Gideon’s gaze caught mine, and I saw a flicker run across his expression that I didn’t recognize. It was unsettling, but wasn’t everything about him that way?
Twobble cleared his throat. “Not to mention, we have a rival Academy trying to open, and no one to run it. A village to rebuild.” Twobble started pacing with Skonk right behind him. “I mean, the list is really endless, isn’t it?”
“Also, the shadows can only hold her for so long,” Skonk pointed out, stopping in front of me. “We have a lot of decisions to be made. Where are we going to put her?”
I looked down at Barlen and smiled. “And we have a curse to break. I made a promise.”
Nova looked at me and then at the creature at my feet. “Oh, the goblin curse. We can get that handled at once.”
I smiled as Keegan reached for my hand, and I turned around to see everyone…
Everyone but Gideon.
“Gideon.” His name slipped from my mouth as everyone realized he was missing.
Twobble scratched his head. “You don’t think he’d turn on us…”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
The Priestess threw back her head and laughed, but there was something fractured in the sound now. The shadows binding her tightened instantly, winding around her wrists and throat like living chains as Shadowick itself refused to let her move.
Still, her smile remained, cruel and patient.
“You think this is victory?” she hissed, hair whipping wildly around her face as the ground beneath Shadowick Academy groaned again. “You children never see the whole board.”
Another violent tremor rippled beneath our feet.
The ruined courtyard cracked down the center with a boom, and ancient stone split apart as black ivy surged from beneath the earth. Towers in the distance groaned awake one by one, windows illuminating with eerie light.
Shadowick Academy was waking up.
Dust rained from the Academy walls while ancient banners unfurled from towers that had been dead for centuries. Windows glowed. Hallways illuminated. Somewhere in the village, bells began tolling one after another.
The shadows jerked tighter around her, forcing a sharp gasp from her lips, but even pain couldn’t extinguish the triumph in her expression.
“Rendel will come for me.”
Silence crashed over us as I glanced at Keegan. His hazel eyes darkened.
“Don’t be so sure of that,” he told her.
“Does it bother you that your own father spent time in Shadowick?” she nearly purred just as the shadows clutched her tightly.
My birthmark burned so sharply I nearly doubled over.
She was doing it again. Planting the seeds of doubt and misery.
“My father isn’t perfect, but he will not come for you,” Keegan said, squaring his shoulders.
And I hoped that was true.
“This isn’t over. You don’t realize what you unleashed, foolish granddaughter.” Her eyes narrowed on me.
Another flash of pain ran through me as I gasped, and Keegan caught me before I hit the ground.
“Maeve,” he whispered, but I barely heard him.
“My marks.”
