She reached for a pair of knitting needles resting on the table and began to work absently as she spoke, avoiding the true purpose of my question.
“I just live here,” she said. “And when you live somewhere long enough, you understand the history.”
“And Gideon?” I prompted.
“He leaves impressions,” she said simply. “Not always good ones. But they linger.”
That was somehow worse.
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my hands together. “I don’t want him near my daughter.”
Luna met my gaze, understanding clear in her eyes. “Of course you don’t.”
“But I also don’t want him loose,” I continued. “Not when the Academy has already shown it wants him nearby.”
“That’s a fair concern,” she said.
I searched her face again, looking for something I could grasp.
“So you don’t know where he is.”
“No,” she said. “But I know Stonewick won’t let him disappear completely.”
I swallowed. “That doesn’t mean it’ll protect him or us.”
“No,” Luna agreed. “It won’t. Stonewick protects itself first.”
The honesty of that landed hard.
She set her knitting aside and reached across the table, placing her hand over mine.
“But you’re paying attention,” she said. “That matters more than you think.”
I nodded slowly. “I just wish this felt less like waiting for something to go wrong.”
Luna smiled kindly. “Welcome to living in Stonewick.”
I laughed despite myself, the sound easing some of the tension coiled in my chest.
When I stood to leave, she walked me to the door, resting her hand briefly on my arm.
“If you hear anything,” she said, “I’ll listen.”
“Thank you,” I said.
As I stepped back onto the sidewalk, the bell chiming behind me, the false fall air brushed my face, cool and deceptively calm.
Luna hadn’t given me answers, but she’d confirmed what I already knew.
Gideon wasn’t gone forever, and Stonewick was still deciding what to do with him.
I lingered in the doorway longer than I meant to, one hand still resting on the edge of the frame, the bell above us swaying faintly from my exit.
But something unsettled pushed into me, so I turned back.
Luna looked up from the counter, surprise flickering across her face before smoothing into that familiar calm.
“Did you forget something?” she asked gently.
