“This feels rather ominous,” Twobble whispered.
Behind him, Grandma Elira stepped onto the porch with Miora at her side. Elira’s hair was loose, silver catchingmoonlight like thread. Miora looked as she always did—composed, grounded, as if she could walk through any crisis and still remember where she put the kettle.
Elira’s gaze went straight to the figure, and something in her expression tightened into caution.
“Maeve,” she said softly.
I didn’t look back. “I know. I’ll be careful.”
Miora’s eyes narrowed slightly. “That’s Gideon?”
“I think it is,” I whispered.
Twobble took a single step forward as if he meant to follow us.
Keegan’s head snapped toward him, expression not unkind but unmistakably firm. “No.”
Twobble’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again. “I’m not a child,” he whispered fiercely. “I’m a goblin of experience and profound bravery. Also, if this is Gideon, I would like to personally tell him—”
“No,” Keegan repeated, softer but somehow more final.
Twobble’s shoulders sagged, and then he looked at me with that raw, guilty tenderness he’d been carrying since my mother left.
“I should have stopped her,” he murmured.
The words punched me right in the ribs. Not because they were new—he’d said it already—but because now, under moonlight and threat, they carried the weight of everything we were failing to control.
I forced myself to look at him then, just for a second.
“Twobble,” I said quietly, “you didn’t make her choice.”
His eyes shone, and he blinked hard. “But I watched her walk away.”
Chapter Eighteen
I swallowed the ache, knowing I’d come up with a way to make Twobble know he did more than enough, but now we had someone on our property to take care of. I turned back toward the yard, toward the figure, toward mychoicewaiting at the edge of my light.
“Now or never,” I whispered.
Keegan’s response was immediate. “I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”
The Stone Ward’s pulse brushed my ankles as I moved, a faint sensation like stepping through warm water.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Karvey, Trinity, Squatty, and Flanky. I wasn’t sure where Horny was, but I knew four could do plenty of damage.
Keegan fell in beside me, and Caleb moved behind us, like a careful shadow. My father was next to him as we made our way toward the shadow.
I saw the wolves walk in unison, while staying back enough for breathing room. I knew if we needed them, they’d be there.
The figure at the edge of the yard didn’t retreat. He didn’t advance either.
He just waited.
“Gideon,” I called softly.
The name moved through the night like a thrown stone.
The figure tilted his head again.
