“It’s your word against mine.”
“Huh.” I spin around. “Trawick, you here?”
He dissolves the glamour that hid him and steps away from the wall, arms crossed, glaring at Zandra. “Heard the whole thing. Sounds like someone’s going to rot in a cell for the rest of her life. Unless she’s hanged, of course. Do we still do that?”
I shrug. “We could make an exception.”
“And I’m here, too,” Elmore says, appearing in the gilded mirror. “Sounded like quite the confession to me.”
I nod to the guards. “Get her out of my sight, and make sure I never see or hear her again.”
As they drag her away, Zandra struggles to break free. “No, Feylin! I was just kidding. I didn’t do any of it! Don’t let me rot in a cell!”
Then she’s gone, her screams echoing in the hallway as she’s taken to what I hope will become her final resting place.
With that done, I rub my hands together and say to Trawick, “The Witch and Wizard Council?”
He nods. “That should be taken care of.”
“All right. Then there’s only one thing left for me to do. Elmore, you’re on.”
He nods. “Got it.”
And quick as a wink, the image inside the mirror disappears.
48
The castle’s right up the hill. All I have to do is knock on the door and tell Feylin how I feel. He deserves to know. If he chooses to kick me out on my rear end after that, it’s fine.
But at least I’ll have told him the truth.
I’m about to charge up in a pair of black leather boots with fresh heels (should I rethink this?) when Blair’s voice grabs my attention.
“Addison, come see!”
“What?”
She rushes to me, the tails of her long cardigan flapping in the breeze. “Just come. You won’t believe it.”
“But I?—”
She grabs my arm and tugs. “That can wait. This can’t.”
I’m not so sure about that, but I relent and turn toward the village.
We’ve just reached the dead center of Castleview when I stop. The doors to the bookshop are wide open. It looks brand-new, like it wasn’t burned to the ground only days before. And all the books?
“They’ve been replaced,” she whispers. “We’ve even gotten the rare ones back.”
A tear falls down her cheek. Tears are about to stream down mine, too. “What happened?”
“Feylin,” she whispers. “He contacted the council, and he fixed it, Addie. He restored it along with the magic.”
“Impossible.”
She shakes her head. “Not impossible. Not at all. See for yourself.”
I cross the threshold and see that it’s true. Every book’s back, and they’re all in their place. It looks like the fire never happened. Even the charred smell is gone.
