“I don’t believe it.”
For a moment, the words didn’t land, but I knew what needed to be said. My mom wouldn’t go to the priestess.
“She wouldn’t go.” The words slipped past me like something said in another language. “That’s not possible.”
“I saw her, Maeve.” My dad cleared his throat. “I tried to stop her.”
The ground shifted under my feet, and Keegan came to my side.
“You saw what exactly?”
“She walked out of the Academy toward the wilds.”
I stared at my dad, trying to make sense of any of this.
“She didn’t run away,” he added. “But she didn’t stop, and I know she heard me calling. I ran after her, but she slipped away.”
“One of our younger wolves saw her heading through the Wilds. She didn’t seem to have had a spell cast. She looked in good health and not in a trance or…” Caleb stepped forward slightly. “She looked like she meant to go wherever it was she was heading.”
“Twobble saw her first,” my dad said.
My heart stuttered at the words.
“Twobble noticed her near the garden beds. He thought she was just meditating or something,” my dad told me.
“Did she talk to him?” I asked, my pulse racing.
Caleb nodded once. “She spoke with Twobble and asked him not to tell anyone that he saw her.”
A bitter laugh left my lips. “Twobble isn’t known for keeping secrets.”
“When he tried to get closer, she told him to stay where he was,” my dad added.
“Anyway, she kept walking,” he continued.
“But she wouldn’t stop,” I whispered.
“She crossed the boundary where the orcs are.” He shook his head. “I lost sight of her, and I could only track her so far into the Wilds before her aura was lost to the forest.”
“The young shifter hollered for her when he saw her wander past the orcs, but she didn’t look back.”
That was the detail that broke something inside me.
My mother had never walked away from us without turning back, at least.
“Where did she go?” I asked, swallowing the dryness in my mouth.
Caleb hesitated, glanced at my dad, then continued.
“Someone was waiting beyond the tree line.”
My stomach dropped, but I needed to know everything. “And?”
“They said it looked like the Priestess or at least her silhouette.”
“But she wouldn’t go to her willingly,” I said immediately.
Keegan stepped closer, and his hand settled against the middle of my back. The warmth of it steadied me a little.
