Page 19 of Magical Mission
He paused, his grin slipping just a bit as he scanned the crowd.
“Third is…” His voice wobbled. “You’re all welcome here. No matter your past or your plans for your future. We are here to help you understand that your pain, happiness, and confusion have all led to this moment in life where we can harness it all and create greatness.”
Warm and whole silence drifted through the air, followed by another thunderous round of cheers.
He glanced back at me, cheeks flushed pink-green. “That’s all I got.”
I squeezed his hand. “That was beautiful.”
The applause continued and vibrated in my chest, making the air shimmer with more than just magic.
“Not so bad for agoblin,” Twobble muttered and sneered at my grandma, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. It would take some time for those two.
But I loved that the Academy hadn’t heard laughter like this in decades.
I breathed in the sound, letting it settle into the cracks inside me that had been there longer than I realized. The void of my ex-husband and daughter nagged at me so incessantly that I’d managed to become numb to the emptiness… until it started to fill up again.
Grandma Elira conjured up tray after tray of hard cider and hot cider. The crowd slowly spilled forward, mingling, introducing themselves, swapping stories over shared mugs of drink and good cheer that Grandma Elira handed out with each smile.
Nova drifted closer, nudging me with her elbow. “You pulled it off, Bellemore.”
I snorted. “If only it were that easy.”
My grandma smiled softly. “And they’ll remember this night.”
“I hope so,” I whispered.
But as I watched the laughter and the new friendships spark in the glow of the torches, I knew they would.
Because this wasn’t just about spells and lessons anymore.
It was aboutbelonging.
It was about rebuilding a world with room for goblins, witches, trolls, and shy gals who just wanted to learn how to make the stars dance.
It was about sayingyesto magic again.
But under it all, that gnawing thread of tension remained.
Because Gideon wouldn’t ignore this.
He’d see the lights. He’d hear the laughter.
And he’d see it as a threat.
But good.
Let him.
Because now, for the first time, I wasn’t just a woman playing with magic, scrambling in the darkness of these walls.
We were an Academy.
And we weren’t going anywhere.
Chapter Five
Organizing the chaos that had exploded in the courtyard proved to be more complicated than I’d expected.
