Page 153 of Magical Moonbeam

“Then what?” Stella asked.

“We shift the strategy,” I said. “We use what he’s used on us. Decoys. Illusions. Only this time, they’re ours.”

Keegan nodded slowly. “We leave Shadowick looking like we’re still here. Then no messages will be sent to him to let him know we’re gone. He’ll think we’re still playing the game on his turf.”

“Exactly,” I said. “If he’s watching, and he is, he’ll think we’re caught in his trap.”

Ardetia tilted her head. “And in truth?”

“We’re racing home,” Keegan said. “Fast as we can.”

Home.

There was a beat of silence.

Then Skonk muttered, “I hate when the enemy’s smart. Makes it so much harder to gloat later.”

“But it feels so much better.” Twobble breathed in.

“We need to go,” I said, already turning toward the edge of the village where the fog curled thickest. “We need to protect what’s left. Because this—” I gestured to the ruined buildings around us. “—was never the endgame. It was a distraction.”

Keegan stepped beside me. “Then let’s stop playing his game.”

And this time, we moved as one.

The Moonbeam wasn’t gentle tonight.

It howled like it had teeth. Maybe that was how it always was, I didn’t know. There was so much I didn’t know.

Nova led the way, her long coat flaring behind her like wings, staff glowing with steady light. I couldn’t help but steal glances at my daughter nestled in the protective magic cast between Nova and Lady Limora. They had circled her with a spell ofshimmering blue-green light. It flickered sometimes, just at the edges, and every time it did, I wanted to scream.

Silver light sliced through the trees ahead of us, illuminating our breath in sharp white bursts as we sprinted after it. My legs ached, my lungs burned, and still I pushed forward. Because behind us, always behind us, was the threat we couldn’t quite see.

“You’re sure it’s holding?” I called to them, my voice ragged with cold and fear.

“She’s safe,” Nova shouted without turning. “Nothing’s getting to her through this spell—not without tearing through the moon itself.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t decide to try,” I muttered.

Behind me, Twobble panted like a wheezing squirrel. “This was not what I had in mind for moonlight frolicking!”

“You thought we were frolicking?” Bella called back, grinning, even as her fox ears twitched. She ran like a whisper beside me, feet barely brushing the winding path. “I thought we were outrunning death. When you try to leave the Moonbeam early, I guess you are.”

I ignored that.

“Same thing some nights!” Twobble squeaked, then yelped as a branch narrowly missed his head.

Keegan was silent, flanking my left side, close enough that I could hear the soft growl in his throat. It wasn’t anger. It was instinct. Wolf magic rose in his blood the longer we were inside this thinning beam of light. The Moonbeam tugged at him harder than any of us. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes flicked from the path to Celeste to me, then back again.

“You holding?” I asked.

“Barely,” he gritted. “But I’m not stopping until we get her through.”

Behind us, Stella glided like mist over the ground. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dark, her magic pulsing in waves that left the trees shaking in her wake. She didn’t look at me, just said, “They’re close.”

My stomach turned.

“Shadow dancers?” I asked.