Page 48 of Magical Mirage (Stonewick Magical Midlife Witch Academy #6)

The silver wolf did not move.

It stood on the edge of the lane where the cobblestones thinned into dirt, silver fur rippling faintly with each shift of the breeze. Light slid across its back like silk, catching on the curve of muscle, the proud lift of its head.

I couldn’t breathe.

Every instinct screamed to run, to bolt back toward the safety of laughter and crowded shops, but my sandals rooted to the ground. Its silver eyes held me fast. There was no hunger in them, no overt threat. Just… watching.

Waiting.

My fingers curled tighter around the paper bag of Stella’s teas until it crinkled, absurdly loud in the hush. The sound made me flinch, but the wolf didn’t stir. It only tilted its head slightly, as though listening for something I couldn’t hear.

“Who are you?” I whispered, though I hadn’t meant to speak at all.

The words dissolved in the warm air, but a shiver rolled down my spine. The wolf’s ears flicked forward, as if my voice had brushed against them. It lowered its head marginally, shoulders bunching like a coiled spring.

“Maeve.”

I gasped and whipped around.

Nova’s silhouette cut clean through the lingering light, her staff glinting faintly with threads of green light.

She moved with her usual quiet grace, her raven hair loose, catching light in its dark waves.

Her presence always steadied me, but in that moment, I wanted to grab her arm and shake her, force her to see.

“Behind me,” I hissed, my throat tight. “Don’t startle it.”

But when I turned back, the wolf was gone.

The space where it had stood yawned empty, only the hush of wind filling the silence. No pawprints in the dirt. No ripple of fur disappearing into the hedges. Just absence, clean and cruel.

I blinked rapidly, heart thundering. “No. No, I saw it.”

Nova stepped closer, brows furrowing as her gaze swept the lane. “Saw who?”

“The wolf. A great silver wolf. Right there.” I pointed, breathless. “It was staring at me.”

Her eyes softened, steady but unreadable. “Maeve, there’s nothing there. A mirage, perhaps?”

“I’m not imagining things.” The protest burst out of me, sharp and desperate. “Its eyes. Its eyes were blue as ice…silver. I could feel it watching me. You didn’t see it?”

“No.” Nova’s tone was calm, almost too calm, like one speaks to someone rattled by a dream. “All I see is a path, a wall, and you trembling like a rabbit.”

The tea bag crumpled against my chest as I hugged it closer, like it could anchor me. “I swear to you, Nova. It was here. Not shadow, not illusion. Solid. Real. It was the wolf that saved us.”

Her hand brushed my arm, grounding, though her gaze was sharp. “Then if it was, and I couldn’t see it, that worries me more than if you imagined it.”

Her words sank into me like cold water.

I stood frozen, heart hammering, the chill of the absent wolf still clinging to my skin. Slowly, I forced my lungs to steady, dragging breath after breath into me until the world stopped spinning.

Recognition slid over me like a shiver. Not just a wolf. Not just any vision.

The silver wolf.

I whispered the name aloud, the words tasting both foreign and inevitable.

Nova’s eyes caught mine in the dim light, unreadable. “You know what you saw.”

“I do.” My voice cracked. “But I don’t understand it.”

Her gaze sharpened. “Have you asked Keegan who it is recently?”

The question hit me like a blow. My fingers tightened around the bag of tea until the paper dug into my palm.

“Many times.” My throat closed around the admission. “But he won’t tell me. He dodges, or he growls, or he changes the subject. He won’t say.”

Nova shook her head slowly, like she had expected the answer and hated hearing it all the same. “Then it is time to ask the mirrors.”

The mirrors.

The words made my stomach clench. The Hall of Promises, with its endless reflections, and where truth had a way of sneaking through whether you wanted it or not.

“I don’t want to,” I whispered. “I want him to tell me. I want Keegan to trust me enough to…” My voice broke, and I pressed a fist against my chest, as if I could still the ache there. “I don’t want the Academy to force it. I want it from him.”

Nova’s staff tapped gently against the cobbles, a steady sound in the emptiness. “Wants don’t change truths. If he will not speak, then the mirrors will. And you cannot wait, Maeve. You know this.”

The silence stretched between us, heavy and undeniable.

I wanted to scream at her that she was wrong, that Keegan would tell me in his own time, that I could wait. But deep down, I knew she was right. Waiting might cost us more than answers.

I closed my eyes, exhaling a tremor that felt too much like surrender. “I hate that you’re right.”

“I usually am,” she said, with a flicker of dry humor, though her expression stayed solemn. “But you won’t go alone. I’ll walk with you.”

The promise settled over me like a balm, though the thought of stepping into that chamber again made my knees weak.

I turned back toward the hedgerows where the silver wolf had stood. The memory of those silver eyes seared into me, refusing to fade. My skin still tingled where its gaze had touched me, a brand no one else could see.

“Why was it?” I murmured again.

Nova touched my arm lightly, grounding me. “That’s what the mirrors will show.”

I swallowed hard and nodded, clutching the tea bag like a talisman as we started back toward the Academy. The village lights dimmed behind us, and the path ahead glimmered faintly with the pulse of hidden magic.

My chest ached with dread, but under it thrummed something else, resolve.

If Keegan wouldn’t give me the truth, then I’d pull it from the mirrors. Even if it shattered me.

The Academy’s halls swallowed us in hush.

Even with Nova at my side, staff clicking softly against the stone, I felt like an intruder. The sconces flickered as if aware of our purpose, their light stretching shadows thin and wary. Each step closer to the Hall of Promises pressed heavier against my chest.

The mirrors knew when you came with questions. And mine tonight pulsed like a wound.

We reached the final corridor. The air thickened, warmer than the rest of the Academy, laced with the faint scent of crushed herbs and something metallic, like old blood. The vines along the walls twined tighter, curling as if to block our passage.

“They don’t like it,” I whispered.

“They never do,” Nova answered, her voice low. “Truth unsettles them.”

When the door shifted open, it wasn’t the hall I remembered.

The circular chamber gleamed. Mirrors arced endlessly, while vines bloomed pale blossoms along the walls, but the air was off.

Too still. Too sharp, like the pause before a storm breaks.

The mirrors should have reflected the soft glow of candles and leaves.

Instead, they glittered coldly, each surface faintly warped.

I stepped forward, pulse racing. My sandals echoed too loudly against the stone.

“This isn’t right,” I said. “It feels… hollow.”

Nova’s staff touched the floor, sending out a ripple of muted light that faded almost immediately. She frowned. “The mirrors resist. They don’t want to be asked.”

“Then how do I make them answer?” My voice cracked, betraying my fear.

Her eyes softened. “Not with words. Not with logic. Not even with magic as you’ve been learning it. This answer lies only in the heart.”

I hugged the bag of Stella’s tea closer, ridiculous comfort against the chill crawling my skin. “I’ve given my heart enough, Nova. To my marriage, to Stonewick, to the Academy… and to him.”

Her gaze held mine, steady and certain. “And it is your heart that will open the truth, Maeve. Not your fear. Not your questions. The mirrors echo only what the heart dares to admit.”

I swallowed hard. My heart. That raw, vulnerable thing I’d tried to guard ever since Alex. Ever since every betrayal that had left me raw and bitter. And now, to face the silver wolf, to face what Keegan wouldn’t tell me, I had to tear it open again?

“I don’t know if I can.”

“You can,” Nova said, with a quiet certainty that rattled me more than doubt ever could. “You already have. Every time you’ve chosen to stay here. Every time you’ve fought. Every time you’ve loved despite the risk.”

The mirrors shimmered faintly at her words, as if agreeing.

I took a shaking step into the center of the chamber. The vines rustled faintly, their blossoms dropping soft petals onto the stone floor. Each mirror around me quivered, waiting.

I pressed a hand to my chest, closing my eyes.

Not spells. Not riddles. Not Keegan’s evasions.

Only my heart.

And the truth it dared to hold.

The mirrors hummed faintly, rippling like a hundred shallow ponds stirred by a hidden wind. They wanted me to ask. To open myself. To bleed my heart into their glass and let them drink the truth I was too afraid to face.

My hand trembled against my chest, where my heartbeat pounded, frantic and alive.

But even as the magic prickled at my skin, I knew.

The answer was here, yes…but it wouldn’t give me the satisfaction I needed.

Not now. Not with this.

The silver wolf was no riddle in a book or a shadow tucked into history. It was here, flesh and breath. It had looked at me. And Keegan knew who it was.

If the trust between us couldn’t be expanded, knowing who the silver wolf was would be far less powerful than if he told me.

“No,” I said, the word cutting sharper than I expected. I dropped my hand, stepping back from the center of the chamber. “I won’t.”

Nova tilted her head, her green eyes keen and unblinking. “You won’t what?”

“I won’t ask them.” My voice steadied as the words rooted themselves inside me. “Not this time.”

The mirrors flickered, their light dimming in respect.

Nova’s staff tapped once against the floor.

“Maeve, the mirrors exist to answer what others will not. Why refuse them now?”

“Because this answer doesn’t belong to them.” My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. “It belongs to Keegan. And I want it from him.”