Or the Priestess did.
Wonderful assortment of possibilities.
I looked at Keegan, who gave a slight nod.
“Fine.” I nodded.
Gideon’s mouth twitched faintly, though the expression held no real humor. “Good choice.”
Twobble still clung to my back on the broom, his fingers trembling against my coat. He looked at the opening in the stone and then at Gideon with absolute suspicion.
“If you betray us in there, I will make you wish you were a shadow.”
Gideon blinked. “That’s very specific.”
Keegan turned to me. “Stay behind me.”
“You know that’s unlikely.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. His hazel eyes swept over my face, quick and focused, and I saw every worry he didn’t have time to say out loud.
I swung off the broom onto the broken balcony, and Twobble scrambled down after me, stumbling slightly when his feet hit the stone.
He reached for my hand and squeezed once.
That was all.
There was no speech or dramatic promise.
It was merely his fingers wrapped around mine for half a second before he let go.
“You’re staying here with Bella and Caleb,” I told Twobble.
His eyes widened. “Absolutely not. They’re fully into battle mode.”
“Twobble,” I warned. “We don’t know what we’re getting into. It could be a trap.”
“No.” His little face hardened in a way I rarely saw. “I am not letting you go into the murder puzzle with two emotionally damaged men and no goblin oversight.”
Bella let out a sharp breath behind me. “Take him. Goblins see some seams better than witches.”
Twobble’s chin lifted.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You stay close.”
“I was already planning on attaching myself to your coat.”
“Perfect.”
The tower wall scraped loudly as the breach narrowed, and we followed Gideon, ducking through an opening his hand had outlined.
The passageway smelled like wet stone and old iron. The space was narrow, barely allowing Keegan to move through without scraping the sides. The stone walls were rough and damp beneath my fingertips.
I steadied myself as the ground sloped downward, and I heard the entrance close behind us, nothing more than stone grinding against stone.
“Maeve,” Keegan said quietly.
“I know.”
