Chapter Ten
“I told you to come alone,” Gideon said.
“When have I ever listened?”
A smile touched his lips, and he shook his head as Skonk appeared from behind him. He glanced up at Gideon and scuttled over next to me.
“Why did you leave Stonewick?”
“Many reasons.” His blue eyes shifted to the familiar darkness I was so used to seeing.
“Start with any one of them.”
He rocked back on his heels and let out a deep breath as he looked over my shoulders.
“I knew I was on borrowed time in the village. The longer I stayed, the more danger you would have been in.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “We don't have much time.”
“I know.”
I nodded. “We sent off a few teams in different directions to divert the Priestess’ attention.”
“Clever, but basic.”
“You could have just given me the stone in the village and taken off.”
“You’re right. But there are prying ears everywhere, and seeing how easily the Priestess can infiltrate your town gave me pause.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Are you talking about the orcs?”
He handed me the stone, and warmth ran through my veins. I nearly dropped it as it heated in my palm, but Gideon didn't answer my question.
“Keep that safe. It's the only thing that separates the Priestess from immortality.” He cleared his throat. “Or at least her version of it.”
“My mom has been moved to the dungeons.”
He nodded solemnly. “You don't have much time. But you cannot continue to trust just anyone who shows up in your circle, Maeve.”
“Should that include you?” My brows lifted.
“If you're smart.”
“Why do you always act like this? You didn't need to help us any of the times you showed up. But you did. There's something pulling you to be part of Stonewick Village.”
“I can assure you there's absolutely nothing pulling me to Stonewick other than what is mine. But I wanted you to know your daughter is in danger, even more so now that you have the stone. I wanted to give you that message in peace and privately without haunts sneaking up behind me.”
My heart stopped, and my body instantly froze, despite the stone in my palm.
“What do you mean?” The words felt dry in my mouth.
“The Priestess doesn't like to gamble. She already doesn't have the stone, and her daughter doesn't want to help her.”
Anger rose through me. “Celeste wouldn't want to help her either. She’d be of no use.”
“You need to quit thinking as if everyone plays fairly, Maeve. Remember how paralyzed you felt when you knew Celeste had been tricked by her boyfriend?” He shook his head. “Darren was able to lead her right into the heart of Shadowick.”
“Stop it.”
“Imagine what the Priestess could do if she tried. She's getting desperate. Think about what you would be willing to do to get her back.”
“Anything.”
“Including handing over the stone to your grandmother.”
My mind was going a hundred miles an hour at the thought of Celeste being in danger. She didn't deserve any of this. She had her whole life in front of her, and the thought of something happening to her was crippling. We needed to protect her. I started backing away with Skonk next to me.
I'd already spent too much time here.
“Maeve, don’t do anything rash.” He shook his head. “But I'm not sure that you should be the one to go save her.”
I stopped, even though every part of me wanted to keep moving, to turn and run back through the marsh and drag Celeste out of whatever danger he was hinting at without another second wasted.
“And who should?” I asked, my voice quieter now, but it held.
Gideon watched me like he always did when he thought I was about to make a mistake.
“Someone who can think past what they’re feeling,” he said.
“That’s not an answer.” I shook my head, feeling my hands tremble.
“It’s the only one that matters right now.”
I let out a breath and shook my head, the weight of everything pressing in at once. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“I’m not deciding anything,” he replied. “I’m pointing out what you already know.”
I didn’t want to admit that he was right about any part of it, especially not now, not when the thought of Celeste being anywhere near the Priestess made my chest tighten until it hurt to breathe.
“You keep saying things like that,” I said, my grip tightening around the stone as the heat pulsed again. “Like you see something I don’t. Like you’re ten steps ahead, and the rest of us are just catching up.”
“That’s because I’ve been playing this game longer,” he said.
Skonk nudged my leg, a quiet reminder that I wasn’t standing here alone, even if it felt like it.
I took another step back, then stopped again, because something in his expression had shifted, just slightly, like there was more he wasn’t saying.
“What is it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer right away.
Instead, his gaze moved past me again, toward the darker edge of the marsh where the trees thickened, and the light faded.
“The timing is wrong,” he said finally.
“For what?” I pressed.
“For everything you’re trying to do,” he replied. “For what she’s trying to do. For what’s already been set in motion.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“It will,” he said. “Just not yet.”
I let out a small, frustrated sound. “You always do that. You say just enough to make everything worse, and then you stop.”
“But it keeps you listening,” he said. “And that keeps you alive.”
“It’s not like I have a choice.”
“You always have a choice, Maeve.”
“Not when my daughter is involved.”
“That is your heart talking.”
“I’m surprised you’d recognize that. You’ve always been heartless, but I won’t lose that part of me.”
His jaw tightened just a little, and for a second, I thought I saw something there that looked almost like regret, but it disappeared before I could be sure.
“That’s exactly why you need to think,” he said. “And not react.”
“I’m not reacting,” I said, even though I knew that wasn’t entirely true. “I’m trying to stay ahead of whatever she’s planning.”
“And you won’t, if you let her control what matters most to you,” he replied.
My stomach twisted at that, because that was exactly what this felt like.
She was about to push me in a direction I didn’t want to go, but couldn’t ignore.
I glanced down at the stone again, the heat steady now.
“You said something was yours,” I said, lifting my gaze back to him. “In Stonewick. You’ve said that many times.”
He didn’t respond right away. Instead, he just watched me, like he was measuring whether I was ready to hear whatever answer he might give, but there was something about his mannerisms that felt familiar or…I didn’t know… as if I’d just seen Gideon this morning already, but that didn’t make sense.
“What does that mean?” I pressed again.
“It means exactly what it sounds like,” he said.
“That doesn’t help.”
“It’s not supposed to.” His dark brows lifted.
“Then why say it at all?”
“Because you asked,” he replied.
I exhaled slowly, trying to keep my frustration from boiling over, because that wasn’t going to get me anywhere with him.
“When?” I asked instead. “When is the time right?”
His gaze shifted again. “Soon.”
But then a sound echoed through the marsh, low and distant.
It was different from anything we’d heard before.
Gideon’s head turned sharply, as his entire posture changed in an instant, like whatever that was had just confirmed something for him.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
My pulse jumped, and I held my breath for a second, listening.
March. March.
There it was again.
“Yes,” I said quietly.
His eyes snapped back to mine, as something urgent flickered there. “Then you need to—”
Suddenly, the shadows moved in.
They swirled like a tornado, and one moment he was standing there, solid, present, and the next, the darkness folded in around him as if it had always been waiting, pulling him back into it without a sound.
“Gideon—” I stepped forward, but there was nothing there to reach.
I only felt his lingering presence, and then that too slipped away.
The sound grew closer, and whatever it was, it wasn’t slowing down.
“Maeve!” Keegan’s voice cut through everything as he and the others broke through the trees behind me, their steps quick and urgent.
“What happened?” Nova asked, her eyes already scanning the marsh, her attention snapping toward the direction of the sound.
“He was here,” I said, turning back to them, my breath uneven. “He heard something and then he just—”
The ground shifted beneath us. It wasn’t enough to knock us off balance, but it was enough to feel it.
Enough that it mattered.
Stella’s gaze sharpened as she stepped closer. “That’s not normal movement.”
“No,” Nova agreed. “It’s not.”
Keegan reached for my hand. His grip was firm and steady. “We need to move.”
“I know,” I said, though my eyes kept drifting back to where Gideon had been, like he might reappear and give me one more piece before everything slipped too far out of reach.
But whatever was coming—
It was almost here.
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“Mage Magic,” Keegan said, pulling me toward him. “He can use it to slip out of certain situations.”
“Why not at my grandma’s compound?”
“I imagine she has it locked down from outside magic.” He squeezed my hand as another shudder ran through the ground. “But we don’t have time for chatting.”
Skonk and Twobble scrambled in front of us while Nova and Stella were right behind.
The ground shook. Cracks formed in the dry dirt where water once stood.
And I knew who was here. We ran to the opening we'd come from, and all I could think about was my dad and the others who had traversed the surface. Had they already been attacked?
Had the Priestess and the horde gotten to them? My pulse pounded as I thought about my dad, my daughter, and my mom.