“What was that?”
Barlen’s face had gone pale again. “I don’t know.”
“Not the answer I was looking for.”
We stepped through the gates together, and the moment my boots touched the cracked stone courtyard, the entire Academy shuddered beneath us as ash rained softly from above.
The iron gates slammed shut behind us with a deafening boom.
And somewhere deep inside the sleeping heart of Shadowick Academy, something ancient woke up.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
We moved toward the Academy in unison as my shadow mark alternated between burning and freezing. It didn’t help that my birthmark was also heated.
I looked down at Barlen and stopped walking. He glanced up and slowed.
“What?” he asked.
“I wanted to thank you for risking so much for someone you barely know.”
He shook his head and smiled. “No. It’s not for someone I barely know. It’s for something I almost forgot to treasure.”
I studied him closely. “What’s that?”
“Hope, Maeve. You’ve given me hope again.”
I glanced around the darkness as the energy shifted around us. “How?”
“You reminded me that there is another way outside of these walls.”
Shadows swooped from above, as a breeze skimmed across my skin, and Barlen hopped and started skittering toward the Academy’s entrance.
“We don’t have time, Maeve.”
I followed after him, grabbing the charm out of my pocket as the shadows swooped lower overhead. They glided across the stone courtyard and curled around the dead vines climbing the Academy walls while the enormous structure loomed above us like it had been waiting for this exact moment.
The charm heated instantly in my hand.
Barlen reached the doors first and looked over his shoulder at me while fog drifted around his boots. “Maeve, hurry.”
“I’m trying,” I whispered, shoving the charm toward the ancient lock buried in the center of the black doors.
The moment I got near, the Academy shuddered around us.
A low groan echoed through the stone beneath our feet while ancient gears shifted somewhere deep inside the walls. Dust drifted from above in soft clouds, and the shadows behind us immediately pulled back several feet like they suddenly weren’t quite as eager to get closer.
The charm turned the latch on its own.
My breath caught as silver markings spread outward from the lock in twisting patterns that looked painfully familiar to the marks joined somehow on my own skin.
The doors slowly began to open inward, with warm air drifting out first.
I froze, and Barlen did too.
Earlier in the day, the Academy had felt cold and abandoned. The hallways were dark and heavy with dust. It felt forgotten, and now the warmth spilling from within wrapped around my skin, almost cautiously, and a soft golden light flickered somewhere farther down the corridors beyond the entrance hall.
The Academy looked awake.
