I almost laughed, but the pain sharpened again, crawling from my wrist to my elbow.
The pendant pulsed harder, and the hedge magic at our feet thickened. Vines climbed the wall near the chain. Leaves unfurled in a room that had no business growing anything alive. They wrapped around the anchor point and squeezed as the chain screeched.
Gideon’s eyes darkened as the mage magic brightened around his hands.
And for the first time since I’d known him, he looked less like a man trying to outrun the consequences of his own choices andmore like someone finally willing to stand in the middle of them and pay the price, as I felt that familiar pull to him that claimed my curiosity long ago.
Celeste let out a shaky breath that almost became a laugh, and the cuff dimmed for half a second.
Gideon seized on it as his hands moved faster, carving symbols through the air as the silver-blue strands tightened around the iron. The mage magic pierced the cuff in three places, and the whole restraint clanked.
The sound rolled through the tower as every candle blew out.
Darkness swallowed the room except for the moonstone and Gideon’s magic.
Keegan moved until his body pressed against my side, shielding all of us, including Twobble, as the ceiling cracked above. It was almost off.
Gideon drove both hands against the cuff, and light exploded outward.
The chain snapped first, whipping back into the wall so hard that stone sparked from around the anchor. The cuff split down the center with a blinding flash as the pieces fell from Celestes’ wrists.
When they hit the floor, they writhed for one horrible second before my vines wrapped around them and crushed them into dust.
Celeste stared at her free wrist as if she couldn’t believe it belonged to her before she launched herself at me.
We fell into each other as her face pressed into my shoulder, her whole body shaking as I wrapped myself around her andtried to become anything strong enough to keep the world from touching her again.
“No tears,” I whispered against her hair. “Not until we’re safe in Stonewick.”
“I’m not crying,” she said, though her voice wobbled.
“Good.”
Keegan’s hand rested on the back of my shoulder, warm and steady, and when I looked up at him, his expression nearly cracked whatever control I had left.
He loved us.
Both of us.
The knowledge settled over me with such fierce certainty that I had to look away before my eyes betrayed me.
Gideon stepped back, one hand braced against the wall. His face had gone too pale, and for a second, I saw the cost of what he’d done. There was no smirk or sly remark waiting to fall from his lips. I only saw exhaustion and something haunted.
Celeste lifted her head slightly and looked at him.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Gideon’s gaze flickered to hers, and he looked almost startled by the words.
He gave a small nod. “Don’t thank me yet. We still have to get out of here.”
A deep crack spread across the wall where the chain had been anchored. Behind it, something moved. A ripple of shadows slid through the split.
Keegan pulled us both to our feet.
“Can you walk?” he asked Celeste.
She nodded quickly, though her knees wobbled. “I can walk.”
