Page 53 of Magical Mission
Something watching.
Somethinginside.
I stood. “We’ll be careful. We’ll keep watch and keep it to ourselves.” Twobble zipped his lips dramatically. “Mum’s the word. Unless the shadow tries to talk to me. Then I scream.”
“Please do.”
As he scurried off, muttering about warding his bed with salt and cookie crumbs, I stared down the corridor, the warm light flickering uncertainly along the stone floor.
The Academy had awakened.
But not everything it let in was meant to be here.
And I wasn’t going to wait to find out what that shadow wanted.
Not this time.
Chapter Thirteen
The doors to the library opened with a soft sigh as I stepped through the doorway and into the familiar hush that wasn’t silence exactly, but something deeper. I liked to believe it was a reverence of some sort. The library had always felt sacred to me.
Even before I knew the Academy’s walls could shift on their own, before I understood that the shelves listened, that the books had moods, and that the sprites had opinions—strongopinions, especially about shelving order and who was allowed to touch first editions, I understood that the library was my refuge. The moment I saw it at the cottage through the pedestal, I knew it would be my safe space.
But today, the magic was alive in a new way.
Because the library wasn’t quiet anymore.
It was full.
Students lined the aisles. Some were in pairs, and others stood wide-eyed in front of towering shelves that shimmered faintly with enchantments. Soft, knowing laughter floated over the sound of pages turning, and I saw more than one student jumping back as a book fluttered open on its own or zipped offa shelf, thanks to some book sprites, to land neatly in waiting hands.
I never knew how practical it could be to have book sprites as librarians.
They flitted through the air in organized chaos, chattering in their papery voices. Some carried scrolls. Others perched on shoulders or tugged at sleeves to redirect wandering readers. A few had tiny quills in hand, furiously scribbling notes on students' preferences that read,likes charms, afraid of poison ivy, very suspicious of warlocks.
My heart swelled.
It had been decades since the library had known this kind of life.
And I had helped bring it back.
We all had.
I paused just inside the doorway, letting the moment sink in. Letting myselffeelit.
The joy.
The movement.
Therightnessof it all.
The Academy was doing what it was built to do and what itneededto do. And these women were exactly the kind of people it had been waiting for to fill the Wards with new thoughts and strengthen them with life experience.
Older. Wiser. A little broken, maybe, but willing to learn again.
Some of them had tears in their eyes as they traced fingers over the titles. Some simply smiled like they’d stepped back into a room they hadn’t realized they missed.
I saw Mara flipping dramatically through a spellbook with illustrations that kept winking at her. Vivienne was seated cross-legged on the floor, a glowing volume hovering just over her lap, turning pages on its own. Opal trailed behind a sprite who kept pointing her toward different shelves with growing enthusiasm.
