Page 177 of Magical Moonbeam

I could feel it too.

The light was almost gone.

Only a soft haze of silver clung to the uppermost arches of the Academy now, like dew that hadn’t yet evaporated.

One final breath of power.

And maybe, just maybe, enough.

“I need space,” I said suddenly, stepping back toward the center of the hall. “Tell the others to make room.”

Keegan’s brow furrowed. “Maeve—”

“I’ve seen Nova do it. I’ve practiced. I’ve watched the flow of layered spells.” I pressed my hands to my chest. “I can cast three. Maybe four if I time it right. But I need room.”

Keegan didn’t argue. He turned, fast and sure, and barked orders down the hallway. “Back. Everyone move. Give her room.”

Footsteps scrambled. Stella was there first, standing at the corridor edges, her eyes wide but gleaming. Nova and Ardetia appeared simultaneously from the distant corridor, their faces pale with understanding.

“You’re going to throw spells into the air,” Nova murmured, more to herself than anyone else. “Old magic. It’s a last-gasp gambit.”

Nova stepped forward, placing her hands on either side of my face. Her eyes searched mine, and for a moment, I felt like a student again, uncertain, grasping, full of raw potential.

Then she kissed my forehead and whispered, “Make it count.”

I nodded once and turned toward the fading silver thread of the Moonbeam, just a glimmer now, like a ghost across the rafters.

I raised my arms.

And I began to chant.

The first spell was the anchoring one—Vemda Felmani.Light that sought truth. It bloomed from my fingers like green flame, spreading across the floor and upward, tethering the Academy’s walls to its foundations in the Hedge.

The second came fast on its heels—Nolva Martii.A calling spell, woven to light, that pulled the final shimmer of the Moonbeam down into the stone. It caught like starlight in a glass prism, refracting outwards in every direction. It’s meant for regular moonlight, but maybe the Moonbeam would make it more powerful.

The third was the hardest—Exuram Befel.Nova’s name for the spell that unspooled bindings. It wasn’t just meant to shatter locks. It was meant to reveal what held something closed, then offer a choice.

It spun from my hands like a whip of violet light, lashing through the air, twisting into the cracks of the old curse.

The moment it touched the foundation, the floorscreamed.

Not in sound, but in energy. It recoiled. Shuddered.

And then—

I cast the last.

A Hedge spell, but rewritten in my blood.Nolma Nolpin.A Hedge witch’s vow not to protect power, but torelease it.

My chest burned and ached before I fell back, and light exploded outward from my chest. Not bright buttrue.It spread like fire through the Academy, brushing every stone, every ward, every whisper of magic. It wasn’t about power. It was aboutchoice.

And in that moment, I gave the Academy one.

Stay bound.

Or break free.

But we had to do this together.