Miss McCleethy sighs. “We may shape the course of that struggle. But first we must secure our power inside the realms.”
“There will never be security here! Everywhere I turn, something new crawls up from the very rocks, grappling for this power! No one can remember where the magic came from or why; they only want to possess it! I am sick of it—sick to my very bones, do you hear?”
“Yes,” she says solemnly. “And yet, it is so very hard to let it go, isn’t it?”
She is right. Even now, knowing what I do, seeing what I have seen, I want it still.
Miss McCleethy grips my arm; her face is hard. “Gemma, you must safeguard the magic at all costs. That is our only concern. Many have fought and died to protect it over the years.”
I shake my head. “Where does it end?”
The men return from their l
