Page 184 of Magical Mission
“Stay with them,” I said, already turning from the window, my voice shaking but gaining speed. “Don’t let anything oranyonenear them until I arrive.”
Karvey gave a curt nod and dropped from sight.
I turned, sprinting down the hall, past a confused-looking book sprite who dropped a scroll midair.
I didn’t care.
I barely registered the noise of my footsteps, or the way my vision tunneled into nothing but the exit door and the edge of the forest, where my life had once fractured and where, apparently, it was being stitched together again with shocking speed.
Celeste.
And Skye.
InStonewick.
In mycottage.
When Gideon had already breached the Academy by hitching a ride, or at least his essence did.
I burst through the outer doors of the Academy and didn’t stop moving.
The path that once felt meandering now felt like an arrow. The air clung cool and damp to my skin, spring still waking in the branches overhead. Twigs cracked beneath my boots as I veered off the main path, heart pounding like a bell inside my chest.
Questions clawed their way to the surface.
When did they get here?
Why now? It wasn’t even spring break.
I reached the edge of the forest trail that led toward my cottage, the one nestled deep in the curve of the trees like a secret kept too long.
It had been my refuge.
My awakening.
And now, apparently, it was the meeting place of the two people I loved most from a world I had tried to protectby keeping them out.
I crested the last hill, breath catching in my throat as the mossy rooftop came into view, chimney smoking gently, the door cracked open like it had been waiting for me.
And on the porch…
Two figures.
Skye.
Celeste.
And everything in me fractured and realigned all at once.
The breath left my chest the moment I saw them.
Celeste stood at the bottom of the cottage porch steps, her boots muddy, her cheeks pink from the spring chill, her wide eyes trying, and failing, not to show the relief blooming there. And next to her, comfortably settled into one of my old rocking chairs like she’d never left it, was Skye, her belly round and resting under a cotton sweater stretched to its limits.
They looked like they'd both been through a whirlwind and somehow landed on my doorstep.
“Mom!” Celeste cried, sprinting toward me.
I didn’t brace myself. I just opened my arms and caught her.
