“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.
