Bella’s tail flicked once before she shifted back, standing steady at my side.
“She’s right. If Keegan—” Bella broke off when my face faltered.
Twobble folded his arms. “You’re not planning to drag him into the Academy, are you? Because Ember’s going to light us all on fire the moment she sees this circus.”
Stella tilted her chin thoughtfully. “That is my question exactly. Where are we taking him?” Her voice softened, though her eyes were sharp.
“Keegan’s inn.”
“And how, pray tell, do you expect to slip past anyone, especially Ember?”
I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to meet her gaze. “That’s where you come in.”
Her lips parted in scandalized surprise. “Me?”
“Yes.” My voice steadied with each word. “Go to Keegan’s room. Tell Ember… tell her there’s been a development, something that needs her attention, and you’d love a room. Hopefully, she’ll tell you how to get a room key. And if that fails, distract her long enough that we can borrow one when we arrive at the hotel.”
Twobble whistled low, impressed. “Risky. Bold. Entirely likely to end with me as an hors d’oeuvre.”
Skonk smirked. “I’ll bring the sauce.”
Stella’s shawl flared as she spun on her heel, glaring at both goblins.
“I’ll do it,” she declared, lifting her chin. “But if I’m caught, I’m haunting you all.”
“I’ll deserve it,” I said softly. “But it’s the only way.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t listen when you gave me the hint to stay out of the Wilds.” Stella pressed her lips into a scarlet line.
“Because you’re nosy.” I smiled and looked back at Gideon.
He was terrifying even like this…maybe more so, because weakness stripped him of the walls that made him bearable to face. He looked human. And that was harder to reconcile than his menace.
I crouched once more, pressing my fingers to the hollow of his throat. His pulse fluttered there, fragile and irregular, but still present.
“Hold on,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure if I meant him or myself.
The forest around us held its breath. Mushrooms glowed faintly at the edges of the clearing, their red caps like watchful eyes. A shaft of light pierced through the canopy, landing on Stella as she adjusted her bracelets and sighed.
“Well,” she said, with all the weight of someone deciding to plunge into trouble for the sheer artistry of it. “If this is how we’re spending our summer, I hope someone is at least writing it down. It will make for good fodder when we’re all nothing but ash in the afterlife.”
“Focus,” Bella said, though a corner of her mouth twitched.
Twobble groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Nothing says summer session is under control like willingly smuggling Gideon into Keegan’s hotel.”
“Then it’s settled,” I said, even as my stomach knotted tighter. “We get him out of here, and Stella gets us through Ember. And we pray Keegan will forgive me for the rest.”
The Wilds rustled faintly, as though laughing at us all.
Getting Gideon out of the Wilds was every bit as impossible as I had feared.
He was heavy, heavier than I remembered, though maybe it was the shadows clinging to him that dragged him down more than his body.
It took all of us to heave him up.
Bella braced under his arm, I pushed from behind, and both goblins were arguing loudly about the physics of dragging a man who looked half-dead and half-enchanted across moss and mushrooms.
Stella, for her part, carried a flailing arm now and again and guided us away from tripping hazards like boulders and tree trunks.
