Chapter Two #2
“I would also bite her,” Stella said smoothly, then narrowed her eyes. “But that’s not the point. The point is that she treated us like we were hers to move. Hers to claim. As if Stonewick is some loose little village without teeth.”
Keegan’s mouth twitched. “Stonewick has teeth.”
“And claws,” Stella added. “And it has me. Which, frankly, is more than enough. I’m going to be so glad when this circle is closed, and this whole business is behind us. I intend to spend three uninterrupted days drinking tea and judging strangers for fun like the old days.”
Nova nodded solemnly. “A noble goal.”
Stella softened for a heartbeat, then snapped right back. “And I’d like to stop living in a world where shadow priestesses believe they can stroll up and snag whoever they please.”
The word snag hung there, sharp as a hook.
My birthmark gave a quiet throb. An unsettling reminder that my body understood more than my mind had caught up to.
Before I could chase that thought, footsteps rounded the corner—heavier, human, and familiar.
My dad appeared, shoulders squared, expression alert in that way he got when he was pretending not to be protective. He looked like a man who’d spent a chunk of his life on four legs and hadn’t entirely stopped scanning the world from bulldog height.
“You’re all talking about Gideon like he’s not currently out there breathing,” my dad said, voice dry. “So, I brought you an update.”
“That was supposed to be Skonk’s mission, but he got sidetracked.” Twobble pointed dramatically. “But Frank has intelligence! Our operation once again has legs.”
My dad’s gaze flicked to Twobble’s face. “You’ve got frosting on your chin.”
Twobble wiped his chin with a flourish. “It’s camouflage.”
My dad sighed the sigh of a father who’d accepted magic and goblins in the same season. “I’ve been keeping an eye on Gideon.”
Keegan straightened, just slightly. “You and Skonk?”
Frank nodded. “Me and Skonk, yes. Although Skonk keeps letting his hunger guide him, so his definition of keeping an eye changes depending on the proximity of baked goods.”
Twobble leaned forward, delighted. “Who’s the Twiblet now?”
Bella snorted. Ardetia blinked like she wasn’t sure what that meant, but decided it was probably insulting.
My dad continued, unfazed. “Gideon’s been wandering the sidewalks, slow and deliberate. He looks like a man trying to decide whether he wants to knock on a door or burn the house down.”
My stomach tightened, but my dad’s tone stayed steady and observational. He wasn’t trying to scare us. He was trying to prepare me.
“He looked… contemplative,” Frank added. “Which I don’t like.”
Stella sniffed. “Contemplative villains are the worst kind. A dramatic villain at least gives you a warning speech.”
Keegan’s gaze sharpened. “Where is he now?”
My dad lifted a hand and pointed toward the village direction without needing to name the exact street. “He went into Luna’s yarn shop.”
I blinked as my stomach tightened “Luna’s?”
My dad nodded. “And that’s where he still is.”
The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was crowded with thoughts.
Twobble broke it first. “Of course, he’s in the yarn shop. What is he doing, browsing for morally ambiguous scarves?”
Bella’s grin turned sly. “Maybe he’s picking a new personality. You can knit those now, right?”
Nova’s staff tapped once against the stone floor, the sound clean as punctuation. “It means he’s anchoring himself somewhere safe in the village. Somewhere familiar.”
Ardetia’s eyes narrowed. “Or somewhere symbolic.”
Stella’s lips pressed together. “Or somewhere he thinks will tug at Maeve.”
My chest tightened, and I hated how quickly the thought fit.
My dad continued, “Skonk is there now.”
Twobble perked up. “He’s actually spying?”
My dad’s mouth twitched. “In his own way. He’s hiding behind a garbage can with a lemon scone.”
Twobble slapped a hand to his chest, offended on Skonk’s behalf. “A lemon scone? That’s not even tactical. That’s dessert.”
“Skonk said it helps him focus,” my dad replied.
Stella snorted. “Food has never helped a goblin focus. Food helps a goblin forget.”
“That’s what I told him,” my dad agreed. “But he’s still there. And he hasn’t thrown the scone at Gideon yet, so we’re calling it progress.”
Keegan looked at Nova. “If Gideon’s on the move and he’s settled in one place, we have a window before he gets antsy and tries to leave.”
Nova nodded. “Today is the day.”
Bella rolled her shoulders back like she was slipping into her favorite kind of trouble. “Finally.”
Ardetia inhaled slowly, then released the breath like she was letting old fear fall away. “If the Wilds are ready and the Hollows are holding the vow, then delaying would only give Gideon room to reshape his intent.”
Stella lifted her chin. “Then we don’t delay.”
Twobble raised both hands. “Motion to proceed with closing the circle while Skonk is still on active duty.”
My dad glanced at me. “You good with this, Maeve?”
Every eye turned to me again, gentle but expectant.
I nodded, because I was the headmistress, because I was the hinge, because the Academy was humming under my feet as if it already knew what I would choose.
“Today,” I said.
Keegan’s hand brushed the side of my arm, the smallest touch, grounding without claiming. “We do it together.”
“Together,” I echoed.
The word settled into me like warmth.
And still, beneath all of it, the question I couldn’t shake returned, quiet and persistent, threading through my thoughts like a strand of yarn that refused to be cut.
Luna.
The yarn shop.
The way Gideon kept circling her orbit like she was a star he couldn’t stop returning to.
Or was it the other way around?
She had been at the heart of too many things. Too many twists. Too many moments that should have belonged to chance, yet never did.
I watched my dad’s face, admiring the calm steadiness of him, and I forced my voice to stay light even as my mind churned.
“Alright,” I said, more to myself than anyone, “today is the day.”
The Academy seemed to hum in agreement.
But as we began to move, as Nova turned toward the doors and Stella muttered something about needing a travel teapot and a moral lecture for any priestess who tried again, I couldn’t stop the thought from tightening around my ribs.
Why Luna?
Why did she keep being at the center of Gideon’s gravity… as if the threads of this whole story had been tied around her long before I ever set foot in Stonewick?