Page 105 of Magical Mischief

The words settled strangely inside me. Three weeks were… a lot. Had anything else changed while I was gone? Had the town shifted without me noticing? Did Celeste need me?

“I stopped by Nova’s,” I said, glancing toward the window. “I didn’t go in.”

“She’s out on a meditative walk,” my mom said. “She’ll be back soon. She’s been expecting you.”

Of course, she had.

“Anything else happen while I was... inside?”

Stella leaned one hip against the counter. “Besides your mom becoming the new darling of my regulars and the maple trees blooming early? Not much.”

My mother gave her a look.

“Are you serious? It’s the dead of winter…” My voice trailed off. “You saw blooms on a maple?”

“Well, they’re tiny little things. You have to look hard, but yes.”

“But it’s still winter,” I said more to myself than anyone.

“Don’t tell that to the maple down the street.” Stella shrugged, and excitement filled me up.

The Maple Ward was strengthening as best it could.

“Well, I’m sorry to have been gone so long.” I shook my head.

“We didn’t miss you too much.” Stella grinned.

I laughed. “Hey, now.”

She winked. “Truth hurts, sugarplum.”

I let myself laugh, finally, the tension in my shoulders loosening by inches. These two worlds were so divergent yet parallel that I couldn’t even begin to imagine how they would smoothly intertwine.

This place… it still felt like home. But it felt different now, too. Like the tide had gone out and left the shore changed in small, quiet ways.

Nothing dramatic. Just new patterns in the sand.

“Want to stay for tea?” Stella asked, already reaching for another mug.

I nodded. “Yes. Please. I’ll fill you in on what I encountered.”

Because I needed a moment. To sit. To feel. To catch up, not just on the people I’d missed, but on time itself. On the quiet changes that crept in when your back was turned. And maybe, just maybe, on whatever was waiting next.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The bell above the tea shop door jingled, and I didn’t even have to look up to know it was her.

Nova moved like a breeze through tall grass. Her movements were light, certain, and like she’d always been there. She stood in the doorway with her scarf half-wrapped around her head, little crystals woven into the ends like they had minds of their own, catching glints of light that weren’t even touching her yet.

“You came back,” she said, smiling.

My stomach flipped like it always did when Nova looked at me like I’d finally caught up with time.

“How did you know I was at the tea shop?”

“I felt you,” she said, shrugging off her scarf. “You’ve got that buzzing energy again. It hit me near the riverbank like a spell, chattering my teeth.”

Stella poured her a cup of something without asking and passed it on a saucer. “She’s been glowing since she walked in.”