Page 41

I blinked my eyes open to see the fog thickening, dragging lower across the crumbled streets of Shadowick, as if the town itself had leaned in to listen.

I could feel it gathering as the magic coiled tight, humming like a warning in my blood.

I moved fast, calling them one by one from their watch stations, their hidden posts near alleys and shadow-touched thresholds.

I didn’t give details. I didn’t need to.

They could hear it in my call. Something had changed. The perk of being a Hedge witch.

Ardetia appeared first, her hood slipping back as she emerged from the archway beside the chapel.

Nova wasn’t far behind, wind tangled in her dark hair, her gaze already sharp with unspoken questions.

Bella slunk from behind a crooked postbox, fox eyes gleaming as she shifted fluidly back into human form with a muttered curse about broken nails.

Twobble and Skonk stumbled down the path next, mid-argument about whether or not their perimeter illusion had been tampered with. Both fell quiet when they saw my face.

Stella arrived next, hurrying down from the ruined bell tower, her lipstick slightly smudged and her boots caked in moss and stone grit.

“Maeve,” she said breathlessly. “What is it?”

I didn’t answer right away. I waited for Keegan and Celeste.

He jogged into view, his sleeves pushed up and eyes scanning the group before settling on me.

“Your dad is safe,” he said. “He didn’t want to stay hidden, but he understands.” Then, catching the tightness in my shoulders, his voice dropped. “What happened?”

“He’s not safe. No one is safe.” I turned to them all. The weight of what I had to say sat like iron in my chest. “At the mansion, I was met with the illusion of Gideon.”

“What?” Twobble asked, squinting. “You mean—”

“An illusion,” I repeated. “He flickered. His hand… I saw through it. It was magic. Not him.”

A gust of wind swirled through the cracked square, dragging leaves in a spiral at our feet.

And I thought of the in-between. It was about time I took advantage of my abilities. We needed time, which we didn’t have, and privacy.

“Let me try something,” I whispered to everyone.

It went silent between us, and the world around blurred. Celeste watched me, but I realized she couldn’t live in the in-between, not yet. But the rest of us could.

“ He’s not here ?” Nova asked, tone unreadable.

“ Not any longer .” I looked at Keegan, and I saw the second he understood.

The color drained from his face. “ He lured us all away .”

“ All of us. Everyone who could protect the Academy .”

Ardetia drew in a breath. “ So he could slip past us .”

“ The Academy houses more than classrooms and chalkboards,” Stella said, crossing her arms. “ He’s after the deeper magic. The oldest pieces .”

And I wondered if she knew.

Keegan stepped toward me. “ He played us .”

“ Yes ,” I said. “ And I let him .”

“ No ,” Nova said quickly. “ He manipulated us. There’s a difference .”

“ But we have to move ,” I said with urgency. “ We don’t know what he’s done in our absence .”

Keegan’s jaw tensed. “ If he’s trying to breach the interior… if he’s near the vaults …”

Twobble groaned. “ This is bad. This is worse than bad. This is bedazzled-catastrophe-level bad.”

“ He’s after something ,” I said. “ And he’ll tear the Academy apart looking for it .”

“ We split,” Nova said. “ Some stay to hold the Veil here. The rest of us return .”

“ No ,” I said, shaking my head. “ We can’t split. He’s counting on us to be scattered .”

“ Then what ?” Stella asked.

“ We shift the strategy ,” I said. “ We use what he’s used on us. Decoys. Illusions. Only this time, they’re ours. ”

Keegan nodded slowly. “ We leave Shadowick looking like we’re still here. Then no messages will be sent to him to let him know we’re gone. He’ll think we’re still playing the game on his turf.”

“ Exactly ,” I said. “ If he’s watching, and he is, he’ll think we’re caught in his trap .”

Ardetia tilted her head. “ And in truth?”

“ We’re racing home ,” Keegan said. “ Fast as we can .”

Home.

There was a beat of silence.

Then Skonk muttered, “ I hate when the enemy’s smart. Makes it so much harder to gloat later .”

“ But it feels so much better .” Twobble breathed in.

“ We need to go ,” I said, already turning toward the edge of the village where the fog curled thickest. “ We need to protect what’s left. Because this— ” I gestured to the ruined buildings around us. “— was never the endgame. It was a distraction.”

Keegan stepped beside me. “ Then let’s stop playing his game .”

And this time, we moved as one.

The Moonbeam wasn’t gentle tonight.

It howled like it had teeth. Maybe that was how it always was, I didn’t know. There was so much I didn’t know.

Nova led the way, her long coat flaring behind her like wings, staff glowing with steady light.

I couldn’t help but steal glances at my daughter nestled in the protective magic cast between Nova and Lady Limora.

They had circled her with a spell of shimmering blue-green light.

It flickered sometimes, just at the edges, and every time it did, I wanted to scream.

Silver light sliced through the trees ahead of us, illuminating our breath in sharp white bursts as we sprinted after it. My legs ached, my lungs burned, and still I pushed forward. Because behind us, always behind us, was the threat we couldn’t quite see.

“You’re sure it’s holding?” I called to them, my voice ragged with cold and fear.

“She’s safe,” Nova shouted without turning. “Nothing’s getting to her through this spell—not without tearing through the moon itself.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t decide to try,” I muttered.

Behind me, Twobble panted like a wheezing squirrel. “This was not what I had in mind for moonlight frolicking!”

“You thought we were frolicking?” Bella called back, grinning, even as her fox ears twitched. She ran like a whisper beside me, feet barely brushing the winding path. “I thought we were outrunning death. When you try to leave the Moonbeam early, I guess you are.”

I ignored that.

“Same thing some nights!” Twobble squeaked, then yelped as a branch narrowly missed his head.

Keegan was silent, flanking my left side, close enough that I could hear the soft growl in his throat.

It wasn’t anger. It was instinct. Wolf magic rose in his blood the longer we were inside this thinning beam of light.

The Moonbeam tugged at him harder than any of us.

His jaw was clenched, and his eyes flicked from the path to Celeste to me, then back again.

“You holding?” I asked.

“Barely,” he gritted. “But I’m not stopping until we get her through.”

Behind us, Stella glided like mist over the ground. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dark, her magic pulsing in waves that left the trees shaking in her wake. She didn’t look at me, just said, “They’re close.”

My stomach turned.

“Shadow dancers?” I asked.

She nodded. “And something else. Something old.”

“Lovely,” Twobble muttered.

“I think we’ve got a new definition of midnight oil,” Skonk barked from somewhere overhead. I glanced up to see his glimmering body weaving through the treetops like a lightning-wrapped cat. “The Moonbeam’s thinning faster than we thought.”

“I know,” I breathed.

That’s when the path split, right in front of us.

The Moonbeam cracked.

One part veered toward the hills, curling like a beckoning hand.

The other arrowed straight for the Academy.

I stopped, just for a breath.

Bella skidded to a halt beside me, her hand instantly going to my elbow. “Maeve…”

“I thought tonight was supposed to be about the curse,” I said, voice low, almost ashamed. “The Wards. The town. I thought we’d finally start to mend it all.”

Keegan turned toward me. His face softened, but his eyes were serious. “Maybe this is part of that.”

“How could I not see this?”

“Maeve,” Nova said gently, “saving one doesn’t mean abandoning the others.”

Ardetia appeared then, gliding from behind a pine tree, her feet never quite touching the ground.

“Are you saying my purpose changed?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “I’m saying maybe the Academy’s did.”

Keegan stepped in front of me. “We choose now, Maeve. Or it chooses for us.”

I turned, heart hammering, to see Celeste through the Veil. Her face was calm. Too calm. She was trusting me.

But we fell through it, like a portal casting out misfits.

And we ran.

The light twisted tighter around us as we followed the Academy-bound beam; the ground beneath our feet glowed like stardust. The Moonbeam fought us now, almost like it wanted to pull us apart and study each thread of our souls.

Stella surged forward, wrapping Celeste and Nova tighter in a cocoon of golden mist.

Ardetia whispered words I didn’t understand, and the path opened wider.

Skonk darted ahead, his tail a streak of blue fire. “Clear up here!”

The Academy’s silhouette appeared in the distance, its spires shimmering in time with the Moonbeam, alive with breath and waiting…but barely.

And I knew then, this wasn’t about just saving the Academy or breaking the curse.

This was about protecting the magic that connected us all. The place. The people. The possibility.

We reached the last arc of the Moonbeam just as the Veil shuddered. Nova and Lady Limora turned in perfect sync and slammed their staffs into the ground.

A shockwave of magic rippled through the air like thunder and shattered the pursuing darkness behind us.

I stumbled to my knees, breath gone, and heart racing.

Celeste reached me, eyes wide. “Mom—”

I pulled her in, arms tight around her.

“I’ve got you,” I whispered. “We’ve got you.”

Keegan knelt beside me, his hand wrapping around mine.

And as the Moonbeam’s light dimmed, casting the forest into soft, silver twilight, I realized—

Maybe tonight wasn’t about breaking the curse after all.

Maybe it was about keeping the heart of magic beating long enough for us to try again.

Together.

And to show Celeste the possibility of magic for the new generation.

The light of the Moonbeam was still fading when I stood and gathered the others around me. Our breaths clouded the cold air, and the silence that followed the magical shockwave seemed almost holy. But I knew better.

We’d bought ourselves a breath, nothing more.

I turned to the group, my voice low but firm. “We don’t have long. The Wards must be checked before we enter the Academy. All four. If even one of them is compromised—”

“The curse strengthens,” Nova finished for me, her tone grim.

I nodded. “We split into groups.”

Nova and Lady Limora exchanged a glance and then looked at me.

“You two,” I said, “Stone Ward. You’re our strongest shields, and if Gideon’s placed anything near that barrier, I trust you both to handle it.”

Nova gave a sharp nod, her hand already on her staff.

“Bella,” I said, turning to the fox shifter, “take Ardetia. The Flame Ward is closest to the town center, and I don’t trust the wind tonight. Too many shadows riding it.”

Bella grinned, flashing the edge of her teeth. “I’ll keep her warm and fired up.”

Ardetia raised a brow. “I always have my methods.”

And to think, shifter and fae protecting our beloved ways…together again.

Stella stepped forward before I could speak.

“The Maple Ward?” she asked, already knowing.

“Yes,” I said. “Take Mara, Vivienne, and Opal. If that Ward’s grown brittle, you’ll need reinforcement magic. And the more the better.”

Twobble puffed his chest. “I’d volunteer, but I have another duty.”

He glanced at Skonk, who hopped down from the limb above, hair singed at the tips from the last burst of Moonbeam magic.

“We’ll stay with Frank,” Skonk said, his voice quieter than usual. “Keep him hidden in the Wilds. He’s already made a nest, of course.”

My heart squeezed. “Tell him I’ll be back.”

Twobble bowed dramatically. “With your daughter, and the stars themselves, if needed.”

Keegan touched my arm. “And the Butterfly Ward?”

I turned to Celeste, brushing a leaf from her hair. She looked tired, but her eyes were sharp. Awake.

“We’re going there together,” I said, meeting both their gazes. “The three of us. Then we all meet back at the Academy gates. As one before we go in.”

They nodded, no hesitation.

This wasn’t just a Ward check.

This was the moment before the plunge.

And we’d face it side by side.