Chapter Twelve
Twobble stared at me incredulously.
“Wait a doggone minute.” He shook his head. “No pun intended.”
I tried not to laugh at the goblin’s befuddled expression, but it was hard to keep a straight face. Because, honestly, he had a point.
My dad sat next to the cottage in his giant-sized self from the spell I’d used to break Gideon’s hold on him.
He was now a bulldog so large that his panting stirred the wind like a restless storm.
My dad rested his massive jowls on the roof, tongue lolling in contentment. I worried about the structural integrity of the entire place, but couldn’t get over what I’d just managed to pull off.
“So, you figured out how to make Frank the size of the Jolly the Green Giant ,” Twobble said, looking like he couldn’t decide if he should laugh or cry, “but how to get him back down to size never occurred to you?”
I glanced at Nova and Keegan, both standing with arms folded near the porch. The shadows of the night sky bounced off the hidden smiles of their expressions.
Stella snickered behind me, not even bothering to hide her amusement.
Bella, meanwhile, hovered off to one side, half-transformed into her fox state with her ears and tail flickering between shapes like she couldn’t decide which form best conveyed her disbelief.
I squared my shoulders and cleared my throat.
“No. I can’t say it did occur to me. I just got so excited when I found that spell in the book Bella brought over that I jumped on the chance to confuse Gideon and free my dad.”
“Oh, keep me out of this.” Bella shifted back into her human form. “I learned long ago never to get between a goblin and a human argument.”
Twobble frowned. “We’re not arguing. I’m pointing out the obvious.”
“Fine. It does seem like a fairly obvious step now that I shouldn’t have skipped over.”
“Well, I, for one, think it was a brilliant move, Maeve,” Stella announced, crossing her arms triumphantly. She winked at me. “Absolutely brilliant.”
She tilted her head back and peered up at the starry sky, where my father’s enormous bulldog muzzle hovered. One giant, inquisitive eye blinked at Stella with dopey curiosity. She flicked a tiny wave as if waving to someone on a second-story balcony.”
“Truly brilliant,” she repeated, whispering.
“At least we have him back,” I said.
I shook my head and approached Dad, who sniffed the ground with an earthquake-like rumble.
Each exhaled breath ruffled my coat and sent snow fluttering.
I scratched his large paw, and he let out a low, thunderous snort, which made the cottage quake.
Miora opened the front door and gasped before quickly shutting it.
Keegan laughed and walked over to my dad and scratched his leg.
“Maeve, I don’t suppose you’ve been teasing and have the reversal spell handy?” he asked quietly, trying to keep a straight face but failing as the corner of his lips twitched upward.
“Keegan, I appreciate your undying loyalty, but as I’ve mentioned, I’m not the incredible witch everyone hoped for.” I laughed and shrugged. “I actually don’t have a reversal spell. In fact, I didn’t even know its name until you said it just now. But a reversal spell does make logical sense for a name.”
Twobble paced near my dad. “We can’t have a dog the size of a clock tower forever. Think of the property damage alone.”
Karvey peered with one eye over the roofline and looked as if he was trying not to laugh at me.
“To be fair, I didn’t expect my dad to be bigger than the hotel. I might have overdone the incantation just a little, but the magic running through me felt so charged, and I guess, I’m still learning how to be restrained.”
Twobble, hearing that, let out a dramatic groan. “Overdone it? Miss, you launched him into the realm of giants. Overdone is an understatement. You do realize that giants are a species unto themselves, right?”
“Well, they don’t usually have four legs and a wrinkly face, though.” Nova eyed Twobble. “It’s best we get Frank down to size.”
My dad snuffled in response and inadvertently blew a gust of dog-breath that made Nova’s hair whip around her face. She wrinkled her nose but smiled gently up at him.
“Dad,” I murmured. “We’ll figure this out. I promise.” I patted his paw—well, the part of his paw that was close enough to me.
He responded with an affectionate rumble that rattled the porch steps.
I turned to the others. “Let’s go inside.”
Keegan let out a short laugh. “I did not see this coming.”
Bella led the way into the cottage, and it was hard not to notice a faint tremor run through the walls every time my dad shifted his weight or let out a breath.
The moment we were safely inside and out of earshot, Twobble cleared his throat.
“So, first things first. Do we plan to shrink the dog, or will he remain Stonewick’s new tourist attraction?”
Bella crossed her arms and glanced at me. “I can create a spell to hide him temporarily if we really need to. But that’s a short-term solution.”
Nova pressed a hand to her chin, tapping lightly.
“The book sprites might know of a second spell. Usually, if you find a size-increasing incantation in one volume, there’s a size-reversal in another. They like to keep them separated so no one is too powerful at once.”
“Heaven forbid I learn too much at one sitting, but that sounds like our best plan.” I brightened at that suggestion.
Keegan leaned against the mantel and ran a hand through his hair.
“So the short answer is that we have no clue how long Frank will be jumbo-sized.”
“Correct.” I nodded with confidence. “But at least he’s back with us.”
Keegan smiled, and his eyes connected with mine. “And we can’t ask for a much better outcome than that.”
A little flutter of something passed between us, or I was just so exhausted from everything that went down that it was just wishful thinking.
But I allowed myself to breathe for the first time since we’d left the circle.
My dad was here.
Safe.
Even if he resembled an amusement-park attraction, we had time to find a remedy and plan the next move.
Hopefully, Gideon would be reeling from the shock back in Shadowick.
“So,” Twobble said, rubbing his green chin with an air of importance, “we do step one, which is to find the shrinky-dink spell. Step two will be to get Frank back to normal. Step three will be to break the curse and open the Academy.” His brows knitted together.
“What?”
“Well, is it just me or does it feel like we’re going in circles?”
I chuckled. “We’ve had a few setbacks. These things happen in every great adventure.”
“Well said, Maeve.” Stella nodded in agreement. “Having Maeve in town has piqued Gideon’s interest, and that has brought unintended consequences, but it tells us something good is going to happen.”
“No pressure,” I said, laughing.
“Well, while you two pat yourselves on the back, you ought to be worried about what to feed Frank, the old boy, out front. It’s all fun and games while he’s not hungry, but you just wait. He’s going to have an appetite akin to a thousand goblins. Mark my words.”
“As long as he doesn’t eat any goblins, we should be fine,” Bella teased.
Twobble whipped around on his heel and scowled at her. “Who let you in here?”
A faint quake ran through the cottage again, presumably from my dad getting comfortable outside.
I pictured him trying to scratch his ear and accidentally leveling one of our sheds. A hysterical bubble of laughter threatened to burst from my lips. “We should, uh, maybe create a fence so he doesn’t wander off?”
Bella nodded. “I’ll handle that. I’ll create an invisible pen that keeps him from going too far.” She gave me a playful smirk. “He’s an adorable big fella.”
I caught Keegan trading a look with Bella that I couldn’t recognize, and a little bit of envy blossomed out of nowhere.
“Adorable might be the wrong word,” Keegan pointed out dryly. “But let’s do it. We can’t have him stomping through downtown. I’ll give you a hand.”
Nova turned a curious gaze on me as I pretended to fuss with some book on the shelf.
“In the meantime, we can’t let our guard down,” Nova told me.
My smile faded. The realization that Gideon was still out there, licking his wounds from the magic we’d unleashed, sank my mood.
“We keep watch, but we don’t let him control our lives,” I said resolutely. “He’s gotten away with that for far too long.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Maeve.” Twobble nodded. “Now, I’ll go rummage for snacks because Frank isn’t the only one we should worry about. I can’t function on an empty stomach.”
“Of course, Twobble’s top priority is snacks,” Bella teased, shifting briefly into her fox form so she could leap onto a chair. She curled up, tail flicking, then popped back into human shape again. “Why does that not surprise me?”
Twobble turned to look at her again. “And who did you say invited you?”
“Hey, now,” Keegan warned.
“Feisty,” I whispered to Twobble, and he shook his head and wandered into the kitchen.
I let this moment wash over me and savored the normalcy of friends bickering over trivial things.
This was the best part of Stonewick that centered me here more than anything. That feeling of coziness amid chaos and friends in the midst of turmoil.
Keegan and Bella headed outside, and I let everything wash over me in this quiet moment.
My dad, though giant, was here. We had solutions to hunt down, but nothing was impossible.
I hurried to peek out the window and stifled laughter as he tried to nudge his nose in front of the door without flattening half the cottage.
“Dad!” I called softly. “Back off, you’re going to squish the front porch.”
He heaved a gargantuan sigh to apologize and stepped back a few paces.
The entire ground gave a trembling bounce as his paws settled. Through a small gap in the shutters, I caught the reflection of his enormous eye, blinking at me sadly.
My heart clenched with compassion.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, pressing my palm to the glass. “We’ll fix this. You’ll be back inside with the rest of us where you belong.”
Footsteps sounded behind me. “We managed to secure an invisible fence of sorts.”
Bella tripped and Keegan caught her. “Sorry. That’s not like me.”
I frowned. No, it wasn’t. She was as graceful as…well, a fox.
“It’s probably time to feed my dad,” I said, glancing at Keegan.
Bella perked up at that. “I can do a spell for ground turkey and brown rice.”
“Perfect. Thanks.”
“Works in a pinch.”
Nova returned from rummaging in a closet, holding a worn notebook, and I sat on the couch. Exhaustion churned through me, but I didn’t want to fall asleep just yet. So much from Gideon’s past swirled through my head. It felt like I was so close to connecting the puzzle pieces.
Keegan and Stella patrolled the perimeter, ensuring no meddlesome mels wandered by, though the occasional rattle shook the cottage when Dad moved or tried to scratch his hind leg. Twobble dozed off in a corner, arms folded, muttering in his sleep in some language I didn’t recognize.
“You need rest, Maeve,” Nova said softly.
I smiled wearily, letting my head droop momentarily when Keegan and Stella returned.
“Yeah, I guess. But I can’t shake the feeling Gideon’s about to spring another trap. He rarely backs down quietly.”
“No,” Keegan said softly, sitting beside me, “he doesn’t. But you’ve done enough for one night. Let him stew in his failure.”
His presence comforted me, as did the quiet devotion of Stella, Nova, and Bella drifting in the corners of the room. Even Twobble, snoring softly, was part of this weird little family.
In the hush of night, I believed for a moment that Stonewick could remain this cozy and signal a place of found family, laughter, and magic that only served to protect, not harm.
A deep rumble shook the cottage again, and I jolted upright before realizing it was my dad shifting in his sleep.
The windows rattled with his snores, and I heard Stella giggle.
Eventually, my eyes fluttered shut as I slumped further into the cushions. I felt a blanket drape over me, courtesy of Stella or maybe Keegan. The flickering firelight danced behind my eyelids, and I embraced the coziness whirling around me.
We’d find a remedy tomorrow, and the next day, we’d worry about Gideon. But tonight? Tonight, I cherished the silly, magical chaos that made this place, and us, so wildly alive and free.