Page 53 of Magical Moonbeam

I covered my mouth.

“And now,” he said with a flourish, “I am here to… Wait. What is it I’m supposed to be doing again? Lurking menacingly?”

“You’re supposed to approach me like he would,” I called out, voice still catching laughter. “Calm, deliberate. With that... unnerving quiet confidence.”

“Oh.” Twobble pulled the scarf tighter and slowed his pace, this time walking like he was gliding, hands behind his back. “Maeve,” he said in a low, measured voice. “You’ve always had potential. It’s a shame you chose the wrong side.”

I exhaled, this time the laughter gone.

Becausethatpart?

That was something Gideon had actually said to me. Long ago. Or not so long. In one of those dreamlike visions where truth and illusion overlapped.

I nodded once. “That’s it.”

Twobble stopped a few feet from me and dropped the act, the scarf now tangled under one arm. “I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s okay,” I said gently. “You helped. I needed tofeelit.”

The others started to regroup behind me, murmuring among themselves, reviewing plans. The mock village stretched out around us, ghostly and grim.

But I stayed rooted where I was.

Watching the way the mansion sat on the fake hill, fog curling around its stone shoulders like it knew something I didn’t.

Keegan came to stand beside me again, saying nothing.

After a moment, I broke the silence. “What if he already knows?”

Keegan didn’t ask who.

“Gideon always knows more than he should,” I went on. “What if he knows we’re doing this? What if we’ve already tipped our hand?”

He didn’t answer right away.

“Then we keep going anyway.”

A soft wind stirred the edges of my cloak.

“Hewantsme afraid,” I whispered.

“And you are,” he said, not unkindly.

I turned to look at him. “Is that supposed to be comforting?”

“No,” he said. “It’s supposed to be honest.”

I managed a soft, exhausted smile. “Thanks.”

Nearby, Bella walked toward us, her steps light, almost too quiet for a human. Her eyes had shifted again, just slightly glowing in the low light. She was still settling back into herself after her patrol in fox form.

Twobble, Stella, and Skonk wandered toward the path leading to the Academy.

“I was listening,” she said as she joined us. “To the wind. The fog. The village’s illusion.”

“Anything helpful?” Keegan asked. “Can you tell us more about the Turning?”

She nodded slowly. “We choose what tocarryforward, but it’s not just about breaking curses. It’s about intention. What lives after the light fades?”