“Why?”
“Because it listens.”
I looked around slowly. “Sounds familiar.”
The mark along my side fluttered again as I looked over at a set of double doors that stood halfway down the corridor.
Unlike the rest of the Academy, these doors showed no dust at all, and I stopped in front of them.
“Barlen.” I took a deep breath.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“I do. The answer remains no.”
I studied the doors carefully. Tiny symbols had been etched between the roots. Moons. Flames. Butterflies. Wolves.
My stomach twisted. “This place taught everyone together.”
Barlen’s silence answered before he did.
Eventually, he muttered, “Once. It was long ago.”
The shadow near the far wall pulsed faintly as if they were waiting.
“Before Stonewick,” I muttered.
He nodded.
I looked back at the doors. “What’s inside?”
His ears flattened. “Classrooms.”
For some reason, that answer was heartbreaking. I could just imagine the students moving through the halls and sitting down to indulge in all things magical, and then, just like that…it stopped.
Barlen tugged at my sleeve. “We should go.”
“Why?”
“Because it is waking up.”
I looked at him quickly. “What does that mean?”
“It means the Priestess will be pleased.”
Ice flooded my veins as the words sliced into me.”
“Is this what she wanted from me?”
“Who knows? Can’t say.” Barlen’s gaze darted toward the shadows before returning to me. “But she has been trying for over a century.”
Over a century.
I stared at him.
Never mind the fact that his casual use of that timeframe implied he was old enough to remember eras instead of years.
