Page 87 of Magical Mischief

“And,” she added, “guess who heard me next?”

I already knew.

“Keegan.”

She closed her eyes. “Kill me.”

“Was he smug about it?”

“No,” she said, then made a face. “Worse. Calm. He just… reached in and pulled me out. Didn’t even raise an eyebrow.”

“Classic.”

“I swear I could hear the tree laughing behind me.”

We walked together after that. Slow steps. The kind you take when you're not in a hurry to get anywhere but don’t want to turn around.

“Feels different in here today,” she said after a while.

“Yeah.”

I didn’t say why.

Couldn't. The secret sat curled in my chest.

The dragons.

The nest. That soft heartbeat beneath the floor.

“You ever think the Academy gets lonely?” she asked.

“Sometimes,” I said. “But not in a sad way. Just… waiting. Maybe like my grandmother.”

Bella nodded, as if that made perfect sense.

I wanted to tell her. About the egg. The shimmer of light on scales. The way the dragon looked at me made it seem like it already knew everything I hadn’t figured out yet.

But I didn’t.

I knew I couldn’t.

“So,” she said, brushing her hand along the wall, “anywhere you’re heading, or just letting the stones guide you?”

“I’ve been thinking about the Maple Ward.”

She gave me a look. “Well, I think I found part of it.”

I laughed. “I think you confirmed my thoughts on the Ward.”

“Like what? It’s hungry?”

“Not sure. It keeps circling back in my head. Like a song I only half remember. I still haven’t learned about it yet or visited it.”

“From what I saw of it, I’m not a fan,” she said. “It smells like rain, but not in a nice way, like wet metal and old fruit. Spells don’t even behave right in the grove. I tried to get myself out of its clasp, but the limbs wouldn’t budge.”

“With a smell like that, it means something’s buried.”

She didn’t argue that. “Secrets, probably.”