Except I wasn’t a kid anymore.
I’d been divorced. I’d raised Celeste. I’d stepped into an Academy that breathed and whispered and chose its own rules.
And still, my father looked at me like he wanted to wrap me in his arms and carry me somewhere the Priestess couldn’t reach.
Twobble perched on the edge of the coffee table, hands clasped in his lap as if he were attending a funeral. It was so unlike him that it made my chest tighten all over again.
Caleb lingered near the window, glancing out through the curtains, watching the line of wolves.
“Twobble, I hope after hearing what Gideon said, you truly understand that you couldn’t have stopped my mom.” I rubbed his little knee and smiled. “She is as stubborn as they come, and I know if I had found her, she still would have gone. She just might have been tricker.”
His eyes met mine, and a touch of a smile moved to his lips. “You mean it?”
“Without a shadow of doubt. I grew up with her, and the stubbornness was always off the charts. You’d ask her not to do something, and she’d specifically do it to show you she knew better or could handle it.”
Twobble smiled and nodded. “How did that work for her?”
“Generally, not well.” I chuckled softly.
My dad laughed, and Twobble glanced at him. “I’m sorry, Frank.”
“No need to be sorry, dear friend. Maeve is telling the truth. She’s as bullheaded as they come.”
“Okay, so I think we should talk about what just happened with Gideon. Has anyone heard of a shadow stone before?”
“I’ve heard whispers of things the shadows cling to for power, knowledge, and expansion, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a specific type of stone,” Caleb said, glancing at me. “Doesn’t mean it’s not true though.”
Keegan nodded in agreement. “I’m surprised he’s willing to hold onto it if the Priestess is hunting him for it. He always struck me as the type of guy who’d toss it to the next poor soul.”
I laughed softly, thinking back to all the times I’d dealt with Gideon in my mind or in person, and all the times that his actions surprised me.
“Well, I do think he’s itching to do that. He just wanted us to prepare for it. I’m just not sure what that would entail, though.”
“Put it deep in the Academy where nobody knows about?” Twobble offered, winking at me. “There’s got to be some hidden room or something.”
“I don’t know that I want to put the Academy in danger like that, but it might be our best option.” I nodded.
“Or here at the cottage,” Miora offered.
“Well, he wasn’t trying to bargain with it. Not the way he usually bargains, and that alone was surprising.” Keegan folded his hands together and sat in a chair.
And that was the thing.
Gideon always made everything feel like a deal. Talking to him always felt as if you said the wrong word, you’d end up owing him something you didn’t even realize you had.
But tonight, it didn’t feel like that. There was an urgency behind his words and a real lack of manipulation, and it scared me more than his usual games.
“He looked like he was holding back,” I said quietly. “It felt as if something was stopping him.”
“It did,” Keegan agreed, glancing at my dad, who also nodded.
“Gideon stopped himself. He held back from his usual antics. That can’t be denied.”
My eyes flicked to him. “I wonder why.”
My dad rubbed one palm over the other, a habit he had when he was thinking and didn’t want anyone to notice he was thinking hard. I thought back to his paws and realized he must forget sometimes that he wasn’t still a bulldog twenty-four hours a day.
“I need to go check on Cindy,” Twobble said, and I nodded. I noticed the mischief had returned to his eyes, and a bit of relief spread through me. I would take that as a win.
