My pulse jumped as the shadows moved differently now. Earlier, they felt wild and on the hunt, almost free.
Now they seemed cautious.
Curious.
The dark tendrils slid across the floor in twisting ribbons while Barlen backed away from them immediately. They were no longer fighting their way in to destroy us. They were here to…learn.
“Perhaps, they plan on reporting this development to the Priestess,” Barlen muttered.
“Not a comforting thought,” I replied.
“We should move,” he whispered, but the shadows stilled.
Every single one of them froze in place across the stone floor.
The Academy pulsed beneath my feet as magic surged outward through the walls in a warm wave so strong it nearly knocked the breath from my lungs. Every lantern in the entrance hall flared brighter while silver markings spread across the ceiling overhead in enormous spirals.
The shadows jerked backward, just enough to create distance between themselves and me.
Barlen grabbed my arm suddenly, and his little paw tugged my pocket. “They’ve never done that before.”
The shadows shifted again, slowly curling lower toward the ground while the Academy lights continued glowing brighter around us.
The whispers started softly and were barely audible.
Maeve…
My skin prickled instantly as the voices drifted through the entrance hall like wind moving through leaves.
Maeve…
I went completely still as Barlen’s face scrunched. “You heard that too?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
The shadows curled tighter together across the floor.
Home…
The next whisper slid through the Academy walls so softly that it almost felt imagined, but the way the lanterns flickered afterward told me it wasn’t.
A terrible realization began to form in my chest.
The shadows weren’t following the Priestess here anymore.
They were reacting to me.
“No,” I whispered immediately.
Barlen looked between me and the dark shapes stretching across the floor. “Maeve, what’s happening?”
The shadows stirred uncertainly.
“I don’t know.”
The shadows closest to us slowly shifted direction and drifted toward me, or was that wishful thinking?
“I’ve never…” Barlen stopped as the shadows puddled around me.
