Page 12 of Magical Mischief

“Good news,” Keegan said. “Now, here’s hoping what I remembered from the texts was accurate.”

“I’m sure it is,” I said, chuckling. “Something tells me you forget very little.”

“There are some things I wish I could forget.” He took a step forward and touched my shoulder. “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back.” I smiled as I held the thick spell book.

“Did Bella decide to stay at the Academy?” he asked.

I nodded and felt a frown, pushing my eyebrows down. Stella’s brows quirked when she saw my reaction, and I quickly slid the gloominess from my expression. If she spotted how I felt about that matter, he would too.

It was only natural that he asked about our new friend, but whether I liked it or not, she was more Keegan’s speed. First, they were both shifters; she was gorgeous, graceful, and mischievous. I was just…me.

Not that being me was terrible. I wasn’t one of those ladies who beat themselves up over a stomach that flopped and hips that jiggled, but I was realistic. Would Keegan want a fox who could creep into the night or a witch that made brownies explode in the kitchen? I’d go with the fox.

“Should we open it up?” I asked as Keegan nodded, following me to the small dining table.

As I opened the book, the timeworn pages glowed faintly with residual magic. Anticipation skittered up my arms as I inched closer to read the print: Shifter Habitats, Shifter Mating (going to skip right over that one), Shifter Battles, and finally, Shifter tracking.

My heart pounded as I flipped through the crisp pages with Keegan standing behind me and Nova across the table.

Stella and Twobble stood near the fireplace, trying to keep their nervous energy at bay.

When my eyes finally landed on the spell. An incantation to trace lingering magic from a shifter who’d been forcibly taken was staring back at me. You could track a shifter very much like you would track an animal in the woods, but this involved spell work. Complicated spell work.

I looked up at Nova, knowing she’d be a better candidate to complete the spell.

Hope and dread churned inside me. By the looks of it, this could go incredibly right or terribly wrong.

There was so much at stake, but I was learning that magic was a delicate balance between worlds, equilibrium, and energy. It wasn’t the words or the items that made a spell successful. It was the intent and the connections.

My eyes met Keegan’s, and I cleared my throat. “I think I found what spell you were talking about, Keegan. Would you recognize it?”

I ran my fingers over the script, and the incantation felt alive and humming with ancient power. I lifted my gaze to Keegan’s, and his eyes locked on mine.

Did I see a hint of pride or was it something else?

Keegan dropped his gaze to the text, reading it to himself before looking back at me.

“This is it.” He smiled and tapped the book. “You’ve done it, Maeve. You’ve found the spell book.”

I shook my head. “Not really. The book sprites handed it to me on a platter.”

“Same difference,” Keegan said, smiling.

“Nova, do you think you should be the one who…”

My father’s rescue depended on this. Despite the cold shiver, I knew we had to try. But Nova seemed like the logical person to recite the incantation.

She cut me off. “No, the spell has a much stronger effect if someone with the same bloodline beckons the essence.”

I slid my fingers down the timeworn pages of the old tome, heart pounding with anticipation and dread.

The gentle crackle of the newly restored fireplace provided a cozy counterpoint to the tension in my stomach.

We were all gathered around the heavy wooden table now. Stella and Twobble moved next to Nova, Miora, and Keegan.

Our collective magic thrummed in the cottage’s freshly repaired walls, waiting to be unleashed. I could feel it.