Page 85 of Magical Mission
“We may not have a choice,” Keegan replied. “But wedoget to fight smarter this time.”
I smiled faintly. “Well. That’s a start.”
Outside, the bell chimed for the second class of the day.
Students bustled through the halls again, arms full of books, laughter echoing down the stone corridors. They were already finding a rhythm and already claiming this place as their own.
And someone didn’t like that.
But I wouldn’t let the shadow of an old threat silence this day.
Not today.
“Come on,” I said to Keegan. “Let’s follow the circle’s edge and see where it bends.”
Keegan tucked his hands in the pockets of his coat, the note long gone to be studied later, and gave me one of those looks—half serious, half amused.
“I’ve got class to teach in ten minutes,” he said. “So, we'd better find it quick.”
I blinked at him. “You?”
He arched a brow. “Me.”
I couldn’t help it and laughed. “Whose bright idea was it to makeyoua teacher? Tell me that.”
His mouth curved into a crooked smile. “Good question. I think it might’ve been yours.”
“Lies.”
“Feels right though,” he confessed.
I shook my head, still grinning. “What are you teaching today? Ten ways to growl at students until they respect you?”
“First of all, the growl is reserved for those close to me.”
A flutter from nowhere shivered through me because, truth be told, I loved nothing more than hearing it.
“I’ll have to remember that.”
We stood there for a beat longer, with that easy, warm space between us.
But something shifted.
Not around us.
Inme.
It started in my shoulder, then crept like a chill across my collarbone. The coolness settled in the soft curve right over the butterfly birthmark etched faintly into my hip.
I pressed my hand to the quiet throb, as if it had been tapped from the inside.
It didn’t feel like a warning, just a summons.
Keegan noticed. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly, though I wasn’t sure what I meant by it. “Just… pulled.”
His eyes flicked to my hand, then to my face.
