Twobble leaned toward Skonk. “That’s the same tone she uses before someone gets snacks taken away.”
“I hate that tone,” Skonk whispered back.
I glanced at them and frowned. “It is not.”
Lady Limora moved through the crowd with smooth elegance, the other vampire witches parting around her, before her gaze stayed focused on me.
“You reopened these doors,” she said softly. “You brought magic back into the lives of women who thought their stories were already over.”
I swallowed and pushed down the overwhelming amount of emotions because I was one of them.
Letting out a sigh, I shook my head. “That doesn’t mean you owe me your safety.”
“Oh, darling.” Stella stepped beside me, adjusting her shawl. “That’s precisely why they’re willing to give it.”
The Academy thrummed beneath my feet again, and it felt like agreement settling into its old bones and architecture.
A witch near the back clutched her wand tighter. “The Academy has taught us protection spells.”
Another nodded quickly. “And defensive charms.”
A small goblin pushed through the crowd. “And grounding rituals.”
“And most of all, confidence,” Opal said softly.
It hit hard.
Because I remembered what many of them looked like when they first arrived. They looked like I had felt the first time I’d stepped into magic…the first time I stared up at the Flame Ward, not understanding its power, or when the library doors opened for me.
I felt small, not physically but spiritually. I remember these same women apologizing for taking up space. Women afraid of their own magic. Women who had spent decades pouring themselves into everyone else until there was barely anything left in the cup.
Their cup.
Now they stood shoulder to shoulder in the Academy hallway as if they belonged there.
Because they did.
Bella folded her arms with fox-bright eyes sweeping over the crowd. “The Priestess is expecting fear, and she will use it to her advantage. Shadows and darkness use fear as fuel and will propel it into unimaginable weapons.”
“Ah, then the Priestess is going to be disappointed,” Lady Limora purred. “We’re not fearful of her games.”
A ripple of nervous laughter spread through the corridor, but underneath it, tension still curled tight as wire.
Because everyone here understood something bigger was coming.
Caleb appeared at the far end of the hall with three shifters behind him.
The crowd moved instinctively to make room, but his expression alone drained the lingering warmth from the moment. It was just something about him, and shifters in general, as he walked straight toward us.
“We’ve got movement near the eastern boundary,” he said. “Scouts possibly, but it’s hard to tell yet.”
Nova’s pacing stopped immediately. “Shadow creatures, I assume?”
He nodded. “They seem to be lurking more than advancing.”
The floor gave another faint tremor beneath us.
Ardetia’s pale gaze lifted toward the ceiling. “The Academy feels them.”
