Page 134 of Magical Moonbeam

Celeste turned to me, confused, brow pinched. “Mom, it’s okay. Darren just wants to talk.”

“No, it’snotokay,” I said, my voice cracking.

Darren reached for her hand.

I stepped between them.

“Make me a vow,” I hissed to Gideon. “She doesn’t get touched. She doesn’t get harmed. She doesn’t get turned into anything or influenced or—”

“She alreadyisinfluenced,” Gideon said, almost with pity. “She’s a young woman with a curious mind and a trusting heart. All I’ve done is let her walk where shechoseto walk.”

“You manipulated her.”

He arched a brow. “Did I manipulate her? Or did you fail to tell her the truth early enough?”

My breath caught.

His words were a scalpel, slicing away at our truth.

“She came to find you, Maeve. That’s what daughters do, even if they don’t know they’re doing it. And she found him along the way.” He nodded toward Darren. “Now she’ll find her answers. Let her go.”

I looked at Celeste. Her eyes still held confusion, but her mouth was drawn now. She sensed it. Not the danger. Not fully. But the shift.

She wanted to believe she was safe, and I couldn’t blame her.

I closed the distance between us, my hands wrapping around hers.

“You come right back to me,” I said, not caring how desperate I sounded. “I’ll be standing right here. No matter what he tells you, question it.”

She smiled, though it trembled. “It’s just coffee, Mom.”

I almost told her that nothing in Shadowick wasjustanything.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I turned to Gideon.

“I want your word,” I said. “Your vow. Whatever twisted rules govern this place, but I want you to promise she returns to meuntouched.”

His head tilted slightly, and for a heartbeat, I thought he might laugh. But he didn’t. His expression flattened into something ancient and sharp.

“I vow,” he said quietly, “that Celeste Bellemore will return to you with no hand laid against her, no spell binding her, and no shadow wrapped around her throat.”

The words settled into the fog, a strange heat curling at the edges of the vow.

I hated how much I needed to believe him.

Darren’s hand brushed Celeste’s lower back, guiding her out the door and across the street toward the café. The cracked windows glowed with candlelight.

And then they were inside.

I turned back to Gideon, jaw tight. “If she comes back different—”

“She won’t,” he said smoothly. “I gave you my vow.”

“You’ve broken plenty of things before.”

“Not my word.” He lifted one shoulder. “Everything else, perhaps. But not that.”