Page 183 of Magical Mission
I stepped inside the Academy, closing the heavy oak behind me, already bracing for the quiet hum of students, but the stillness hit me differently this time.
Maybe it was the weight of Stella’s words still clinging to my thoughts. Or the look in her eyes…the one that said she knew I’d leave sooner than I was willing to admit.
Storm’s already rising.
She wasn’t wrong.
But I hadn’t expected it to gatherthisquickly.
As I passed the corridor just before the main hall’s library, movement outside the tall windows caught my eye, sudden and unusual.
A flash of stony gray and an anxious shuffle zipped by.
I paused, took a few steps toward the window, and then stopped cold.
Karvey.
The gargoyle stood outside the building, just beyond the trimmed hedgerow. Not perched. Not stoic.Pacing.
Pacing?
Gargoyles didn’t pace. Not unless something was wrong. Somethingdeeplywrong.
My heart jerked into motion. I rushed to the window, fingers fumbling with the latch, and shoved it open, letting the cool breeze rush into the hallway.
“Karvey!” I called down, voice low but sharp.
He turned at once, stone wings twitching slightly as his gaze locked on mine.
“Maeve,” he rasped, gravel-laced and rushed. “You must get to the cottage.Immediately.”
I blinked. “Is it Miora?”
“No,” he said, voice cutting through me with chilling clarity. “It’s your daughter. And your best friend.”
The world shifted.
My legs went numb.
“My—what?”
Karvey flapped once, awkward and urgent, and hovered closer to the open window, claws gripping the stone sill like his message couldn’t wait another second.
“They’re there,” he said. “Both of them. At the cottage. They appeared just minutes ago.”
I blinked hard, my pulse thundering in my ears.
“Are they hurt?”
“No. Not physically. But I think they might have seen me jump off the roof.”
A cold sweat broke across my neck.
Celeste.
Skye.
My worlds,bothof them, colliding.
