Page 190 of Magical Moonbeam

“Dad?” My voice broke in the middle.

He smiled, softly, carefully, the way you might smile at something so delicate you were afraid your breath might break it.

“Hi, sweetheart.”

I stumbled forward, my legs suddenly made of feathers. And then I was in his arms. Not around fur and squishy bulldog shoulders, but real arms, strong and warm. His embrace wrapped around me, anchoring me more than any spell ever could.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered into his coat. “How? When?”

My chest seized.

His green eyes met mine. The same ones I’d stared into as a little girl. Eyes that once belonged to a cursed bulldog, only they were brown then.

Eyes that now belonged to my father as a human.

He stood straight, his posture tentative but proud, a hint of disbelief playing behind his warm smile. The edges of his hair were touched with gray, his jaw lined with quiet strength. His shirt was too big, likely what he had been wearing the night he turned, but he looked whole. He looked free.

“Dad?” I whispered again.

He held me just as tight.

“I don’t understand,” I said against his shoulder.

He pulled back slightly, his voice thick with awe. “I felt something… shift. Like the curse holding me snapped. I could breathe deeply again. Think again. I changed back. We were in the Wilds out back when it happened.”

“Do you remember what it was like as a dog?”

“All of it.” He smiled gently, brushing a strand of hair from my face. “Every moment in that body. Every bark. Every time I tried to warn you.”

Twobble made a sound like he might burst. “This is the happiest moment of my life, and I once discovered an entire barrel of wild cherry tarts in the pantry.”

Stella handed Skonk a handkerchief.

Skonk dabbed at his eyes. “I said it was dust. It’s still dust. Allergies.”

I turned and caught Stella watching us, her lips parted in awe.

“The curse,” I said softly, “It’s unraveling, isn’t it?”

She gave a slow nod. “Piece by piece. This proves it. Transformations this rooted in old magic don’t just reverse. Something’s been undone. You’ve shaken the foundation.”

My dad let out a soft laugh. “Feels like the ground knows it too. I can hear it. The Academy is breathing again.”

I stepped back, just enough to see him fully. Another laugh escaped me, relief and astonishment wrapped in joy.

For the first time in what felt like years, something good had stuck.

And in that glowing pocket of wonder, with Twobble and Skonk dancing in small circles and Stella smiling through tears, I knew something was coming alive again.

The Academy was waking.

The curse wasn’t broken, but it was bending.

Nova walked over, slowing as she took in the scene. She blinked, as if shaken from a reverie. “If a transformation as deep as that one was undone, then yes… the magic is shifting. Cracks are forming. That doesn’t mean the curse is broken, not yet. But something big is changing.”

Skonk zipped upward again, twirling midair like a leaf caught in a good mood. “And I saw it! I saw the moment it happened! One blink—poof!—no more wrinkly tail, and his ears were no longer on top of his head.”

Twobble hopped in place. “And his nose wasn’t all squashed and wet anymore, which I do admit was an improvement.”