“Alright,” she said briskly, placing cool fingers beneath my chin and tilting my face side to side. “You’re breathing, your eyes are the correct color, and nothing is actively on fire. Promising start.”
My mom came up behind her. “I’m proud of you.”
I smiled shakily. “It wasn’t me. It was everyone else’s choices. I just chanted some stuff.”
“Not the case, dear.” My mom smiled. “But that’s why you’re headmistress.”
Twobble skidded in behind her, tripping over a root that definitely hadn’t been there five minutes ago.
“I brought snacks,” he announced proudly, holding up a slightly squashed bag. “In case anyone needed emotional support carbs.”
Stella sighed. “Of course you did.”
Twobble peered at me, then at Keegan, then back at me. “So. Did we win?”
“We stopped the Hunger Path,” I said.
The words felt strange and fragile in my mouth.
Twobble blinked, beaming. “Oh, that’sbetterthan winning.”
Stella straightened, gaze sweeping the clearing, assessing damage with the practiced eye of someone who’d seen far worse and survived it all.
“You did well,” she said to me, quieter now. “All of you did.”
Her hand rested briefly on my shoulder, the weight of it comforting in a way only Stella could manage without sentimentality.
Across the clearing, Bella and Ardetia approached Gideon.
He lay sprawled near the edge of the mushrooms, long, dark coat twisted beneath him, hair fallen across his face in a way that made him look younger, less dangerous.
Bella nudged his boot lightly with her toe.
“Well,” she said, hands on her hips. “That’s one way to end a dramatic evening.”
Ardetia knelt beside him, her movements careful, reverent. She placed two fingers against his throat, then nodded.
“He lives.”
I swore I heard Twobble say something likeThat’s too bad,under his breath, but I chose to believe that wasn’t the case.
Gideon groaned, rolling slightly. Bella crouched immediately, her expression softening despite herself.
“Welcome back,” she said lightly. “You missed the part where the sky tried to eat us.”
Ardetia murmured something under her breath, a quiet Fae word that shimmered faintly as it settled into Gideon’s aura, coaxing consciousness rather than forcing it.
He stirred again, eyes fluttering open, unfocused, then sharpening as he took in the stars overhead. Confusion crossed his face, followed by something like disbelief.
“It’s… quiet,” he said hoarsely. “In my head.”
Bella exchanged a glance with Ardetia. “That seems to be the theme tonight.”
I glanced at Keegan, realizing he hadn’t told me even half of what that curse had done to him.
My dad smiled “You gave us a scare.”
Gideon’s gaze flicked to him briefly as my mom went over to my dad and gave him a light kiss on his cheek.
