Page 163 of Magical Mischief

What if he was still waiting?

What if every step I took forward was pulling him closer?

I wrapped my arms tight around myself and kept going.

The Academy loomed larger the closer I got, but the comfort I usually felt didn’t come. My breath was tight. My boots felt heavy. I wasn’t afraid of the building.

I was afraid of what it wouldn’t say.

What it wouldn’t see.

Because the Academy had made up its mind.

It wasready.

But maybe it didn’t realize that I wasn’t.

I stepped inside and wandered through the main hall until I found my Grandma Elira was seated near the hearth in the main corridor, just near the library.

She looked up the moment I stepped through the doors.

Her knitting needles stilled in her hands.

“Maeve?” Her voice held surprise, not alarm, but it stiffened her shoulders. “What’s happened?”

I pulled my gloves off slowly, trying to delay the answer. My fingers were stiff and cold, my nerves were tight, and the warmth of the Academy wrapped around me like it knew I needed it, but I didn’t feel any comfort from it this time.

Just heated worry.

“It’s the Butterfly Ward,” I said, meeting her eyes.

My grandma lowered her knitting to her lap. “What about it?”

“It’s fading.” I took a breath. “Cracking, maybe. This was my worry. That I wasn’t cut out to be headmistress. Things have already started falling apart.”

She blinked. “No, that’s impossible. It’s our strongest Ward.”

“It is,” I said, heart still pounding. “Keegan came with me. The shimmer is gone. The stones have lost color. There’s no resistance to the boundary, not even the faint hum. And my birthmark…it's been aching like a warning bell all day.”

My grandma stood, her movements sharp now. She crossed the space between us and took my hand, pressing herthumb against the spot just below my hip through my coat. Her eyes didn’t leave mine.

“It’s never faltered,” she said, almost to herself. “In all these years, the Butterfly Ward has never lost strength.”

“Well, it has now.”

We stood there in silence, the fire popping gently behind her, casting flickers of orange across the walls and books.

“I came back,” I said, my voice quieter now. “To talk to the Academy. To explain.”

“Explain what?”

I hesitated, and when I spoke, I looked away.

“That I might have… left something open. With Gideon.”

Her mouth tightened.

“Not on purpose,” I rushed to say. “But he got inside my head, Grandma. He showed me things before I realized what he wanted. And now I keep wondering, what if there’s a tether? A magical tie I didn’t feel form, but it’s there. And now that the Academy’s waking up, so is he. And he’s draining what he can.”