Page 54 of Once Upon A Bear

Gideon started pacing back and forth, unable to stand still.

“You’re worrying your mother,” his father said suddenly.

Gideon looked up to see his mother’s very pale face as she gripped his father’s hand.

“It’s not bad,” he assured her quickly. “It’s just complicated. I promise all is well. You won’t have to worry about me again.”

She seemed to relax at that.

A moment later, Kellan and Caspian rushed through the door, followed by Liliana. Caspian sat next to his wife, and Liliana sat on their father’s lap, while Kellan clasped his hands behind his back and simply stared at Gideon.

“First of all, I want to apologize for all the anxiety I’m sure I have caused you over the past few years,” Gideon said. “I couldn’t tell you what was wrong because I was under a spell.”

Liliana’s eyes widened, and she leaned forward. “Magic is real?” she asked.

“Unfortunately,” Gideon said, looking from her to his mother, who was suddenly pale again. “The spell is broken, Mother, and you no longer have to worry, because I can talk about it now. And I can tell you that every time I disappeared over these past years was because I was turning into a bear.”

He was sure they were going to have questions, so he stopped talking there.

There was silence for a moment as they all absorbed the information, before his siblings let loose with a volley of questions.

“You were turning into a bear?” Liliana asked.

“How did we not notice a bear?” Kellan demanded.

“How come you get to have all the fun?” Caspian asked.

“Caspian,” their mother scolded.

“You were the bear,” Kellan gasped.

“Go on, son,” his father said.

“There’s not much more to it,” Gideon said, shrugging a shoulder. “I would feel it coming on and escape the house before I transformed. I have a den in the woods closer to Eldenwilde. I wanted to be far away from any of the estates in case anything happened to me and I was unable to control myself. I didn’t want anyone to think there was a bear hunting the children or the animals and assume that I was a predator. But Guinevere could tell something was wrong, and she was able to break my curse.”

“How?” Liliana asked.

He gagged. “With a series of vile-tasting potions.”

Caspian chuckled, and Kellan eyed him.

“We must thank her,” his mother said. “But oh, my Gideon—how did we not notice something like this?” She got to her feet and hurried to him, taking his hands in hers. “I’m so sorry that we failed you.”

“You didn’t fail me,” Gideon said, squeezing her hands. “There wasn’t anything you could do about it. No one could, until Guinevere.”

His father cleared his throat. “How did it happen?”

Gideon walked his mother back to his father and sat next to her. “I was looking for a runaway hive in the forest one day when I came across a man who seemed mad. Perhaps he was, but he was also a sorcerer, and when I threatened to bring him in because he was acting like a lunatic on our lands, he cursed me.”

He hadn’t seen him since.

He didn’t mention that the man had cursed Alexander too. That information seemed unfair to share without Alexander’s knowledge.

“Can I go see your den?” Liliana asked, bouncing up and down.

“If Mother says you may,” Gideon said.

“I would actually like to see it too,” his mother said. “And I want to thank Guinevere. Will she be coming to the ball?” she asked, her eyes filling with a mischievous light.