Chapter Thirty-Six
The pressure inside the hedge shifted.
I felt it before I saw it.
The vines were still shaking under the weight of the shadows pushing through them, but something had changed.
The magic that had felt tangled a moment ago, pulled in two directions, was settling into something steadier.
The roots beneath the clearing felt like they were waking up, stretching deeper into the soil.
The hedge knew where it belonged.
And suddenly… so did I.
Another shadow darted through the branches toward Keegan.
I lifted my hand without thinking, and my shadow-wrapped vines snapped around her weapons, her shadows. The moment my Hedge magic touched them, they shattered.
For a second, the clearing went quiet in that strange way battles sometimes do—when both sides realize something has shifted.
Then everything erupted again.
The townsfolk pushed forward.
Orcs roared as they swung their weapons, smashing through the shadows that still swarmed the clearing. Witches flung spells that cracked like lightning through the trees. Bella darted through the chaos, a silver blur that kept intercepting anything headed toward the wounded.
But my Hedge magic had changed.
It wasn’t reacting anymore.
It was listening and blending.
My shadowed vines surged upward along the edge of the clearing, thickening into a wall of twisting branches and thorns that snapped at anything dark that came too close.
The shadows began to struggle.
They still moved through the air like smoke caught in a storm, but the paths they’d been slipping through moments ago were closing.
One by one.
And I could feel it.
Every root.
Every branch.
Every stubborn thread of magic that ran through the earth beneath Stonewick.
“Maeve!” Twobble shouted from somewhere behind me. “I think you’re winning!”
“Don’t say that yet!” Skonk yelled.
Another shadow dove toward the center of the clearing, and Keegan intercepted it before it got halfway there.
The massive dark wolf tore straight through the thing and skidded across the leaves as it dissolved around him.
His fur was streaked with dirt now, his chest heaving with effort, but he didn’t slow down.
It was amazing to watch Keegan in action, not held back by a curse or a looming threat that wasn’t his choice.
He launched himself into the next one, and the crowd behind him surged forward with renewed energy.
The Priestess watched it all from the edge of the clearing.
The mist around her stirred slowly, curling around the dark folds of her robes.
For the first time since she’d appeared, her expression had changed.
Not fear.
But surprise.
She hadn’t expected this.
The shadows circled her more tightly now, drifting closer to the protective cloud of mist around her shoulders.
I saw something move in the trees behind her again.
And I thought it was another shadow, but the shape was wrong.
What was behind her was solid and tall.
A man stepped out of the darkness.
The movement was quiet enough that most of the clearing didn’t notice right away. He simply walked forward through the drifting mist as if the battle raging around us wasn’t worth hurrying for.
The Priestess turned.
And froze.
The shock on her face was real this time.
“Impossible,” she breathed.
The man didn’t answer, and he stepped past her, straight into the clearing.
My breath caught in my throat.
Gideon.
Even from across the clearing, I knew it was him.
Dark hair.
Dark eyes.
That calm, dangerous presence that made the air around him feel just a little colder.
Keegan noticed a second later and stopped mid-stride.
For a split second, the two of them simply stared at each other across the battlefield.
Gideon moved forward without saying a word and rose one hand just as a shadow dove toward Keegan.
It instantly shattered in midair like glass struck with a hammer, and I realized it had been Gideon.
Keegan didn’t hesitate and Gideon moved beside him.
Two completely different kinds of magic erupted into the clearing.
Keegan was raw power—teeth, muscle, instinct.
Gideon was something quieter, precise, and controlled.
The shadows tried to regroup around them, but they didn’t last long.
Keegan ripped through the first two.
Gideon flicked his hand, and the third one burst apart before it could even reach them.
For the first time since the fight had started, the clearing felt… balanced.
The two men fought side by side without looking at each other.
Not allies.
Not exactly enemies either.
Just two forces that happened to be pointed in the same direction.
And it was devastating.
The remaining shadows began to falter, and my mark burned a little less.
The hedge tightened around them.
Branches snapped upward like a cage.
One shadow tried to slip through the vines.
The hedge dragged it down and crushed it.
The Priestess stepped back.
Her eyes moved between Keegan, Gideon, and the hedge surrounding the clearing.
For the first time, she looked… concerned.
“She’s losing control,” Rendel said quietly somewhere behind me.
The Priestess ignored him, but I saw it too.
The shadows were retreating.
Slowly at first.
Then faster.
They drifted back toward her in twisting spirals, drawn toward the mist around her robes.
The hedge surged again, cutting off their escape routes.
Several shadows burst apart as the thorns caught them.
The rest rushed back toward their master.
The Priestess lifted her hands sharply, and the fog around her thickened.
The remaining shadows poured into it like smoke drawn into a storm cloud.
The clearing brightened as the darkness pulled away.
I stood there breathing hard, the hedge still humming through my bones.
Across the clearing, Keegan and Gideon stood a few feet apart.
The fight around them was finally slowing.
Witches lowered their hands.
Orcs stepped back.
The last fragments of shadow drifted into the mist behind the Priestess.
She looked around the clearing slowly.
At the hedge I’d forced up around us.
At Keegan.
At Gideon.
Then her eyes settled on me.
She didn’t say anything right away. The forest had gone strangely quiet again, like it was waiting to hear what she’d do next. The mark on my shoulder gave a slow, steady pulse.
When she finally smiled, it wasn’t the sharp, satisfied one from before.
This one was quieter. Colder.
“You think this is victory,” she said.
Fog curled thicker around her boots, creeping through the undergrowth.
“But this battle is long, Maeve.” The shadows stirred again, pulling back toward her like smoke drawn into a chimney. “And don’t forget that I have someone you want.”
And then she was gone, swallowed by the trees before anyone could reach her.
The clearing didn’t go quiet all at once.
It unraveled slowly.
The last wisps of shadow slipped through the trees where the Priestess had vanished, and the sounds of the fight faded behind them—first the roar of orcs, then the crack of spells, then the sharp snarls of shifters who realized there was nothing left to chase.
I didn’t move.
My back had found the rough bark of a maple somewhere during the chaos, and now that the adrenaline was draining out of me, my legs didn’t seem especially interested in cooperating.
My chest rose and fell in uneven pulls of air.
The hedge still hummed under my skin.
Not violently anymore.
Just… there.
Alive.
Something in the clearing felt… different.
Not louder. Not brighter.
Just aware, somehow. Like the place itself had woken up and was quietly pleased about it.
Footsteps came pounding across the dirt.
“Maeve!”
Nova reached me first. She dropped to one knee right in front of me, her green eyes scanning my face the way people do when they’re bracing themselves to find something wrong.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I said automatically.
Which was mostly true.
I felt wrung out, my legs a little shaky, and there was a very real chance I could fall asleep if I leaned against a tree for too long.
But I wasn’t hurt.
Ardetia came up beside Nova, calmly brushing a leaf off the sleeve of her coat as if we’d just walked through a gust of wind instead of a battlefield.
Her gaze drifted to the hedge surrounding the clearing.
“That,” she said, nodding toward it, “was impressive.”
“I was making it up as I went,” I admitted.
“That tends to be when the interesting magic happens.”
Bella skidded to a stop a few paces away. Her magic hadn’t fully settled yet—fox ears still poked through her hair, twitching as she looked me over.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked.
“Pretty sure.”
Behind her, Stella was marching across the clearing with a cast-iron skillet still clutched in one hand as she’d happily smack another shadow if it so much as twitched.
“I swear,” she said breathlessly, “I step away from my tea shop for ten minutes, and you start a supernatural riot.”
“And for the record, I’m glad I left Cindy in the Maple Ward. This would have been just too much.”
“Timing,” Skonk said proudly as he waddled up beside him. “We are very good at timing.”
Skonk leaned on the broom like a soldier after a battle.
Nova’s attention stayed on me.
“You pushed the hedge further than I’ve ever seen anyone push Hedge magic,” she said carefully. “You brought shadows into it.”
“That felt like the only option at the time. The shadows were using my magic, so I figured I'd better use…her magic.”
A low sound pulled everyone’s attention toward the center of the clearing.
Keegan.
The massive dark wolf stood several yards away, chest rising and falling heavily as he caught his breath. Dirt streaked his fur, and a few leaves clung stubbornly to his shoulder where one of the shadows had clipped him.
For a few seconds, he just watched me.
Those hazel eyes locked onto mine.
Even in wolf form, there was no mistaking the question there.
Are you alright?
I nodded once.
“I’m fine,” I repeated.
His shoulders eased slightly.
Then he started toward us, and the crowd parted automatically to let him through.
They weren’t afraid of him, just respected him.
Keegan had always carried a kind of gravity with him—something that made people shift aside without quite realizing they were doing it.
Even now.
Even covered in dirt and shadow mist.
He stopped a few feet away.
Up close, the wolf looked even bigger.
I tilted my head back against the maple and studied him for a second.
“You look like you had a busy evening.”
His ears flicked.
Somewhere behind him, someone snorted a laugh.
Then another presence stepped into the clearing.
Quieter.
But just as impossible to ignore.
Gideon.
The air shifted the moment he appeared near the group. Conversations that had started to rise in relieved chatter dropped again into uneasy silence.
He didn’t seem bothered by it.
He simply walked forward until he stood a few paces to Keegan’s left.
The two men didn’t look at each other.
Not yet.
But the tension between them hung in the air like the moment before a storm breaks.
Ardetia noticed it too.
Her gaze moved thoughtfully between them.
Nova crossed her arms.
“Well,” Nova murmured under her breath, glancing between the two men. “This should be interesting.”
I pushed myself a little straighter against the maple, the bark rough against my shoulder. My legs still felt like someone had replaced the bones with warm jelly, but standing there like a fainting Victorian heroine didn’t seem like the right move either.
“Is the Priestess gone?” I asked.
Bella blew out a breath and ran a hand through her hair. “For now.”
“Retreated,” Ardetia added calmly. “Which is not the same thing as defeated.”
“Fantastic,” Stella muttered, still clutching the skillet like she expected another shadow to pop out of a shrub.
Twobble turned slowly in a circle, squinting around the clearing like a tiny inspector conducting a headcount.
“Did we lose anyone important?”
Skonk stiffened beside him.
“I’m still here.”
“That wasn’t the question,” Twobble said.
They immediately started bickering in low voices behind Nova, but my attention had already drifted away from them.
Something wasn’t sitting right.
It felt like when you leave the house and get halfway down the street before realizing you forgot something. That small, persistent tug in the back of your mind that refuses to let you ignore it.
I scanned the clearing again.
Broken branches.
Trampled leaves.
A few witches helping someone up near the edge of the trees.
But not—
My stomach dipped.
Rendel.
I pushed away from the maple a little and looked more carefully toward the tree line.
Nothing.
No sign of him at all.
Just broken branches and trampled leaves where the shadows had swarmed through.
“Where is he?” I murmured.
Nova looked over.
“Who?”
“Rendel.”
The name made Keegan’s head snap slightly in my direction.
I didn’t notice.
I was still searching the tree line.
“He was right there a minute ago,” I said.
No answer came.
I turned back toward the group.
Keegan stood frozen where he was.
His wolf eyes had shifted slightly past me.
Toward the woods.
But Gideon was watching me.
Not the clearing.
Not Keegan.
Me.
The look on his face wasn’t hostile.
It wasn’t friendly either.
It was… curious.
Like he was waiting for something.
And suddenly, the strange feeling that had been tugging at the back of my mind since he stepped into the clearing came rushing forward.
I studied his face more carefully.
The dark hair.
The shape of his jaw.
The way his eyes held steady, even when everything around him was chaos.
Something about him had felt familiar from the moment I saw him earlier.
Not like someone I’d met before.
More like someone I should recognize.
My gaze shifted slowly from Gideon…
…to Keegan.
The wolf hadn’t moved.
But now that I was really looking, really comparing—
The realization slid into place so quietly that it made my stomach drop.
Oh.
Oh no.
My eyes flicked back to Gideon.
Then to Keegan again.
And suddenly I understood exactly why he had looked so familiar.