The door stood exactly where I remembered it, carved from a darker wood that seemed to buzz faintly beneath my fingertips as I reached out.
“This is it?” Keegan asked.
I nodded. “This is the place.”
“It doesn’t look like much,” Twobble added.
“It’s not supposed to,” I said. “But it’s larger and more important than you can imagine.”
“If you say so,” Twobble snorted.
I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The space beyond it unfolded in a way that still stole the breath from my lungs.
The light, soft and golden, filtered through the high, open ceiling where vines and branches stretched upward, weavingtogether in a canopy that shimmered faintly as if touched by something more than sunlight.
The air was warmer in here.
I spotted winged foxes moving through the space in quiet arcs. Their fur caught the light as they glided between the branches, their delicate wings shimmering with every movement.
Oddly, they didn’t startle at our presence. They simply shifted, adjusting their paths as if they had always known we would be here.
“Whoa,” Twobble whispered. “I had no idea about this place.”
“Let’s keep it to ourselves,” I muttered to him.
Keegan didn’t say anything.
He just stood beside me, his gaze lifting as one of the foxes dipped lower, its tail brushing softly against the air before it curved back upward.
“They help maintain the light of the Academy,” I said quietly, repeating what my grandmother had told me. “They keep this place… balanced. They contribute to the Wards’ strength all around Stonewick.”
I stepped forward slowly, the stone still warm in my hand, though the pull had shifted again, quieter now, like it was listening instead of leading.
“They feel it,” Keegan said.
I nodded. “Everything here does.”
A smaller fox drifted closer, its wings fluttering softly as it hovered just in front of me, its bright eyes fixed on the stone in my palm.
It didn’t touch it or reach for it. It just… watched.
“They know,” Twobble said.
“Yes,” I replied. “I think they must.”
Because they did.
Whatever this stone was and whatever it was tied to, it didn’t belong out there.
It belonged somewhere like this.
Somewhere that was protected and watched over.
Keegan stepped closer, his voice low. “Is this why you came here?”
I shook my head slowly. “No. I wanted to make sure they were okay, and my Grandma told me these creatures only exist within these walls, but I’m certain I saw a few earlier.”
