The pendant warmed until the moonstone's heat pressed through my skin. The silver thread Stella had tied to it lifted again, but instead of pointing toward Keegan or Gideon, it floated toward the crack.
Toward my daughter.
I glanced back to see Twobble squatting near the wall where Keegan and Gideon had managed to open a narrow seam in the opposite wall. A soft yellow glow spilled through, and with it came the unmistakable sound of someone breathing hard, like they’d been trapped too long in darkness.
My mother.
For a moment, my entire body split between the two sounds, but the chamber shifted under my feet, and the choice made itself.
“Twobble,” I whispered.
His ears dipped. “No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to say,” I whispered.
“I know your face.” He shrugged.
“Stay with them.”
“Absolutely not.”
“If they get my mom out, and I’m gone, they’ll need you to tell them where I went.”
“You should tell them now.”
I shook my head and whispered. “They’ll try to stop me.”
He stared at me, horrified. “This is the worst assignment I’ve ever been given.”
“I’m not giving it to you because I like it.”
His throat bobbed, and for a second, the goblin who always had jokes and crumbs and a suspicious emergency pastry in his pocket looked small in a way I couldn’t stand.
“Maeve,” he said quietly. “Keegan will lose his mind.”
“I know.” My eyes remained on Twobble’s.
“And I’ll have to witness it.” He shook his head. “In fact, I might be the target of it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” He smirked.
The crack widened half an inch with a soft sigh, and a sliver of darkness appeared beyond it, and my pendant flared.
I pressed both hands to the stone and whispered the only spell that came to me.
“Open what is hidden. Bend what is sealed. By hedge and root, let the truth be revealed.”
For a second, nothing happened, and when my heart fell in disappointment, the wall softened beneath my palms.
A passage opened just wide enough for me to squeeze through. I glanced at Keegan and Gideon, working away on the other wall, and the shadows tied into themselves.
Twobble grabbed my sleeve. “Maeve.”
I looked down at him as his eyes shone with fear.
“Tell Keegan I’m sorry,” I said.
