Page 143 of Magical Moonbeam

Another one lunged, and I ducked low, flinging my hand forward, but this time the spell came slow. I hadn’t recovered enough energy, and it clipped the creature rather than banishing it. It shuddered, then reared up, eyes like black flames.

I didn’t have time to brace.

Then,thwack, a broom handle came swinging from the side, cracking the shadow mid-arc and sending it flailing backward into the wall.

“Never underestimate an old woman with good aim,” Stella said, her voice dry as ever.

She was beside me now, hair pinned up, cloak streaked with soot, and brandishing her broom like a war axe. Electricity zipped down the bristles.

But more shadows darted toward us.

Celeste gaped. “Whatareyou people?”

“Family,” Stella said. “Get behind your mother.”

More movement across the square. Ardetia flickered into view, her expression grim and furious, thin knives of light spinning around her fingers like blades of dancing moonlight. She launched them into a cluster of dancers that had begun to merge.

Two creatures fused into something larger, more monstrous, and I was so grateful for everyone.

Bella appeared on the rooftop above, her fox form shimmering as she launched herself down onto one of the shadows with a snarl, disrupting the perimeter.

Nova moved like a storm, quiet and direct, casting runes into the ground as she walked. Where the symbols glowed, the shadows stuttered and fell back.

They’d all remembered, every one of them, fighting in their way.

Even Skonk, whom I spotted near the old bell tower, was tossing small enchanted pebbles with alarming accuracy, each one exploding into shimmering nets that tangled the dancers’ limbs.

The moon above pulsed. A low hum of magic built in the marrow of my bones.

The Moonbeam was nearing its apex, and the curse would respond soon.

That meant Gideon would, too.

“Maeve!” Nova shouted over the chaos, sending a ribbon of flame through the legs of a towering shadow. “We’ve got this side! Go!”

“Go where?” I shouted back.

But she didn’t answer.

Because maybe that answer had to come fromme.

I turned to Celeste, who was watching with wide, stunned eyes. “You still with me?”

She nodded.

“Good.” I pulled her into a brief hug, pressing my forehead to hers. “I’m sorry this is how you had to find out.”

“I think I prefer it over a PowerPoint presentation,” she said faintly.

I huffed a laugh. “Okay. Let’s move.”

We ran past flickering storefronts where the mannequins had come alive and were helping fight, past trees whose roots were extinguishing shadows underground, along glowing lanterns that dimmed to throw off the enemies’ sight.

But none of them were helping Shadowick.

The Academy wasn’t visible from here, but I felt its pulse in my veins. It was awake. It was listening.

And I had one job left.