Page 40 of Magical Mission
“He’s out there,” I said softly.
Keegan followed my gaze.
“Then we’ll be ready,” he said.
I looked at him again, and something in my chest eased. Not all the fear. Not the weight of responsibility. But something small and sharp that had been lodged there since the day I first set foot on Academy ground.
I didn’t have to carry it all alone.
Not anymore.
It wasn’t just my grandma and I wandering the Academy halls.
“We’ll need more teachers,” I said, half-laughing, half-serious. “More allies. More wardens. More everything.”
“And we’ll find them,” he said. “Or they’ll find us.”
I tilted my head. “You sound awfully confident.”
He gave me a small smile. “I’ve been watching you, Maeve. Since before this started. And I’ve learned something.”
“What’s that?”
“When you believe in something—really believe—you move mountains.”
I blinked. “That’s very poetic of you.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
I smiled then, but not because the fear had gone, and not because Gideon had disappeared.
But because I remembered who I was.
And more importantly, who I had standing beside me.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I said, smiling up at him.
He looked at me like that mattered. LikeImattered.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said.
And as always, I knew he was telling me the truth.
Chapter Ten
I woke before the sun, and my heart pounded as if I’d been running through something dark.
For a second, I didn’t know where I was. The ceiling overhead was high and arched, framed in sunlight, the faint shimmer of protective spells laced into the corners. The bed beneath me was warm, the quilt rumpled and tangled around my legs. Frank snored softly at the footboard, his big, heavy breath comforting in its constancy.
But something wasoff.
I sat up slowly, pressing a palm to my chest. My skin was damp with sweat, despite the cool room. The air felt too still, as if I were stuck in a pause.
A dream.
I knew I’d had one. But the details slipped through my mind, impossible to grasp.
But the sensation from the images remained. It felt as if there was more left to haunt me with. Something waiting. Something watching.
