Chapter Ten
I took another step forward as my pulse hammered so loudly between my ears that it nearly drowned out the low murmur of runic magic underneath me.
The center of town stilled, save for the flickering leftover holiday lights overhead and the distant, muffled wind.
Gideon’s presence weighed on the square. His complex and oppressive energy threatened my own.
He stood there, tall and sure, as a cloak of mist circled his dark boots.
The blue in his eyes turned silvery and gleamed with a smug certainty.
I swallowed hard and steadied my voice. “Where is he?”
Gideon clicked his tongue as his gaze swept my body, pulling me like a thread.
I took another step back.
“Such hostility. And here I was thinking you were offering yourself in trade.” His dark brows lifted.
“I am, but I’m not foolish enough to accept your trade without seeing my father.”
A shiver coursed through me.
Everyone around me stood on hair-trigger readiness, and Gideon seemed to have no clue. He only saw me, trembling and alone. The tension across my shoulders felt like a tangible weight. Every muscle coiled to spring at the slightest movement from him.
I tipped my chin up. “Show him to me.”
Gideon’s eyes glowed faintly in the swirling darkness. He lifted a hand, and the mist churned on one side, moving into a miniature vortex.
My breath caught, and Gideon smiled at my apprehension.
Without wanting to, I braced myself for the worst.
But then a shape emerged from the mist, stumbling forward with an unsteady gait.
My heart lurched as I took in the broad shoulders, the ragged clothing.
Dad.
He looked so real with disheveled hair, his eyes weary but still flickering with that same paternal warmth I remembered long ago, before he’d ever become a bulldog.
Tears pricked at my eyes. I never imagined the day I’d see him in human form again, especially not under these conditions.
My chest constricted with a swirl of hope and dread.
Did Gideon break the curse on my dad?
I studied Gideon briefly and saw the smirk resting behind his gaze when my dad gave a choking sound.
He glanced around as though confused, and then his gaze landed on me. He blinked, recognition flooding his features, and a small wink flickered across his face so fast I almost thought I imagined it.
But I felt the gesture. A shot of warmth in the middle of the icy square gave me courage.
A sob nearly rose in my throat. I had to keep it together. This might still be an illusion. Gideon’s deceptions could be heartbreakingly real.
“How do I know that’s really my dad?” I forced the words out.
Gideon turned his smug grin on me.
“Where’s your faith, Maeve? I cast the curse. Could I not simply break it? Do you think I’d conjure this illusion, for what?”
A quiet, bitter laugh escaped me. “Exactly my point. It’s what you do. You did it with my grandfather.”
Gideon laughed. “Do you notice a pattern? The Bellemores want to side with victory, with Shadowick?”
Dad took a shaky step forward, opening his mouth as though to speak, but Gideon lifted a hand, cutting him off.
My father froze, helplessness etched in the lines of his face.
Fear battled with rage in my chest, and I clenched my fists at my sides.
The runes beneath the snow glowed again, demanding I let the spells free.
This wasn’t part of the plan.
If my father wasn’t in his bulldog form, my plan was as good as nothing.
Everything hinged on my dad being a bulldog.
“If this is real, then let him say something. Let him—”
Gideon snapped his fingers.
A painful jolt of magic crackled around my dad’s form. I winced at the sight, powerless to stop it just yet.
My dad clenched his jaw. His eyes flicked to Gideon’s with the fury of someone trapped inside a cage, forced to remain silent.
“You see?” Gideon purred. “He’s alive, but he remains in my control. Will you bargain now, or must I snap my fingers again?”
I braced my shoulders.
“I’ll bargain,” I whispered. “Take me. Let him go. We already spoke of the deal we made. There’s no need for this.”
Tension fell over the square, broken only by the faint hum of magic weaving through the lampposts, hanging in the air with a spark.
And then Gideon smiled. “I knew you’d come around.”
He lifted his hand toward me, palm open, beckoning.
My father stiffened behind him with clenched fists. The gargoyles shifted overhead, their wings scraping against the old boutique hotel’s roof.
I knew Keegan watched from the second floor, heart no doubt pounding as hard as mine.
Moving forward until I was just out of Gideon’s reach, my eyes flicked to my dad.
That wink had to be real. Gideon’s magic typically wouldn’t give me such a comforting clue.
Could Dad be partly free of the curse?
But what benefit would that be to Gideon?
Or was it all an illusion of possibility?
Gideon arched a brow. “Well?”
My heart hammered. I closed my eyes briefly, recalling every line of the spell I’d prepared. The synergy of protection I’d placed into this circle for precisely a moment like this.
But he had to be in his bulldog form.
“Let my father go first. That was the deal.”
Gideon chuckled, low and predatory.
I needed to use this to our advantage, maybe see inside Gideon’s intentions. Find out who I was looking at, my dad or an illusion.
“Oh, sweet Maeve, that’s not how bargains work. You come to me, prove your loyalty, and then I release him.”
“Fine,” I ground out. “If I must.”
This was my chance.
He extended his hand again, and I gathered every shred of fear and weaponized it.
My face twisted in a show of resignation, and I took his hand. The moment our palms touched, a surge of cold burned up my arm, making me gasp.
His bond was real.
He’s tying me to him.
Panic shuffled through my veins as our worlds connected. This wasn’t part of the plan, but it was what I had to do.
I needed to know if my dad was truly in human form or not.
The runes under the snow glowed again, responding to the magic spike building between us.
My father let out a muffled noise.
Gideon yanked me closer, as if to claim me in front of my dad and Stonewick’s ancient circle.
A sense of violation and disgust churned in my stomach. I wasn’t property to be claimed. It reeked of what my ex did to me before I discovered his affairs.
The experience only angered me more as my attention refocused on Gideon, and I let his illusions flood my mind. He tried to weave his version of reality, but it was too pieced together.
A pressing darkness centered in my chest as the faint echo of my mother’s voice rang down the sidewalk, followed by an image of me returning to Stonewick as some puppet on Gideon’s strings.
There was no way my mom would set foot back in Stonewick. And me coming back under his wings? Laughable.
My soul rebelled.
This was my town, my domain.
The runes flared bright, nearly white-hot. He forced his visions again, and I felt my mind waver.
A hiss of blackness swirled at the edges of my vision.
He was strong.
The visions showed me my father in chains, my father in agony. My heart lurched, nearly shattering my concentration.
But I clung to the reality I’d built.
“Give up,” Gideon said, each syllable a lash of malice. “Your father’s suffering as we speak.”
Come on…that was it. Keep focusing on my dad.
Out of the corner of my eye, my dad lay on the snow, apparently unconscious. My stomach clenched.
And then I saw it…a glimmer of my dad before Gideon had changed him. He laughed at my dad when he swirled the spell and cast him into a human shell of himself. No curse was broken, and that was all I needed.
My mind worked overtime blocking Gideon’s thoughts from mine, and we were locked in a stalemate. Neither Gideon nor I was ready to yield.
I took a breath and opened my eyes to see Gideon studying me. “Change him back and you can have me.”
Gideon’s brows lifted in surprise. “You want me to change your father back to a…dog.”
“That was our deal. Trade me my father as he was, not as you made him.”
Gideon’s gaze narrowed on me as my heart hammered in my chest.
“As you wish,” Gideon said, smiling wryly.
My father’s form shimmered suddenly, and in the middle of the snow-dusted square, I watched him revert to the stout bulldog I’d grown to love.
It happened in a flash of light. One breath he was shackled in his human shape, and the next he was sprawled on the cobblestones with those familiar jowls and short legs.
My heart squeezed to see him that way again, but the relief was fleeting.
Gideon was still here, still looming, his cold eyes locked on both of us.
This was my chance. I focused on the beginning of my spell, letting it blossom out from the circle. Shimmering waves of midnight-blue magic spun from my chest to the ground.
Gideon’s eyes flicked downward in alarm as the streets rumbled.
“What are you—” he stopped short as I twisted free of his grip.
A circle of shimmering light shot up around us, cutting Gideon off from the rest of the square and from me.
My dad lurched back, stumbling from the circle. My spell parted for him, allowing my dad an escape route.
Gideon snarled as the silver in his eyes overtook the blue.
“You think you can twist illusions against me?”
“I learned from the best,” I spat back, forcing more power from the Wards.
The circle glowed around my ankles, arcs of golden light sprayed in the air.
“Impressive,” he conceded, voice taut with grudging respect. “But spells can be undone.” He flicked a hand, sending a black wave of shadow that slammed into my conjured barrier.
Sparks flew.
I clenched my jaw, pushing more of my magic into the weave.
My arms felt like they were on fire, every nerve alight with adrenaline.
Outside the circle, I glimpsed movement. Shadows of Stella, Nova, Bella, and maybe Twobble skittering between corners, preparing to intervene or strike if needed.
The gargoyles overhead shifted. Their stone claws scraped the edge as they readied to swoop if called. I steadied my focus, refusing to let Gideon slip away or tear open a path.
“You can’t free yourself alone.” He laughed. “And I certainly won’t leave empty-handed.”
“I’m not alone.”
I let the light shift just enough to reveal the silhouettes of my allies around us.
For a flash, I saw Stella’s face contorted with dark glee, eager to wipe the memories of any meddlesome onlookers.
Nova’s calm determination flickered from an alley corner.
Bella, sly and silent, prowled behind Gideon’s silhouette. Keegan stared down from the second floor. The gargoyles poised overhead, but Twobble remained a surprise.
Gideon’s lips curled into a vicious grin. “You think your ragtag magic can best me?”
I forced a laugh, feigning more confidence than I felt.
“You won’t be the first villain we’ve kicked out of Stonewick, Gideon. And you won’t be the last.”
He raised a hand to hurl another wave of darkness, but I preempted him, pouring my power into a sudden surge from the runes.
Golden sparks crackled up and wove into a net of light that coiled around Gideon’s ankles, pinning him in place. He tried to shake them off, but each movement only tightened the trap.
“Clever,” he hissed, eyes wild with fury. “But illusions are illusions. You can’t keep me forever.”
“I don’t need forever. Just long enough.”
Sweat beaded on my brow. My arms trembled from the effort of maintaining the spell.
The circle flared bright, pulses of synergy linking me to something I didn’t understand.
Gideon’s shadow-laced spell retaliated, slamming into the barrier with the force of a storm.
I gasped as black flames licked at the edges of my conjured net.
The ground rattled.
Overhead, the lampposts flickered ominously, one of them sparking out. The entire square felt like it was caught in a magical crossfire, mirages clashing in a silent war of whirling lights.
Gideon glanced at my dad with a wicked smile.
“Dad,” I whispered, voice tight with urgency. He gave a questioning huff, blinking those big brown eyes in confusion.
Gideon’s mocking laugh rolled across the center of town, echoing off the frosty shop windows.
“He’s quite helpless, Maeve. Let’s finish this little bargain, shall we? Hand yourself over, and I’ll consider keeping him alive.”
My grip tightened on my wand, and sizzling energy stirred at the base of my spine.
Now or never.
“You think he’s helpless,” I spat, forcing conviction to mask my trembling. “But you have no idea what I’ve learned.”
With a final surge of magic crackling along my fingertips, I reached out toward Dad and pointed my wand at his short snout.
The incantation spilled from my lips in a rush of half-remembered syllables and runic instructions that I’d pored over for hours.
A spiral of golden light coiled around my father’s bulldog form, lifting him slightly off the ground as the magic expanded, swelling, straining.
The visions of my spell flooded my mind as I uttered the last stanza.
By arcane flame and giant’s grace,
Let this being tower fierce with haste;
Above man’s station swiftly rise,
And claim the height that greets all eyes.
My dad barked once— startled.
The collar around his thick neck snapped with a metallic clang.
And he grew.
Faster and bigger than I’d dared dream. My dad’s fur rippled under the shimmering aura. My father’s already-stout form ballooned with limbs stretching like rising bread, towering above Gideon.
I heard a gasp from somewhere off to the side, Nova or maybe Stella, and saw the stunned look on Gideon’s face.
Dad was as tall as Keegan’s hotel now. His massive bulldog head looked like an enormous statue framed against the moonlit sky.
My heart thundered in my chest.
I did it.
I’d managed to cast the size-amplifying spell.
It was a risk, a last-ditch idea to break Gideon’s grip.
Gideon’s composure cracked for an instant.
“What—” he hissed.
His eyes flicked from me to the colossal bulldog overhead.
A sharp, humorless laugh escaped my lips.
“You said he was helpless. Care to test that theory?”
My father released a thunderous woof that rattled the lampposts and buildings as the glass rippled.
Gideon stepped back.
“Dad, run,” I shouted, echoing the sudden hush. “Go!”
Gideon's eyes snapped to mine as he grappled with his shock.
I took a tentative step forward, feigning surrender.
“Isn’t this what you wanted, Gideon?” I asked, letting my voice quiver. “Me?”
A flicker of malice lit his now silver eyes.
“Yes,” he breathed, extending his arm.
My stomach lurched, but I didn’t break character.
I let him entwine his fingers with mine, his grip as cold as midnight.
Behind him, Dad’s gigantic form thundered away, each step sending tremors through the ground.
The deal was far from over. But for now, I had Gideon’s hands locked with mine—exactly where I needed them to be.