Keegan looked annoyed. “Thanks for the tip.”
“The wetlands,” I whispered.
“Whatever you choose, first, you must embrace the element of surprise.”
Stella let out a slow breath. “The Priestess is narrowing the board.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Twobble said. “Another way is that she’s being extremely ornery.”
No one corrected him.
“She wants me there,” I said again, quieter this time, more to myself. “With the stone. With Gideon. With all of it lined up.”
Rendel watched me for a moment before answering. “You’re assuming she needs everything in one place at the same time.”
My stomach dropped.
“She doesn’t?” I asked.
Rendel shook his head as Keegan stepped forward again.
He eyed his father. “She just needs enough pieces in motion.”
“And she’s already started,” Nova added.
The village felt different now. The light hadn’t changed, the sounds of Stonewick still carried around us, but none of it felt as it had.
It felt like we were standing in the middle of something that had already begun.
I looked back at Rendel. “What made Gideon leave the village?”
“The stone,” he said simply. “And something else.”
“What else?” I asked.
He held my gaze. “You.”
That hit harder than I expected.
“That doesn’t make sense,” I said.
“It does if you stop thinking of the stone as the only thing pulling him,” Rendel replied.
Twobble made a face. “I don’t like that either.”
“Neither do I,” I muttered.
Keegan’s attention snapped to me. “What does that mean? What are you saying? He has a crush on Maeve?”
He didn't answer.
I shook my head slightly, trying to piece it together, because I could feel it. There was something there. Something just out of reach that kept brushing against my thoughts and then slipping away.
“He didn’t take the stone just to run,” I said slowly. I didn’t like what Rendel was implying. “He took it to move it.”
“Move it where?” Stella asked.
“That’s the problem,” I said. “I don’t think he picked the destination.”
