Page 180 of Magical Moonbeam

The air warped.

Magic struck out, not in a bolt, but in a wave of pressure. Reality bent. Charms split. The very air seemed to fold inward like paper.

Nova countered instantly, slamming her staff into the stone.

“Protect the line!” she shouted, her voice echoing in ways it never had before.

The force of Gideon’s power hit like thunder. The wall behind me cracked. Chunks of marble shattered and flew like glass, but the shield held.

Barely.

“I’ve got this!” I yelled, pushing my hands outward. “Give me the space!”

Nova and Ardetia poured everything into the shield. Keegan dropped low, sliding across the stone floor. Stella hurled a waveof cold light across the ceiling, shattering the darkness Gideon cast above us.

But he kept walking.

Like it was all a game.

Like this wasn’t the crescendo, but merely a test.

“I know what you’re hiding,” he said, eyes fixed on me now. “I saw it. When you thought you’d pushed me out, you let mein.A sliver, a glimpse—”

My breath hitched.

He was bluffing.

Hehadto be bluffing.

But his smirk told me he’d seen enough.

“I wonder what the Academy would do,” he said slowly, “if it knew what you held so close. If it realized the very curse choking it might not be the worst thing that ever woke.”

Relief spread through me when I realized he wasn’t talking about the ancient creatures hidden away.

But I didn’t know what he was talking about.

So, I pulled.

I reacheddeeperthan I’d ever dared, calling on the Hedge magic buried in the seams of my soul. I drew up the old words, the ones Nova had whispered in firelight, the ones I’d scrawled in dirt and forgotten dreams. Spells I didn’t dare use until now.

I didn’t chant.

Icommanded.

The floor erupted in beams, slivers, and ribbons of living light. The very architecture of the Academy responded, ancientstones alighting with glyphs that hadn’t glowed in decades. A pulse beat through the ground,mine.Not his. Not the curse’s.

Mine.

Gideon reeled back, snarling.

“Enough,” I growled, stepping forward through the glow, every footfall a drumbeat in the rising storm. “You don’t get to pretend this is your story anymore.”

He lifted both hands, drawing more power, but it faltered.

Because I wasn’t alone.

Keegan was behind me, blade lit with runes.