Page 22 of Magical Mischief

“Your father is safe,” he said, suggesting he was giving me a boon. “He remains in my care. No harm will come to him if you abide by our… arrangement.”

I gritted my teeth.

“I never agreed to any arrangement.” Fury danced with the ice-cold dread in my veins.

His eyes gleamed.

“You did the moment you walked in here. You could have stayed in your little cottage, or holed up in the Academy with your Wards and illusions.”

So he knew I was part of the Academy.

He shrugged.

“But you returned to Shadowick, with no magic circles to protect you.” His voice teased with a razor’s edge behind it. “You returned on your own, didn’t you?”

I crossed my arms, trying to keep them from shaking.

My father’s face loomed in my mind, pushing me forward.

“Only because I need answers,” I said, summoning every scrap of courage. “I want to know what you want, Gideon. Why all these traps and battles?”

He cocked his head, stepping into a band of moonlight that made his dark eyes glisten. “Illusions? Traps? Hardly. I’m just… providing people with opportunities.”

“Opportunities,” I echoed in disbelief. “Like you gave my father? You placed the curse that kept him in his shifted form. And after all these years, you turn him into a hostage, bait me into your twisted plan, and hold Stonewick’s future in your palm. That is your sort of opportunity?”

His grin widened, a slow, predatory curl.

“We all have roles to play, Maeve—even your dear father. You might see it as captivity. I see it as… persuasion.”

My stomach churned.

The charm in his voice was maddening, seductive in a way that made me want to recoil.

A voice in my head screamed that I should run, yet my feet stayed rooted to the slick cobblestones.

“Why me?” I whispered angrily. “You took him because you think I’ll… what, turn to you for help? Become your puppet?”

The butterfly birthmark warmed on my skin, and I stepped back, wondering what it was trying to signal.

He studied me quietly for a long moment. The fog curled around us and felt mildly suffocating, but I wouldn’t show my discomfort.

“Ah, you’re still missing the bigger picture.” He reached out and almost touched my shoulder, but I sidestepped.

I narrowed my eyes on him.

Gideon dropped his hand with a faint sigh. “It’s not about controlling you, Maeve. It’s about shaping the future. It’s about Stonewick’s destiny and yours. You just haven’t seen it yet.”

I let out a ragged breath.

“So we’re back to your grand ideas of power. Stonewick doesn’t need you. It needs to be freed of your curses, your manipulations…”

He cut me off with a low chuckle. “You speak as though you know what Stonewick truly needs. Have you considered that you might fail? That the Academy’s Wards, your father’s love, none of it will be enough to vanquish the threats that lurk? I could save you the trouble. Offer you the answers you seek, the power you crave.” Another step closer, I felt an unwelcome tingle at how near he was. “Don’t be so quick to cast me as the villain.”

“I don’t crave power.”

“Even after everything that despicable man you called a husband did to you?” His eyes sharpened on mine. “There are things that could be done. Things that would teach him to respect women.”

“He’s no longer my problem,” I said, glancing at the mansion behind Gideon.