Page 14 of Magical Mayhem (Stonewick Magical Midlife Witch Academy #7)

Gideon’s form looked carved from shadows and stone, slumped against a mossy trunk,

Bella’s eyes darted to me, and I caught the same question mirrored there. What now?

I stepped closer. “Gideon.”

His eyelids fluttered but didn’t lift. Words spilled out of his mouth in broken fragments, tangled in the rasp of a man who’d walked too long through dark corridors.

“Maeve?” Bella asked, voice taut. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t think he hears me,” I murmured. My fingers hovered over his shoulder before I dared to rest them against the rough fabric of his shirt.

Behind us, the quiet crackled with footsteps, and Stella materialized like fog rolling in.

“Well,” she said, studying him with a dramatic sigh, “he’s not looking ready for much.”

I swallowed. “He’s barely breathing.”

Before Stella could answer, Twobble and Skonk burst through the undergrowth in their usual chaotic chorus with branches snapping, mutters and complaints, and a well-timed curse word or two.

Twobble stopped short, his green cheeks paling as he looked at Gideon.

“Yup,” he said, shaking his head, “he’s past his expiration date.”

“Twobble,” Stella snapped.

“What? I’m being delicate,” he said, gesturing wildly. “I could’ve said he looks like a half-squashed pumpkin someone forgot behind the shed, but I didn’t. You’re welcome.”

Skonk leaned against a tree, grinning devilishly. “Delicate as a rock in a teacup.”

I ignored them, sinking to my knees beside Gideon. “He needs help. But we’re not taking him to the Academy.”

Stella arched a brow, stepping lightly over a patch of mushrooms. “And where, darling, do you propose we put a half-dead shadow of a man who’s tried to destroy us all?”

My throat tightened. “Somewhere safe. Somewhere out of sight.”

Bella’s tail flicked once before she shifted back, standing steady at my side.

“She’s right. If Keegan—” Bella broke off when my face faltered.

Twobble folded his arms. “You’re not planning to drag him into the Academy, are you? Because Ember’s going to light us all on fire the moment she sees this circus.”

Stella tilted her chin thoughtfully. “That is my question exactly. Where are we taking him?” Her voice softened, though her eyes were sharp.

“Keegan’s inn.”

“And how, pray tell, do you expect to slip past anyone, especially Ember?”

I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to meet her gaze. “That’s where you come in.”

Her lips parted in scandalized surprise. “Me?”

“Yes.” My voice steadied with each word.

“Go to Keegan’s room. Tell Ember… tell her there’s been a development, something that needs her attention, and you’d love a room.

Hopefully, she’ll tell you how to get a room key.

And if that fails, distract her long enough that we can borrow one when we arrive at the hotel. ”

Twobble whistled low, impressed. “Risky. Bold. Entirely likely to end with me as an hors d’oeuvre.”

Skonk smirked. “I’ll bring the sauce.”

Stella’s shawl flared as she spun on her heel, glaring at both goblins.

“I’ll do it,” she declared, lifting her chin. “But if I’m caught, I’m haunting you all.”

“I’ll deserve it,” I said softly. “But it’s the only way.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t listen when you gave me the hint to stay out of the Wilds.” Stella pressed her lips into a scarlet line.

“Because you’re nosy.” I smiled and looked back at Gideon.

He was terrifying even like this…maybe more so, because weakness stripped him of the walls that made him bearable to face. He looked human. And that was harder to reconcile than his menace.

I crouched once more, pressing my fingers to the hollow of his throat. His pulse fluttered there, fragile and irregular, but still present.

“Hold on,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure if I meant him or myself.

The forest around us held its breath. Mushrooms glowed faintly at the edges of the clearing, their red caps like watchful eyes. A shaft of light pierced through the canopy, landing on Stella as she adjusted her bracelets and sighed.

“Well,” she said, with all the weight of someone deciding to plunge into trouble for the sheer artistry of it. “If this is how we’re spending our summer, I hope someone is at least writing it down. It will make for good fodder when we’re all nothing but ash in the afterlife.”

“Focus,” Bella said, though a corner of her mouth twitched.

Twobble groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “Nothing says summer session is under control like willingly smuggling Gideon into Keegan’s hotel.”

“Then it’s settled,” I said, even as my stomach knotted tighter. “We get him out of here, and Stella gets us through Ember. And we pray Keegan will forgive me for the rest.”

The Wilds rustled faintly, as though laughing at us all.

Getting Gideon out of the Wilds was every bit as impossible as I had feared.

He was heavy, heavier than I remembered, though maybe it was the shadows clinging to him that dragged him down more than his body.

It took all of us to heave him up.

Bella braced under his arm, I pushed from behind, and both goblins were arguing loudly about the physics of dragging a man who looked half-dead and half-enchanted across moss and mushrooms.

Stella, for her part, carried a flailing arm now and again and guided us away from tripping hazards like boulders and tree trunks.

“Honestly, Maeve,” she said as Skonk tripped over a root and sent us all staggering, “you have a knack for collecting strays. Dogs, goblins, cursed wolves, and now this one.”

I bit down on my frustration. “Stella, push. My dad was not a stray, and neither was Twobble, and Keegan just came with the town.”

“And Gideon?” She made a show of sighing before adjusting her shawl, but when she bent to grab Gideon’s other arm from me, her strength startled me.

It should have been funny, all of us tripping and muttering, shoving at branches and apologizing when someone got whacked in the face with a vine. But I couldn’t laugh. Not fully. Not with Keegan’s face in my mind, pale and sweating, shadows creeping into his eyes little by little.

The curse was changing him. I’d seen it in moments so small they almost didn’t matter…

flashes of jealousy when he never used to care who spoke to me, worries about things that never would have crossed his mind before.

He’d been pulling shadows into his ribs without realizing, cell by cell, and now…

now I was sneaking Gideon into his hotel.

Would he understand?

The thought tore through me as surely as any branch I stumbled into. Would Keegan ever forgive me for this? For needing Gideon as much as I needed him? For seeing the threads of their lives twined so tightly that if one snapped, the other would follow?

The goblins bickered as they walked backward, hauling Gideon by his boots after we changed up a bit.

“Don’t let his head drag. It’ll knock loose what little sense he has left,” Twobble complained. “And hold onto that boot.”

“Don’t tell me how to drag,” Skonk retorted. “I invented dragging.”

“You invented aggravation,” Twobble muttered.

Bella let out a low growl. “Quiet. Both of you.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

It took what felt like forever to reach the edge of the Wilds. Branches clawed at us, vines tangled around Gideon’s limbs as if the forest itself wanted to keep him. At one point Stella stopped entirely to glare at a patch of mushrooms pulsing faintly red.

“They’re laughing,” she announced.

“Move,” Bella hissed, straining under Gideon’s deadweight.

By the time the trees thinned and the Academy’s towers shimmered in view, we were all sweating and disheveled, and Gideon looked no better than when we started.

That was when Stella disappeared. One moment she was with us, shawl swaying, the next she had turned toward the Academy with a toss of her hair. “I’ll fetch us a way into the inn. Don’t let him collapse in the rhododendrons. I’ll be right back.”

I had no idea how long she had been gone. Long enough that my arms ached from bracing Gideon, long enough that guilt spiraled tighter in my chest. Every step brought me closer to betraying Keegan and closer to the only chance of saving him.

Finally, Stella returned, as immaculate as if she’d been to tea instead of smuggling a key from under Ember’s nose. She dangled the bronze ring between two fingers with a flourish.

“Here we are,” she said. “A room key.”

I stared. “Ember… gave it to you?”

“Gladly,” Stella replied, lips curling into a knowing smirk. “All for the cause, right? That’s what she said. In fact, she excused herself from the Academy to prepare a room for the guest.

“Did you tell her who it was for?” I asked.

“Didn’t really have to,” Stella said, glancing at me.

She knew…

“As fast as Ember works, she will probably be done preparing the room before we get him out of the Wilds. She teased me, even. Which means Keegan’s worse than before, or she’d never hand over something this dangerous without an argument.”

My heart clenched.

“Worse?” Bella echoed, her voice tight.

Stella’s painted smile didn’t falter, but her eyes softened. “Yes. He’s slipping faster. Which means your little plan to use this one,” she gestured to Gideon’s slumped form, “has to work. Because without it, Stonewick has no chance.”

The words sank into me deeper than I liked.

Keegan was already fading. Gideon was nearly gone. And I was the thread between them.

“Then we move,” I said, my voice sharper than I intended.

Crossing Academy grounds with Gideon draped between us was worse than dragging him through the Wilds.

At least in the forest, there had been cover, shadows to hide in, vines to shield us.

Here, the lawns spread open, the cobbled walk gleamed damp with summer’s gloom, and lanterns swung gently from their posts.

At least the sun had set, and the kitchen sprites offered a grand dinner to celebrate the first day of classes.

I should probably be there welcoming everyone, but sometimes choices have to be made.

Skonk stumbled into a flowerbed, muttering curses that could wake the dead.

Twobble tripped over Gideon’s dragging boot and nearly pitched face-first into the gravel while I attempted to steady Gideon’s body.

Bella hissed at them both, trying to keep Gideon above ground, but she wasn’t tall enough to balance his weight without me bracing the other side. We did everything wrong.

“Shh!” I hissed for the tenth time, sweat beading down my back.

“Shh yourself,” Twobble grumbled, hauling at Gideon’s legs. “This is not my ideal summer pastime.”

“Summer school indeed,” Stella said, sweeping past with her teacup still perfectly steady. “Nothing says order and learning like hauling an unconscious enemy across the courtyard.”

Bella barked out a short laugh despite herself. “She’s not wrong.”

“Focus,” I snickered as a bubble of nervous amusement rose in my chest. This was too preposterous.

We must have looked absurd: two goblins grunting, a fox shifter bracing with all her might, an elderly vampire directing, and me, clutching a half-dead man like my entire world depended on him.

Every lantern felt like a spotlight, every window like a watching eye. I imagined students peeking through the glass, whispering, teachers pausing homework, Ember catching the whole circus out of the corner of her eye.

My heart pounded so hard I thought it would give us away.

And of course, that was the moment we ran into Lady Limora and Vivienne.

They strolled out from one of the side gardens, arm in arm, both carrying baskets brimming with herbs and blossoms. Lady Limora’s hair gleamed in the lantern light, and Vivienne’s bright laugh floated out ahead of her.

The two of them stopped dead when they spotted us—five disheveled rescuers half-dragging, half-carrying what could only look like a corpse.

My stomach dropped clear to my shoes.

“Evening,” Stella said too quickly, sweeping forward to drape her shawl over Gideon. She flung it across Gideon’s shoulders in a dramatic flourish that might’ve worked, if the thing hadn’t slid right off again and puddled at our feet.

Limora’s brows climbed high, her expression as regal as ever. Vivienne pressed her lips together, clearly fighting a laugh.

“Interesting work,” Lady Limora cooed.

“Right up our alley,” Vivenne agreed.

Twobble groaned. “So much for stealth.”

Skonk snorted. “Subtle as a parade.”

Before I could stammer out an excuse, Limora stepped closer, set her basket neatly on the ground, and slid one slender arm under Gideon’s other shoulder.

“You’re doing it all wrong,” she said smoothly, as though we were moving a sofa instead of an infamous enemy.

Vivienne, cheeks pink with suppressed giggles, mirrored her on the other side. “One, two, three…lift.”

And just like that, the two of them were carrying more than half his weight, brisk and efficient, no questions asked.

I gaped. “You’re not… going to ask—”

“Darling,” Limora interrupted, her eyes sparkling, “if you’re willing to carry him across the courtyard in broad view, I’m willing to carry him the rest of the way. Explanations can come later.”

Vivienne finally laughed outright, shaking her head. “Summer school is looking lively already. Corpses and…”

“Not a corpse,” I corrected.

“Not yet, anyway.” Stella shrugged.

As we snaked through the Butterfly Ward, down the narrow alley and into Stonewick, the inn’s familiar eaves came into view.

Keegan’s hotel—his home, his pride. I prayed he would forgive me for this. That was when the circle called us all together, and he would understand why Gideon had to be part of it.

Because if he didn’t… we were finished.

Stella jingled the key lightly.

“Well, darlings,” she said, her voice laced with amusement and steel. “Shall we deliver our cargo?”

I tightened my grip on Gideon’s arm, looked once toward the glowing windows of the inn, and we hauled him up the final steps inside.