He nodded once. “Maeve asked me to.”
Twobble sucked in a breath as if Keegan had announced he was leaving to marry a swamp toad. “You? Away from here? Away from Maeve? I don’t like this plan. I’d like to return it for store credit.”
“I don’t like it either,” Keegan said.
“That doesn’t improve the plan or change it.” Twobble pointed at him. “That only means we all have excellent instincts.”
Keegan nodded.
Bella folded her arms. “Celeste will be safest with Keegan.”
“I agree,” Nova said, though her gaze remained on me. “But Maeve will feel the distance.”
“I already do,” I admitted.
There it was.
The tiny truth with teeth.
Keegan looked down at me, and something moved across his face. Worry, maybe. Or love. Lately, around here, the two often wore the same coat.
Before anyone could respond, the front doors burst inward so hard that every floating orb in the foyer bobbed toward the ceiling.
Skonk came barreling in, one shoe untied, vest crooked, cheeks flushed a deep goblin green. He had a rolled parchment clutched in one hand and what looked suspiciously like half a cheese roll in the other.
“Bad news!” he shouted. “Possibly terrible news. Definitely not cheese-related, though I am emotionally supported by this roll.”
Twobble straightened. “Cousin, we are in the middle of a crisis.”
“Then you’ll love this.” Skonk skidded to a stop in front of us and bent over, panting. “I got word from my sources in the UnderLoom. The Priestess is growing impatient.”
The foyer seemed to tilt.
I heard the students behind us quiet, one by one, as if fear had tiptoed through the room and tapped each shoulder.
Stella’s voice went very soft. “How impatient?”
Skonk swallowed, and for once, he didn’t make a joke.
“She’s calling in old debts. Pulling favors from things that don’t like being woken. She’s not waiting for Maeve to come to her anymore.” His gaze darted to mine. “She’s reaching outward.”
My birthmark burned. I clutched my side, and Keegan’s hand closed around my arm.
“Maeve?”
“My mom,” I whispered.
Nova’s face tightened.
“And Celeste.” Saying her name nearly broke something open inside me. I could see her so clearly, my beautiful girl with her whole life ahead of her, unaware that magic had teeth and bloodlines had consequences. “She’ll go for both of them. One to hurt me. One to use me.”
Ardetia’s fingers curled around the edge of her sleeve. “Bloodlines matter to the Priestess.”
“They matter to the shadows too much,” Stella murmured.
Bella’s ears appeared sharp and alert. “Then we start planning now.”
The Academy gave a low thrum beneath our feet.
