Chapter Thirty #2
“I’m your granddaughter, remember? You wanted to get to know me,” I pointed out, turning her words around from our negotiation. “I’d like to get to know you.”
Her lips curved. “And already you test boundaries with me. Do you think that’s wise?”
I laughed and shook my head, feeling my confidence grow. “I’ve never in my life claimed to be wise.”
Something in her gaze sharpened at that, but this time, it didn’t feel like interest in me.
It felt like something older. She turned away from the Legner’s cell and walked slowly down the corridor, and I followed.
I didn’t want to turn my back on the prisoners, but I couldn’t let her get too far ahead.
Legner’s gaze found mine one last time as I passed his cell. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.
I saw the message plainly.
Remember us.
And I would.
The Priestess stopped in the center of the corridor before the steps, where the floor dipped into a circular drain carved with the same rootlike symbols I’d seen upstairs, the triangle with a shadow. The mark glowed faintly beneath the stone, almost hidden until the light caught it.
She looked down at it as if it were something sacred.
“To answer your question, I want what should have always been.” She ran her fingers along the stone walls and started forward.
I hadn’t expected her to answer. “And what is that?”
The Priestess stopped again, lifted her gaze to mine, and for a moment, the cruel amusement faded. What remained was far more unsettling.
Belief.
She clasped her hands together and gave an overly dramatic sigh. “Shadowick and Stonewick reunited.”
The words hung in the air, and for a heartbeat, I almost didn’t understand them. She wanted these two villages to get along? Repair the damage? Could it be that simple?
But our eyes met, and that was when I realized I had it all wrong.
My throat became dry, and I cleared my throat. “You want to merge them?”
“I want to correct what fear and arrogance split apart.” Darkness filled her gaze. “Stonewick always thought it was better than us, always knew better than us.” She shook her head, studying me. “But Stonewick is no better than Shadowick.”
“You feed off darkness,” I said quietly. “And fear, anger, and…”
Her hand flew up in the air, and it looked as if she wanted to use her magic on me. “And what precisely do you think Stonewick grows from?” Her head tilted. “How do you think your Wards get energy?”
“Not by frightening or controlling people,” I told her as I thought of Stella’s tea shop, the Academy halls, Twobble stealing pastries, Keegan’s inn, the Butterfly Ward humming under sunlight, and Celeste laughing in a place that felt safe enough to breathe.
“You’re so na?ve,” she said, laughing.
“I want to return Shadowick to its whole self.” Her voice grew softer, and somehow that made it worse.
“Stonewick shines because Shadowick bears what it cast away. Every pleasant tea shop, every glowing Ward, every cozy little cottage exists because this place was forced to become the cellar where all unpleasantness was stored.” She shrugged. “I’ve simply used it to our advantage.”
“You’re wrong.” I shook my head. “You’ve used it to your advantage, not the people’s.”
“Am I?” She stepped closer, the shadows in the corners stretching with her. “Ask yourself why the Academy closed. Ask yourself why your grandmother remained trapped in its walls. The Academy didn’t take from her?” She laughed callously.
“It’s not the same.” I squared my shoulders.
“Is it not? Have you ever questioned why Gideon’s curse held so long? Did you ever wonder why the Wards sometimes faltered?”
The mark along my body pulsed again as I listened, learned.
“You’re twisting pieces of truth,” I said. “And that doesn’t make for accuracy.”
The Priestess smiled faintly. “You are sharper than your mother.”
“Stop comparing me to her.” I felt the pebbles in my pocket vibrate, and I dropped my gaze.
“Why? Does it bother you?” She eyed me suspiciously. “Do you resent her?”
“No.”
Her eyes found mine. “You do resent her… for keeping the magic from you.”
She struck a nerve.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Possibly.”
“Good. Feeling bothered means there is something alive underneath all that Stonewick politeness. I was beginning to worry your facade would never crack.”
A bitter laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “You think it’s a facade that I’m polite? It’s not that I’m polite. I’m merely kind.”
“I think you’ve been trained well.” Her gaze moved over me, assessing.
“You’ve learned how to soften yourself, to apologize for your instincts, to wrap power in kindness so no one grows uncomfortable.
And I think we have your ex to thank for that.
But Shadowick would never ask that of you.
We understand what strength means, and it isn’t hiding our true selves. ”
“Stonewick has never asked me to hide my true self, and I would never want to align with a place that imprisons someone over baked goods.”
Legner made a small sound from his cell. Maybe a laugh. Maybe something sadder.
The Priestess did not look at him.
“He challenged order during a fragile time.”
“He gave bread away with a message of hope.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she seethed. “He’s a traitor.”
A dangerous warmth stirred in my chest, and the shadow and butterfly mark flared as if they objected to that realization. I forced myself not to reach for them, not to press my palm to the aches in my shoulder or hip.
“You’re afraid of hope.” I smiled. “Because hope gives power to those who seek it.”
Her expression hardened. “Hope without structure becomes rebellion.”
“Maybe rebellion is what happens when structure becomes a cage.” My smile matched hers.
The blue flames along the walls flared sharply, and she shook her head as her attention fixed on me. It felt almost physical and heavy but fragile all at once.
The Priestess tilted her head. “Do you believe you can inspire them with words?”
“No.” I glanced at Legner, then the little woman in the far cell. “I think they were inspired long before I got here. But hopefully my actions will speak louder than any of it.”
For a moment, the space felt too small for the silence that followed.
Until the Priestess laughed. “You truly are the one I hoped for. It has taken generations. I’ve held on for this long knowing I needed to find the one.”
That made my skin crawl.
“I’m not joining you.”
“You don’t know what joining me means.”
“It seems to involve a lot of imprisonment.” A shiver ran through me as she studied me, but I prayed she didn’t see it.
“It involves understanding that power must be held by those willing to use it.”
“And who decides that? You?”
“Yes.” She smiled. “And apparently, you.”
There was no hesitation or shame in her presentation, and the honesty of her accusation stunned me more than another lie would have.
“When Shadowick and Stonewick merge, the Academy’s magic will finally stop pretending it can exist without us.
The Wards will no longer strain to keep apart what was born connected.
The old magic will return to one current, and those who tried to keep it divided will learn that comfort was never the same as peace.
” She glanced at the rune beneath us. “I’ve tried so many ways, and it’s been exhausting.
Malore, Gideon, Rendel…all traitors in the end.
” She let out an exaggerated breath. “And the truth was in you all this time.”
“And what happens to the people who don’t want to merge?” I asked, stepping closer to the stairs.
A smile touched her lips. “They will adjust.”
“And if they don’t?”
Her gaze settled on the entrance to the dungeon.
My stomach sank because that was the answer.
“You’re no more than an aging tyrant with few avenues left,” I said, knowing the Academy would never let her have the stone. Without the stone, her longevity would end, or I at least hoped that was how it would work.
For a second, I thought she might strike me with magic.
Instead, she smiled. “Tomorrow, you’ll see Shadowick.”
“I’ve seen enough.”
“No.” She began walking toward the stairs. “You’ve seen the bones of my home. Tomorrow, you’ll see the heart.”
I looked back at the dungeon as she moved up the stairs.
The Priestess paused on a step and turned to look down at me.
“Come along, Maeve. You wanted truth.”
My shadow mark pulsed again, steadier now, and I followed her because I realized that Shadowick was never meant to be conquered. It was meant to be released.