Page 15 of Magical Moonbeam

“You’re not wrong,” Keegan said, his tone softer now. “But Maeve, I’ve seen what that place can do. You step into Shadowick, and it doesn’t just look at you. Itrecognizesyou. It finds the cracks.”

I turned to face him fully. “And I’ve spent my life pretending I didn’t have cracks. Maybe they won’t find them.”

His jaw clenched again, but not in anger. Worry etched his features, and I could not only see how much he cared, but I could feel it.

“You’ve changed since you came here,” he said. “You’ve grown stronger and sharper. But that’s also what makes this dangerous. Shadowick won’t just try to break you. It’ll try touseyou.”

“And I’ll have you,” I said softly. “I won’t be alone.”

That made him pause.

Light caught his eyes, turning the amber flecks into something almost golden.

Keegan looked at me not the way someone looks at a problem or a challenge, but in the way someone looks at the one thing they don’t want to lose.

My heart clenched, and I cleared my throat, glancing at the towering maple.

“I don’t want to be the reason you hesitate,” he said. “But I also don’t want to watch you walk into something we can’t pull you out of.”

I took his hand without thinking, and his grasp was steady.

“You’re not the reason I hesitate,” I whispered. “You’re the reason I’ll come back.”

For a moment, the Maple Ward held us in silence, as the world narrowed down to something as simple as breath and light.

Keegan didn’t let go, while his thumb brushed lightly against mine.

“You’d better,” he said.

I smiled. “I’d like to see Gideon or Shadowick try to stop you.”

His brow lifted. “Are you challenging a cursed realm to a fistfight on my behalf?”

“I mean, if it comes to that,” I teased. “But I know you’d win.”

He let out a quiet laugh, the tension in his shoulders easing at last.

“Don’t make me the romantic one,” he muttered.

“Too late,” I said.

We stood there a while longer, not talking.

But when we finally stepped away from the Maple Ward, I felt stronger, and certainly not because the path was clear, but because I wouldn’t walk it alone. We walked along the hallway and out the doors. I glanced at him before turning my gaze to the shadows stretching toward the hedges.

“I haven’t felt Gideon’s pull in days,” I said, voice low but sure.

Keegan stopped walking. “What?”

I turned toward him. “Not a flicker. Not a whisper of shadow magic. Nothing. And it’s been… days. At least three. I haven’t seen an illusion on the grounds like before.”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” I said. “I would know. Ever since I stepped foot into the Academy, maybe even before, I could always feel him, like a breath at the back of my neck. A warning. A reminder. But now? It’s just… gone.”

Keegan’s brows furrowed. “That hasn’t happened since…”

“Since he sent those decoys through here.”