My fingers tightened slightly around the compress.
If my suspicion was right…
I glanced toward Keegan.
He was still watching the crowd, unaware.
A strange knot formed in my stomach as the door opened.
The tea shop door had been opening every few minutes as more people wandered in from the woods. Another witch. Another pair of shifters. Someone looking for a friend.
But this time, the room changed.
The sound faded first, and conversations stumbled before completely coming to a halt.
The ripple of silence spread across the shop until even the kettles seemed quieter.
I looked up to see everyone staring toward the door, and I didn’t understand why until the figure stepped fully inside.
Gideon.
He paused just inside the doorway like he had all the time in the world. The light caught the dark fall of his hair, the calm expression on his face.
He didn’t look injured, and he didn’t look hurried.
He looked like someone who had simply decided to stop by for tea.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
Even Stella froze mid-step, kettle in one hand, skillet in the other.
My heart gave a slow, heavy thud.
I had thought the strangest part of the night was over.
Apparently, Stonewick disagreed.
Gideon’s gaze moved slowly across the room.
Over the witches.
The orcs.
The shifters.
Before landing on me.
He didn’t speak, but something flickered in his expression.
It wasn’t triumph, and for once, it wasn’t anger.
Perhaps, recognition?
And that’s when the uneasy thought I’d been trying to ignore all evening finally surfaced. Because if the thought forming in my mind was right…
Then the most dangerous man in the room might not be Gideon.
