Page 88 of Magical Moonbeam

I nodded. “Not just to talk. To reason with him. To get through.”

Keegan sighed through his nose, then dropped onto the bench beside me, close but not touching. “And what did Twobble say?”

“He told me I was dreaming.”

Keegan didn’t disagree.

I glanced at him. “You think I’m wrong, too?”

“I think you’re brave,” he said after a moment. “And that you have more compassion than he deserves. But I also think Twobble’s right.”

I nodded slowly, the ache in my chest not going away.

“He’ll use it, Maeve,” Keegan said, quieter now. “If he sees a crack in your armor, he’ll make it wider. He doesn’t play fair. He never did.”

I looked away, toward the shimmer of the Butterfly Ward, the soft movement of vines along the edge of the path.

“I didn’t want it to come to this,” I whispered.

“Neither did any of us.” His voice was a low thrum. “But we’re here now. And we do what we have to do.”

He didn’t reach for my hand, but I felt the steady presence of him beside me, like a lighthouse in a gathering storm.

I breathed it in.

It wasn’t peace digging at my soul, it was clarity.

Keegan tilted his head slightly, watching the way my shoulders slumped forward under the weight of it all.

“Nova’s been waiting for this,” he said. “She’s got half a dozen spells ready for you to try.”

I turned to him, brows arching. “And I’m just learning about this now?”

His grin flashed like the sudden break of sunlight through clouds. “You were busy playing peacekeeper with the darkness.”

I let out a breath that was half a laugh, half a groan. “Of course, she has spells. Nova always has spells. I swear, sometimes I think she sees my schedule before I do.”

Keegan chuckled low in his throat. “She probably does.”

I leaned back, tipping my head against the stone edge of the fountain and gazing up through the twisting vines overhead. A hummingbird darted past, wings a blur, the moment so ordinary and magical it made my chest ache.

“That’s just how this place works,” I murmured. “You think you’re walking in one direction, and then suddenly there’s a whole other path under your feet.”

“Which makes you wonder if the path was always there,” Keegan added.

“Or if the Academy is building it around me, just a step ahead.”

He didn’t answer right away, and I didn’t mind. His presence beside me was its kind of answer.

I closed my eyes for a beat, letting the garden sounds seep into my bones—the rustle of ivy, the wind drifting through blossom-heavy branches, the faint hum of magic that was always just beneath the surface here.

One day.

One day until Moonbeam’s Eve.

And still so many unknowns.

I straightened slowly and rubbed my hands over my face. “Guess I should go see what Nova’s been scheming. If she’s waiting with a stack of incantations and that look she gets when she knows more than she’s telling, I’d rather face it head-on.”