“I told you, they’re not mine,” I continued, feeling the words settle deeper as I said them. “And more importantly, they were never yours.”
A sound moved through the Academy that was beautiful and aching. It started beneath the floors and drifted upward through the walls until every lantern shimmered and every shadow answered as the energy poured out of the Academy and into the sky.
And I realized that all of the shadows my grandmother had collected over the centuries weren’t shadows at all. They were stolen memories.
Barlen turned toward me, awe washing over his face as the Priestess shrieked and lunged.
The shadows caught her before she stepped again.
They wrapped around her wrists first, then her arms, then her waist. She twisted violently, sending bursts of darkness through the hall, but every bit of magic she released only fed them more. The shadows brightened each time they absorbed it, using her own power to strengthen the prison closing around her.
She fought harder, and the Academy pushed back. The shadows clung to her and pulled her into the center of the emblem.
The lines of the star and root flared brighter as her boots struck the rune below her feet.
“No,” she gasped. There was no pride hiding beneath the word, only terror.
The shadows climbed higher, winding around her throat but not choking. Holding. Capturing. Binding. The silver inside them shone like moonlit thread, and for one breathtaking moment, the Priestess looked less like a ruler and more like a woman trapped inside the consequences she’d spent lifetimes building.
Barlen stood beside me in stunned silence, but I couldn’t look away.
The shadows finally pulled her arms tight to her sides, and the Academy floor lit beneath her with a deep, resonant thrum that vibrated up through my bones.
The Priestess’ eyes locked onto mine.
“This is not over,” she whispered.
Before I could answer, Keegan came through the door, broad shoulders tense, eyes blazing wolf-bright as his gaze swept the hall and landed on me. Gideon followed at his side, but his expression was unreadable for half a second before shock cut through the darkness in his gaze.
Bella slipped in behind them, half crouched as if ready to shift, while Nova moved with that terrible calm that always meant she’d known just enough to worry. Ardetia came next, pale and silent, and Twobble and Skonk tumbled in after her with the frantic energy of goblins who’d run the whole way and regretted every step.
Twobble skidded to a halt and clutched his chest. “We made it. I saw the signal and…”
“Signal?” I shook my head. “What signal?”
Barlen whistled and rolled his eyes. “I might have borrowed one of the pebbles in your pocket.”
“And?”
“I tossed it with a wish for backup.”
I bit back a smile. “So that’s what they were for.”
Twobble nodded. “Good man. Little did I know, I needed to provide a set of instructions for every magical instrument I hand over to our headmistress.”
Skonk stared at the bound Priestess as Keegan’s eyes moved from me to the Priestess and then to the shadows holding her in place.
“What happened?” he asked, voice rough with horror and awe.
I looked at the shadows that were no longer cloaked in darkness wrapped around my grandmother and over at Barlen,who still looked like he couldn’t decide whether to cry or kneel, and I let out a shaky breath.
“Shadowick found its voice.”
Chapter Forty-One
“I, by any means, do not mean to break up this little celebration party, but what are we going to do with that thing?” Twobble pointed over his shoulder at the Priestess. “I mean, she can be really ornery.”
We all turned to look at her as the shadows clung to every part of her body while she twisted and writhed in place, but she was going absolutely nowhere.
