Page 63 of Magical Mission

We stood there a moment longer before I finally sighed. “I should get back.”

“Dinner duty?”

“And sprite diplomacy. There was an incident with floating ladles earlier.” I smiled. “Are you coming back for dinner?”

“Nah. Someone I know signed me up for two full-time jobs, so I need to catch up on some things over here at the one that pays the best.”

I chuckled. “Who would do that to you?”

“Some wicked witch with a great smile.”

My hands flew to my hips. “Hey, I’m not wicked.”

Keegan winked at me and laughed. “We don’t know that, yet.”

“You’re impossible.” I rolled my eyes and snickered. “Time for headmistress duties.”

He made a face. “Dangerous work.”

“Let me know if anything changes.” We walked back into the inn, and everything felt fine.

Still.

“You’ll be the first to hear,” he promised as he walked toward his office.

I smiled and walked out the door and onto the cobblestone path back toward the Academy, but I felt that familiar tug in my chest.

The one that came every time I walked away from him.

And this time, I wasn’t sure if it was just affection or the start of something stranger still.

The sun had dipped low enough to cast the cobblestones in long, syrupy gold as I crossed the street from the inn.

Stonewick looked as peaceful as ever. Smoke curled from chimneys. Porch lanterns flickered to life one by one. The faint scent of magic and something sweet drifted from someone’s kitchen window, and somewhere down the block, a wind chime tinkled like laughter.

And yet, my gut twisted.

There was something in the way Keegan had described the guy’s questions that pulled at the wrong threads in my mind. It sounded like nonsense mixed with distraction.

But Gideon had always known how to hide his intentions behind nonsense.

I walked slower than usual, my boots echoing quietly as I scanned the sidewalks, shopfronts, even the flickering reflections in dark windows. Looking for anything that felt… off. A symbol scratched into wood. A rune carved where no one would notice. A shadow in a place that should’ve been empty.

The town had its usual magic. The quiet kind that was friendly and familiar. A charmed bell jingled as a door opened behind me. Someone waved as they passed, and I waved back, though I didn’t register who.

I was looking forhim.

Gideon.

I didn’t know what I’d do if I saw some sign of him out in the open. I doubted he’d come in person. He rarely did, not until the web was spun, but I couldn’t shake the thought that he’d sent someone ahead. Someone who knew how to slip through spaces others didn’t notice.

And the idea of someone sniffing around Stella’s tea shop or Nova’s store made me worry. But was it making me worry just enough to distract me from what could really be happening?

The anxiety made something in me sharpen.

By the time I reached the end of the block, I’d nearly convinced myself I wouldn’t find anything. The warlock was just a babbling traveler. The girls in the library were plotting something small and harmless. The shadow Twobble saw could be a magical fluke.

Except it wasn’t. I knew it wasn’t. Magic doesn’t babble. Magicmoveswhen it’s ready. And lately, it had been shifting like it knew something was coming.