I gave a small nod, forcing a smile I hoped looked real enough to pass. “Keep working on your focus spells.”
She brightened immediately. “Sure thing.”
Stella slowed slightly beside me, her gaze sweeping over the students with a practiced ease. “I’ll check in here and make sure nothing has slipped through,” she said. “If the Priestess has found a way to breach anything, I want to know before it becomes a problem.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
She reached out, briefly squeezing my arm, her expression softer for just a second before she turned and moved deeper into the Ward, her presence already shifting the space around her as a few of the students gathered closer.
“Stella’s got them,” Twobble muttered.
“I know,” I said.
We continued on, leaving the warmth of the Ward behind as we made our way toward the Academy, its structure rising ahead of us, steady and unchanged on the outside.
But I knew better.
The Academy felt on alert.
“You feel that?” Keegan asked quietly.
“I do.”
Twobble glanced around, with his usual confidence dimmed just slightly. “It’s awake.”
“It’s always awake,” I said.
“Not like this.”
We moved through the halls, past students who hurried by with books clutched in their arms, their conversations light, unaware of the weight pressing in just beneath everything.
I didn’t stop or even slow down, because there was only one place I needed to go.
“Something has been bothering me since the wetland,” I told him. “I recognized some creatures.”
Keegan kept pace beside me, his attention only shifting between me and the path ahead.
“Creatures?”
I nodded. “Yes, that I thought were only here on our grounds, hidden away.”
“You’re sure about this?” he whispered.
I nodded. “My grandmother showed it to me once. She said it was one of the most important places in the Academy.”
“And you didn’t think to mention it before now?” Twobble asked.
“I didn’t think I’d need it,” I replied. “It’s to be left alone. They’ve created their own habitat.”
We turned down a quieter corridor, one that curved away from the main halls, the sounds of the Academy fading behind us as the light softened, growing warmer, more golden.
My steps slowed slightly as the memory surfaced.
The way my grandmother had walked ahead of me and paused at the door.
The way she had told me that not everything in the Academy was meant to be seen by everyone.
We reached it.
