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?
Chapter Three
I didn’t announce my decision.
Stonewick had a habit of overhearing things before they were spoken aloud, and I didn’t need the Academy humming louder in protest. Instead, I adjusted my coat, ignored Twobble’s sharp intake of breath, and started down the path toward the village with the quiet certainty that comes when debating gives way to listening.
The sidewalks were busy with tourists looking for pumpkins and witchy charms. Shop windows glowed with afternoon light and overflowing autumn decorations. The scent of bread, herbs, and early fall drifted lazily through the air, as if nothing more dangerous than gossip had ever passed through town.
But above it all, I felt the pull toward Luna’s shop. There wasn’t an urgency behind it, just an insistent pestering to stick my head in.
