Page 14 of Magical Moonbeam

Maybe it was Shadowick’s turn to break and be reborn, but at what cost to Stonewick?

I shuddered at the thought and smiled at Twobble.

Chapter Four

The others had scattered back to their classrooms. Their laughter and murmured worries faded with them, and only Keegan remained.

We stood beneath the canopy of the Maple Ward, its leaves rustling like a lullaby overhead. The sun dappled through the glass in shifting waves.

For a moment, it felt like the Academy had exhaled. Like the land itself was holding its breath for what we might do next.

“Do you think I’m bonkers?” I asked him.

Keegan crossed his arms and stared at the tree’s thick trunk. He hadn’t said much since the others left.

That alone told me everything.

“You’re brooding,” I said gently, brushing my hand along the soft edge of a nearby maple leaf.

He glanced at me, mouth twitching slightly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m not brooding. I’m thinking.”

“Right. You just think with your jaw clenched and your shoulders tense.”

He didn’t deny it. Instead, he looked back toward the shimmering edge of the Ward, where the light bent slightly around the barrier. His voice, when it came, was low.

“This plan… It sounds noble. Itisnoble. But noble things don’t always end well.”

I stepped closer and folded my hands in front of me. “You think we’re rushing into it.”

“I think you’re trying not to be afraid.” His gaze met mine. “And I think that’s more dangerous than fear.”

The words hit harder than I expected. I didn’t answer right away, because he wasn’t wrong.

Iwasafraid. But if I let that show, if I let it in too far, I might never act. That was what had happened in my doomed marriage. All the red flags waved and flickered in front of me for years, but I chose to ignore them because I was afraid. I let the fear paralyze me until the truth was so brutally honest that it became more crippling than the initial fear.

Instead, I tilted my head and asked, “What would happen if someone just walked into Shadowick? No magical transport, no tether spell, no gateway. Someone just put one foot in front of the other and walked across the line?”

Keegan frowned and hesitated before answering.

“Why?”

“Because I keep thinking about how we keep dancing around Shadowick as if it were another realm, but it’s not. It’sright there.A few hours, give or take, from Stonewick. If someone left Stonewick with a knapsack and enough trail mix, they could be in Shadowick on foot by evening.”

“No one does that. Not anymore.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “The borders aren’tjustphysical. Not anymore. You might get close, sure. But something happens when you try tocross.People lose track of time. Lose direction. Some walk for hours in circles. Some get in and don’t come back. You know how when the Academy was closed, you would lose track of time or worse, weeks would go by on the outside and you thought it had been merely hours?”

“I’m grateful the Academy meshes with real time now.” I shivered despite the sunlight.

“Everything about Shadowick is off.” His voice lowered. “Everyone who goes there, if they even return, is forever changed.”

The leaves above us whispered like they agreed.

I hugged my arms. “I was hoping the Moonbeam crossing might make things simpler.”

“It won’t,” he said. “It might make itpossible,but not simple.”

The Ward pulsed gently around us as we stood in silence.

“I need to believe it’s worth the risk,” I said finally. “If we don’t try, then what are we doing here? We break our curse, and then Shadowick just comes on stronger and curses us again?”