached up carefully, fingertips brushing the edge of light. The orb brightened, delighted, and then burst like a bubble.
I could feel the Academy’s approval.
“The Priestess is planning,” I continued, lowering my voice. “She never moves without a long game. Showing herself in Stonewick wasn’t impulsive. It was a placement. Getting the orcs to move was her play.”
“But getting the orcs to trust us was ours.” Stella handed Ardetia a mug. “Priestesses with long games are exhausting, though.”
“Agreed,” Twobble called from across the room. “Short games. Snack-based games. That’s my preference.”
Bella laughed, and the sound eased the tightness in my chest, and I needed that because it was difficult to focus on the moment, the present.
But the Priestess was never far from my mind.
She might not be clawing at the Academy or battering our Wards, but she was waiting, and I was learning that waiting was her most dangerous move.
“She feels you,” Nova said softly.
“I know.”
Nova’s gaze drifted toward the eastern windows. The trees just beyond swayed in an easy rhythm from the fall breeze, while my birthmark pulsed a faint, steady warmth.
