The lights did not brighten the space so much as reveal how much darkness there was. The entry hall stretched wide beyond the doors, larger than the building's exterior should have allowed. Stone floors disappeared beneath layers of dust, and tall pillars rose on either side, carved with the same root-and-star symbol I’d seen throughout the village.
A grand staircase climbed at the far end of the hall, though half its railing had collapsed. Portraits lined the walls, their canvases turned inward to face the stone.
That bothered me.
A lot.
But I stepped to the threshold and stopped.
The shadow mark pulsed again, but this time, I felt something beneath the pulse, a question.
It felt like it came from inside the Academy, just the shape of inquiry brushing against my bones. Maybe not words like we were accustomed to.
Who?
I swallowed.
“Maeve Una Bellemore,” I whispered back to emptiness.
The entry hall answered with dust lifting from the floor in a slow ripple, sweeping backward from the threshold and clearing a narrow path through the center of the hall. The lights along the walls flickered brighter, and somewhere deep inside the building, a bell chimed once.
Barlen made a miserable noise behind me.
“I’d say it is expecting her,” the old man muttered behind us.
I glanced over my shoulder at Barlen. “You coming?”
Barlen looked appalled. “Inside there?”
“You brought me out for a day on the town.”
“You escaped my supervision. This wasnotin the plans.” Barlen glanced around the room in front of me. “But I suppose I shouldn’t stay out here, while you’re in there.”
I smiled. “Exactly my thought.”
His whiskers trembled as he looked from me to the Academy. “The Priestess will know.”
I glanced toward the silent street behind us, the curtains trembling in the nearby buildings, the old man watching with pale eyes that looked far less sleepy now.
I nodded in agreement. “She probably already does.”
Barlen frowned at me. “Not helpful for the nerves, Maeve.”
The old man stepped forward, though still not onto the stairs. “Take nothing it offers unless you understand the cost.”
“Why does everything magical have a cost?” I muttered just as the shadow I’d followed earlier appeared inside the hall. It stretched itself along the cleared path as if welcoming me. It pulsed once, then slipped deeper into the Academy.
My mark pulled toward it right when I thought about turning back.
I really did.
But my mother’s charm had opened the door.
The plaque had revealed itself to me.
The shadow had led me here.
And Gideon had kept this secret for too long.
