Page 31 of Magical Mischief

Chapter Eight

I scanned a few lines, feeling a faint pulse of magic hum beneath my fingertips.

This was it. This very spell would save my dad, but I couldn’t tell a soul. I needed the element of surprise, even when it came to my friends.

“It’s illusions, mostly. Protective illusions that even fools sorcerers,” I said, reading the words and imagining the outcome. “Helpful stuff.”

“Indeed,” Bella said, nodding.

But there was something else. A synergy with living creatures, a reference to… shifter synergy.

Big and small.

The text called it sizoria.

Stella sipped her tea, her vampiric features momentarily soft.

“Maybe because Gideon’s illusions are mostly anchored in the darkness and partially in the light that he’s stolen, it will suggest how to play one off the other. If you could weaverealities keyed to that synergy of dark and light, you might be able to shield your father or break Gideon’s illusions for a brief moment. Then we can come over, snag him up, and run like the wind.” Bella shrugged and glanced over with a smile. “Or you could just make some brownies and watch them explode.”

“It might come to that.” I laughed despite myself.

“If there’s a witch that could pull that off, I dare to say it just might be our Maeve.” Stella always had a flair for drama.

“I’m getting better by the day, though.” I grinned, feeling the tension lessen slightly.

“And we have until tonight to create perfection,” Stella snickered, walking toward the pastry counter. “No worries there.”

I flashed a wry grin, feeling the confidence build inside. This secret plan of mine would be perfect, and no matter how much I wanted to tell Stella, Keegan, Bella, and Nova what it entailed, I just…couldn’t.

They’d know most of it, just not the finale.

From the moment I set foot into Stonewick, I’d been told the answers would come when I needed them, and as annoying as that had been, I was starting to understand Stonewick’s logic, the Academy’s wisdom. And now it was my time to use that motto.

My eyes flicked back to the incantation.

Reading the instructions made my head spin, but I could sense the inherent power underneath and the element of surprise.

And something inside of me knew that my father would know exactly what to do at the right time.

This was going to work.

It had to work.

We had my dad to get back, an Academy to open, a curse to be broken.

I exhaled, flipping to another page where two shifters on opposing sides fought one another.

I swallowed back a creeping dread. Gideon’s illusions were precisely what made him so dangerous. He could slip into my dreams, my reality, wearing any face he pleased. He used the shell of my best friend to deceive me easily, but the essence…the essence was wrong.

And I had to always give myself a moment to ensure that I knew who I was dealing with, no matter how hectic the situation, even tonight.

“The book gives me the means to replicate or break illusions that tether themselves to shifter energies.” I closed the cover. “Which is exactly what I need if I’m going to save my dad.”

“Notifyou’re going to save Frank,” Stella said softly behind the counter. “Whenyou’re going to save Frank.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

Bella nodded. “If you ask me, the sprites couldn’t have found a better time. No matter how complicated or risky it looks, you might find a clue inside that book, which spells Gideon’s downfall not just tonight, but in general.”