Page 157 of Magical Mayhem

Ardetia’s brows lifted in amusement while Nova simply nodded as though this was the most ordinary battle report she’d ever given.

Keegan sat beside me, his shoulder steady against mine, though his breath still came too ragged for my liking. His eyeswere trained not on Stella’s predicament but on something else entirely—his mother, the Silver Wolf.

She stood a few paces away, arms crossed, watching him in silence. For the first time, there wasn’t a wall of fury between them. It wasn’t forgiveness, but it wasn’t rejection either. Just… a spark. A flicker of recognition, of grief, of two people realizing they’d lost the same woman tonight.

My chest tightened, the ache pressing deep.

Across the steps, I caught sight of my father. He sat slouched, torch discarded, his hand resting loosely on his knee.

Beside him, my mother. She didn’t hover, didn’t bark at him, didn’t try to command the moment. She just… sat. Quiet. Their shoulders touched, and neither pulled away.

That sight rattled me almost more than the shadows had. My parents, side by side, in the same place. For so long, that had been impossible. For so long, my mother had kept herself oceans away from this magic, this town.

But she was here.

And suddenly I remembered that she’d wanted to tell me something.

The thought wedged itself into my chest, hot and insistent, louder than the hum of the students comparing scars and cracked wands. My grandmother’s sacrifice still echoed in my bones, and yet my mother’s silence pressed just as sharply.

Why now? Why had she come back? Why was she here at the very moment when everything was splintering and stitching at once?

My hands clenched in my lap.

Nova and Ardetia shared a look, their decision made without another word. “We’ll return with Stella and the others,” Nova said, her tone final, brooking no argument.

“I’m really sorry about Gideon,” Skonk said, and I nodded.

“You did your best. We all did.”

“Off we go,” Ardetia said.

“Do hurry,” Twobble added.

Ardetia rolled her eyes, though I caught the twitch of a smile. “Rest. Regroup. We’ll handle this.”

I nodded, my throat tight. “Thank you.”

They slipped into the shadows, their forms gliding through the courtyard with the kind of assurance that made me believe Stella and the others would be home soon enough.

But Luna.

Luna had betrayed us.

The yarn witch. The quiet shopkeeper who had always seemed harmless, eccentric in her way but safe, woven into Stonewick’s tapestry like a cozy, permanent stitch. She had smiled at me, brought skeins to the Academy as donations, and encouraged students to take up fiber arts for focus and spellwork.

And she had walked into Keegan’s hotel and tied up my family. My friends. She had walked out with Gideon.

My heart stuttered with the weight of it. The sting of betrayal pressed into my ribs until I wanted to claw it out.

“Maeve.”

Keegan’s voice pulled me back. I glanced at him, saw the way his gaze had shifted toward his mother again. She hadn’t moved, but her expression had softened.

And he hadn’t looked away.

Something fragile passed between them, some shared wound I couldn’t reach.

I pressed my hand against Keegan’s, grounding us both, but my eyes wandered back to my parents. My dad leaned heavily against the step, my mom quiet beside him. And the memory struck hard, her hand on mine in the cottage.