Chapter Three
Skonk didn’t blink. For a goblin who could turn the simplest errand into a one-goblin musical, stillness didn’t suit him. It hung off his small frame like a coat too heavy for the shoulders beneath.
“I found something,” he said finally, his voice pitched low enough that even the chandeliers seemed to dim in curiosity.
Keegan straightened beside me, with that quiet alertness settling over him that reminded me how thin the line was between wolf and man. “Let’s hear it.”
Skonk took a deep breath, his little chest puffing like a kettle on the verge of boiling. “Luna and Gideon aren’t hiding where we thought they were.”
My stomach went cold. “They’ve moved again?”
He nodded, lips pressed tight. “Weeks ago, maybe. The trail was faint, like a memory trying to forget itself, but I caught it. Iron, rosemary, and the tiniest trace of lanolin. She’s still using her old enchantments to mask the scent, but Gideon’s shadow bleeds through everything.
He doesn’t belong to any ward, and the magic knows it. ”
I exchanged a glance with Keegan. The burn of his worry felt almost physical, that silent question behind his eyes: how close are they?
“Farther than before,” Skonk said quickly, as if reading both our minds. “But that’s not the problem.” He shifted his weight, claws tracing nervous patterns against the stone floor. “The problem is what’s following them.”
That sent a chill right through me. “Following them?”
He nodded, ears flicking backward. “A shadow I can’t name. It’s… wrong. Like it’s been borrowed and never returned. I tracked it along the old merchant path headed north. Thought I’d lost it, but then the ground began whispering.”
“The ground,” Keegan said, skeptical and grave at once.
“It hums when something’s learning its way,” Skonk said earnestly. “Like the Academy before it wakes. This shadow was studying how to move… how to walk.”
I rubbed my palms over my arms, trying to chase away the sudden goosebumps. “And Luna and Gideon are ahead of it?”
He nodded again. “Barely. Whatever this thing is, it’s slower, but it’s clever. I think it’s trying to reach them.”
The idea of Luna, gentle, stubborn Luna, walking willingly beside Gideon while some echo of darkness hunted them both made my throat ache.
We all knew she’d helped him escape. It wasn’t like she’d been taken, hadn’t screamed or fought.
She’d just… left with him. Left with her shawl, her bag, and her secrets, while she left everyone tied up with yarn at Keegan’s inn.
But none of it made sense four weeks ago. The time had been anything but right.
Keegan’s hand brushed against mine, grounding me.
“Could the shadow be Gideon’s doing?” he asked. “A fragment of himself he left behind?”
“Maybe,” Skonk said, scratching one ear. “But it feels hungrier than him. And I didn’t get close enough to ask politely.”
“Good,” I muttered. “Let’s not add eaten by a phantom to your tombstone.”
He cracked a faint grin but didn’t rise to the bait. That alone made me uneasy.
“Where are they heading?” I asked.
“That’s the part that gets tricky.” He crouched down and began tracing a path with one finger, sketching rough lines across the dusting of tea leaves I assumed Twobble had spilled earlier that day. “They left the marsh road and cut east, toward the edge of the Mellowlands.”
I stiffened.
“Toward it,” he confirmed, glancing up. “Not through it, at least not yet. They’re moving along its edge, like they’re following a seam. Luna’s magic flickers there every night when I check the readings. It’s steady but deliberate. She’s not lost.”
“You can trace our magic? Our presence?” I couldn’t hide my surprise.
He scowled at me as if I should have known something so elementary.
“How do you think Twobble knew to show up at the cottage when you first graced our town with your presence?”
“Good point.” I smiled.
“Anyway, Luna knows what she’s doing,” Keegan said quietly, though I couldn’t tell if it was reassurance or disbelief.
“Do you think she’s leading him somewhere?” I asked.
“Feels like it,” Skonk said. “And I don’t think he likes it.”
That startled me enough to look up. “You felt that?”
“I’m attuned to bad moods,” he said solemnly. “You spend your life with goblins, you learn to read tone from half a mile off. Gideon’s magic is… agitated. He’s following her lead, but it’s not what he planned.”
I folded my arms, heart thudding faster. “Then maybe she’s buying us time.”
Keegan’s eyes met mine. “Or leading him exactly where she wants him.”
I wanted to believe that Luna’s kind heart hid a cunning mind, that her betrayal was just another layer of magic meant to confuse him.
But every night, when I passed her shop’s darkened windows, I felt that ache of missing her steadiness, and her warmth.
Was it all a rouse? She was one of the people who made this town feel like home.
And now, she was walking beside the man who wanted to tear that home apart.
Keegan must’ve seen the worry crossing my face because his hand brushed mine again.
“She’s not the enemy,” he said, softer this time. “Not until we’re sure she wants to be.”
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I believed it. “And the shadow?”
Skonk hesitated. “Still tracing. It’s learned to slip around the outskirts. The thing doesn’t cross. It tests. It presses against the barriers, learns their weight. But it knows about you.”
“Me?”
He nodded gravely. “It paused outside your cottage three nights ago. Right by the chimney. Karvey saw it from the roof.”
Keegan went still beside me. “And you’re just now telling us this?”
Skonk threw up his hands. “I was verifying! I don’t like to panic without proof.”
“Details,” Keegan said darkly.
“Consider me panicked,” Skonk muttered.
I leaned against the pillar behind me, letting its cool surface hold some of the weight settling on my shoulders.
“So,” I said, carefully, “we have Luna and Gideon running along the seam. A shadow learning to walk. And Wards that don’t know whether to keep out intruders or mourn them.”
Skonk nodded. “That sums it up. Terribly cozy, isn’t it?”
“Tea-level cozy,” I said dryly. “Speaking of which, where’s Twobble?”
As if summoned, a familiar voice piped up from behind a tapestry. “Present! And horrified, thank you for asking.”
Twobble stumbled out, half wrapped in velvet, holding what was unmistakably a pastry he’d stolen from Stella’s shop. “I was listening. I didn’t mean to. I just have excellent ears and poor timing.”
Keegan crossed his arms. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough to confirm that we should all invest in locks, garlic, and maybe a vacation,” Twobble said. “Though, really, a proper trap would be more satisfying. Something with sparkles.”
“This isn’t a performance,” Keegan said.
Twobble ignored him entirely and turned to me. “So Luna’s officially cozying up to Gideon, and a mysterious darkness is chasing their romantic getaway. Fabulous. Can I be on pastry duty for whatever rescue plan this turns into?”
I shot him a look. “This isn’t funny.”
“It’s terrifying,” he agreed, biting his pastry. “That’s my coping mechanism.”
Skonk pointed a claw at him. “He’s not wrong. Fear makes sugar taste sweeter.”
“Everything makes sugar taste sweeter,” I muttered. “Sadness, happiness, dread…”
Keegan rubbed the back of his neck, gaze fixed on the floor. “If they’re moving along the seam, then they’re skirting both realms. We can’t reach them there without triggering half a dozen protections.”
“Then we find another way,” I said. “Something she left behind, something we can track.”
“She hasn’t sent any messages,” Skonk said. “But she’s clever. She wouldn’t risk mail.”
I looked toward the stairs, where faint moonlight traced the railings. “Maybe she left a sign in the Wards themselves.”
Twobble perked up. “Like a magical breadcrumb trail?”
“More like a whisper in the roots,” I said. “Something meant for those who know how to listen.”
Keegan’s eyes softened as they found mine. “Then we listen and we hope we’re right about her.”
We fell quiet as the summer air pressed against the windows, carrying the hum of distant cicadas.
“You really think Luna’s trying to help?” Skonk asked quietly.
“I think she’s trying to fix something broken,” I said. “I just don’t know which part… Gideon, Stonewick, or herself.”
Twobble sighed dramatically. “Fixing men never goes well. History proves it and literature predicts it. Disaster.”
I almost laughed. Almost. “Then let’s make sure she’s not doing it alone.”
Keegan nodded. “We’ll follow the trail at dawn.”
Skonk looked relieved and exhausted all at once. “I’ll go wake Bella. She’ll want in.”
“Let her rest until morning,” I said. “No one’s crossing into the realm tonight.”
He hesitated, then nodded and slipped away, his small footsteps fading down the hall.
The moment he was gone, the air felt heavier. I turned toward Keegan, who hadn’t moved. He stood in the half-shadow of the entryway, with eyes fixed on something only he could see.
“You think Luna’s in danger,” I said softly.
“I think Gideon’s too quiet,” he said. “And silence, in his hands, is never mercy.”
I stepped closer until I could feel the faint warmth of him, the solid, steady beat of something that reminded me I wasn’t just fighting for the Academy or the Wards. I was fighting for the people inside them. For all of us.
“I just refuse to believe she’s on his side until I see it.”
He looked down at me, a small, tired smile pulling at his mouth. “You really don’t know how to quit believing in people, do you?”
“I’ve tried,” I said. “Doesn’t stick.”
He reached out, tracing his thumb over my knuckles before stepping back. “Then tomorrow, we start again.”
“Together,” I said.
The chandelier above us flickered once.
And in that tiny, trembling pause before the light steadied again, I swore I heard a whisper through the walls in a voice soft as spun thread, threading itself through the silence.
“Find me before she does.”
I didn’t know if it was Luna or the shadow that spoke.
But I knew it meant the same thing.
Dawn couldn’t come fast enough.