Twobble chewed his lip like it owed him rent. “I vote we ignore the letter, bake a pie, and pretend we never learned to read.”
Ardetia’s brows knit. “No invite for a fox? How rude.”
“No wolf,” Nova said, voice like the edge of a blade. “She names us because she fears us.”
“Or because she wants to hurt me by forbidding the people who keep me breathing,” I said, the words steady because the alternative was very not steady. “She will not tell me what to do. I’m not going alone, and I’m certainly not going unprotected. And no one tells us who will or won’t be in attendance. I’m not treating Keegan like a bundle because some High Priestess snaps her fingers.”
Keegan’s mouth twitched. “I prefer rugged parcel.”
“You’re a man,” Stella said briskly. “Not a package.”
“A very capable man,” I added.
He sobered.
“We’ll pick the ground, not them.” He tapped the letter with one blunt finger.
“You think Gideon is involved in this?”
Keegan’s eyes steadied on mine. “Why wouldn’t he be?”
Twobble peered at the signature sigil, then produced a candy from somewhere anatomically concerning and popped it into his mouth. “Well. Good news is, I have an idea you’ll hate.”
I laughed and shook my head. “I’m listening.”
“We let them think they get what they want,” he said, waggling his brows, “and we bring fake charms to explode into glitter, nausea, and the deep desire to apologize to their victims.”
Stella beamed. “Now that’s theater.”
Nova tilted her head, almost smiling. “You’re as good as any tonic I know.”
Twobble chewed, ignoring Nova’s subtle compliment. “I have to borrow Ember.”
“Ember is already in,” Ember said, and I nearly dropped my cup because she’d been in the corner for who knows how long, shimmering faint as rain on slate, the haunt’s eyes kind as ever. “And I rather like the idea of making the priestess sneeze regret.”
Keegan looked at me. Not at the letter. Not in the plan. At me. “What do you want to do?”
A simple question, but never a simple answer in this world.
I tucked the letter into the inside pocket of my purse, beneath a grocery list.
“We prepare. We don’t step where she points. We fortify what’s ours. We send a message that we’re not pressed flowers in her book.” I shrugged. “I don’t even know this woman, so I’m certainly not going to hop, skip, and jump to where she tells me to go.”
I glanced at Keegan, and something was stirring behind his gaze.
“I love you,” he said, soft as a bruise.
The air in the room gulped.
Stella’s mouth turned into a perfect O of delight.
Twobble whispered, “Finally.”
Nova looked at the ceiling, as if she would not be moved by romance during office hours. Ardetia smiled in that tiny, fae way that makes you feel like you’ve passed a test without knowing you took one. Bella elbowed me in the ribs so gently I might have imagined it.
“I love you, Keegan,” I breathed, because if I said it louder, I would cry, and crying would lead to hiccups, and hiccups wouldlead to goblin commentary I’d never escape. And this wasn’t the way I thought it would come out, but I memorized every feature of Keegan’s expression and knew this could either end us or forge us together.
Stella cleared her throat and went to steep more tea.
