I wanted to disagree, but I couldn’t because Elira’s voice held something I couldn’t ignore: a thread of recognition.
As if she understood my mother’s choice in a way I didn’t yet, and since they’d both grown up in places of secrets with magic at their fingertips, I couldn’t argue.
“Whether she thinks she can beat the Priestess at her own game,” Elira continued, “or whether there is something else, some bargain or some leverage, she feels she can use for Stonewick, we cannot rush in.”
“We have to trust,” Miora said softly.
And knowing how seldom my mom and Miora agreed on anything, I took note. There were many times when I thought Miora might gladly hand my mother over herself. The smile touched my lips as I thought about all the bickering those two had done since they’d rekindled their…friendship? That might be too kind.
Elira’s gaze pinned me. “I’m not saying we don’t try to rescue her. I’m saying this isn’t something we just… do willy-nilly.”
Twobble’s head snapped up. “When have we ever done anything willy-nilly?” he demanded.
The sound, so Twobble, so perfectly offended on principle, made something in my chest release.
But before I could respond, the front door creaked, and Karvey’s heavy scrape of feet announced him before he was fully in the room.
“Should I answer that?” Karvey asked, voice dry as old mortar.
“What?” Twobble asked.
“You know about the willy-nilly thing?”
Twobble scowled while Keegan’s mouth twitched, and we all chuckled.
It felt good to hear the laughter, but the relief didn’t last because my mind kept returning to Gideon, my mother, and the Priestess.
“I think he had something more to say,” I murmured, mostly to myself.
Keegan’s head angled toward me. “You think?”
“Well, he probably didn’t expect an entire battalion behind me.” I smiled.
Caleb’s eyes flicked toward the window again. “He probably expected you alone.”
I pressed my palms together, trying to make sense of it all.
My mother gone—by choice, apparently.
The Priestess with a new advantage.
Gideon at the edge of my Ward with a stone he wanted to give me but not until we made a nice place for it to stay.
And a mirror in the cellar that showed me walking confidently into the Priestess’s compound in some possible future.
All topped off with the reality of my mother’s note, her words sitting like a stone in my chest.
Magic means something different to everyone. To me, it means saving my family.But what did it truly mean to me?
Chapter Twenty
The Academy felt different the moment I stepped inside.
Students filled the halls and gathered in small groups. I spotted others weaving between tables that definitely hadn’t been there the night before. The witches carried baskets, bundles, jars, and were moving with the kind of busy purpose that spreads when everyone suddenly has something useful to do.
Near the front doors, someone had lined up a row of crates. I walked over and saw folded blankets, tins of salve, bundles of dried herbs tied neatly with twine, and because apparently no gathering in Stonewick could exist without them, far too many pastries.
I was staring at care packages for the orcs and shifters and anyone else who needed them.
