Page 139 of Magical Mischief

“I didn’t lie,” she said evenly.

“YouknewShadowick had some.”

She tilted her head. “I knew Shadowickhaddragons. Past tense. I don’t know that they still do.”

I blinked.

“You asked me if othersexist,” she continued. “In the present. And I answered honestly. I don’t know. I haven’t been beyond these walls in decades, Maeve. I don’t pretend to know what the world looks like now.”

I let out a long breath.

“I never wanted you chasing ghosts,” she said, softer this time. “The dragons chose to sleep, but they’re waking now. It’s for a reason. And maybe it’s time someone started asking why. But I wouldn’t drag you into that before you were ready.”

“And now?”

She looked at me, steady and kind. “Now I think the dragons are choosingyou.”

I didn’t answer right away. I didn’t know how.

Outside, the snow kept falling, burying the old paths. Covering everything. Making it new.

“You wrote that you knew what Gideon was after.”

She laughed and shook her head. “If I did, none of this would have ever happened. It was an obnoxious witch walking lines I shouldn’t have been.”

“So, you’re not keeping that from me?” I pressed.

My grandma’s gaze stayed on mine, and she shook her head. “I would tell you if I knew what Gideon wanted, but I don’t. Those journals were coming from a desperate place where confidence overshadowed factualness. It’s why I hid them in the basement.”

I nodded slowly. “Thank you for telling me now.”

“Absolutely, darling. Absolutely.” She smiled. “Now, I think it’s time to meet our new teacher.”

But the one thing I kept close was that the Academy only showed me what it wanted me to know.

Chapter Thirty-Six

We left my grandmother’s chambers in silence. I didn’t really know what else to say to my grandma. I just needed to let things settle and percolate. The snow hadn’t let up. Through the long hallway windows, I could see it blanketing the grounds, already piled high against the low stone walls and the edges of the courtyard archways. It was good that Ardetia arrived before this storm.

The Academy always went quiet when it snowed like this. The magic here liked stillness and asked you to pay attention when everything else was covered.

Elira walked beside me, her pace unhurried, her hands folded loosely behind her back. We didn’t speak, but the silence wasn’t heavy. Just… thoughtful. The kind that lived between people who didn’t need to fill the air with words, but I could tell she was thinking of something.

I didn’t know exactly where we were going until I felt a sudden itch behind my ribs, similar to a string being tugged from the inside. I stopped and looked down the hallway stretching off to the left.

“I’m going to head to Bella’s classroom.”

Elira didn’t question me. She just turned with me and followed.

We moved down the corridor, passing the old staircase with its carved banister and the faded mural of the lunar cycle.

The doorway to Bella’s classroom was just ahead, but something caught my eye, a flicker of movement where there shouldn’t have been any.

I stopped short.

There weretwo new doorsalong the wall opposite Bella’s classroom.

I blinked.