Page 25 of Heartflame

“Good,” Elder Thaddeus said, his gaze sharp even through the crystal ball. “Listen to me carefully, Aeron. Don’t speak about what you saw to anyone. Do you understand? Not the other students, not even the security team unless they specifically ask. This needs to stay contained.”

“Why?” Aeron asked, and I could hear the tension in his voice. “Do you know what’s going on? Why this keeps happening?”

“Not yet,” the Elder said, which somehow felt like a lie. “But panic spreads faster than any actual threat and we need people to trust the Elder Council right now, for them to have faith that everyone is safe. Can you keep quiet about this?”

“Yes,” Aeron said after a pause. “But my friend saw them too. He was⁠—”

“Then he stays quiet as well,” Elder Thaddeus cut him off firmly. “The fewer people who know details, the better. Make sure he understands that. No talking to his roommate, no gossiping with friends. Nothing.”

I felt my chest tighten. They were asking me to keep silent about what I’d seen. As much as I understood his reasoning, something about it just didn’t sit right with me. Why all the secrecy? Why was keeping Widdershins open so important?

“I’ll tell him,” Aeron said.

“Good. Stay in your room until further notice. I’ll be in touch.” The Elder’s face faded from the crystal ball, and the light dimmed back to nothing.

Aeron sat there for a long moment, staring at the now-dark crystal. Then he turned to look at me, and I quickly looked away, pretending I’d been staring at the wall the entire time.

“My grandfather says we need to stay in here,” he said, confirming what I’d just heard. “And he wants us to keep what we saw to ourselves. No telling anyone about those things trying to breach the wards.”

“Why would he say that?” I asked, trying to sound innocent despite knowing exactly why.

“Because panic helps no one,” Aeron said, walking back over to the bed. He sat down beside me, closer than before. “And because whoever those people were trying to get inside, they’re not a threat to students. The wards are too strong.”

I nodded slowly, my mind racing. Elder Thaddeus wanted this kept quiet. Professor Blackwood wanted me to spy on Aeron. And now I was sitting in Aeron’s dorm room, having just witnessed a ward breach, with explicit instructions not to tell anyone what I’d seen.

This was getting far too complicated.

And now, to top it all off, I was stuck in Aeron’s room until further notice.

Chapter 12

Aeron

Neither of us had really moved much since I’d reached out to my grandfather. Quill was at one end of the bed, and I was at the other. The sun had gone down and campus was eerily quiet. I hadn’t bothered to activate the enchanted lights. We sat in the dark in silence. Outside I heard raindrops begin to patter against the window, a calm autumn storm rolling in.

I could feel Quill’s tension radiating across the space between us. He was annoyed and at least a little scared, I could smell that much. But there was something else too, a feeling of distrust that hadn’t really been there before I’d called my grandfather. He’d heard everything. Of course he had. And now, for some reason, he was even more standoffish than usual.

“You okay?” I asked, breaking the silence at last.

“Fine,” he said, and the clipped nature of the word told me he was anything but.

I waited, giving him time to elaborate. When he didn’t, I tried again. “That was intense out there.”

“Yeah.” He shifted on the bed, and I heard the rustle of fabric. “Thank you. For... you know. Getting me out of there, I guess. I kinda froze up.”

The gratitude in his voice surprised me. Usually Quill fought me on everything, resisted my help with the kind of stubborn determination that was honestly admirable. But right now, in the dark of my room with the rain pattering against the window, he sounded almost vulnerable. That was new.

“I’d do it again,” I said, meaning every word. “In a heartbeat.”

He didn’t respond to that, but I heard his breathing shift slightly. I leaned back against the wall, trying to figure out what to say next. The darkness seemed to make things easier somehow, like we could talk without acknowledging the other was there.

“What did you see?” I asked carefully. “Before I got there?”

“Shapes,” Quill said slowly. “Humanoid I guess, but I couldn’t make out any details. They were pushing against the wards, and each time they did, the light got brighter. It was like... like they were trying to force their way through.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Did they seem organized? Like they knew what they were doing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?” He paused, and I could practically hear him thinking. “It happened so fast. One second I’m running, the next everything’s going insane.”