Page 151 of Magical Moonbeam
I’d been fooled.
I closed my eyes. Focused on my breath. One inhale. Two.
My truth was this. I was a Hedge witch with half-learned spells and a heart full of fury, and I would not let that man win.
Not here.
Not there.
Not ever.
I opened my eyes, turned, and stepped toward the edge of the street, where the sidewalk vanished into curling mist.
“No, no, no,” I whispered, spinning in place, trying to locate any sign of the Veil’s weakness, the moonbeam’s tail, anything I could use to claw my way back through to start over.
Because Gideon wasn’t in Shadowick any longer.
He was trying to gain admission to the Academy.
He knew about the dragons.
Gideon had said it so cleanly earlier tonight.
So confidently.
Dragons.
It wasn’t a metaphor.
Maybe he needed the dragons. Not just to destroy them, but to use them.
And worse, if he reached the dragons, if he bent them somehow… if he managed to tether even one of those ancient beings to his will…
He wouldn’t just break the Academy.
He’d reshape the world.
I sprinted forward, heart in my throat, spells gathering behind my teeth, and looked through whatever thread remained of the Moonbeam.
The chill that met me on the other side didn’t belong to Shadowick.
It was the breath of something ancient.
And angry.
And waiting.
But this time?
It didn’t feel like home.
It felt like a battlefield.
And Gideon was already there.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I blinked my eyes open to see the fog thickening, dragging lower across the crumbled streets of Shadowick, as if the town itself had leaned in to listen.
