Page 154 of Magical Moonbeam
She nodded. “And something else. Something old.”
“Lovely,” Twobble muttered.
“I think we’ve got a new definition of midnight oil,” Skonk barked from somewhere overhead. I glanced up to see his glimmering body weaving through the treetops like a lightning-wrapped cat. “The Moonbeam’s thinning faster than we thought.”
“I know,” I breathed.
That’s when the path split, right in front of us.
The Moonbeam cracked.
One part veered toward the hills, curling like a beckoning hand.
The other arrowed straight for the Academy.
I stopped, just for a breath.
Bella skidded to a halt beside me, her hand instantly going to my elbow. “Maeve…”
“I thought tonight was supposed to be about the curse,” I said, voice low, almost ashamed. “The Wards. The town. I thought we’d finally start to mend it all.”
Keegan turned toward me. His face softened, but his eyes were serious. “Maybe this is part of that.”
“How could I not see this?”
“Maeve,” Nova said gently, “saving one doesn’t mean abandoning the others.”
Ardetia appeared then, gliding from behind a pine tree, her feet never quite touching the ground.
“Are you saying my purpose changed?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I’m saying maybe the Academy’s did.”
Keegan stepped in front of me. “We choose now, Maeve. Or it chooses for us.”
I turned, heart hammering, to see Celeste through the Veil. Her face was calm. Too calm. She was trusting me.
But we fell through it, like a portal casting out misfits.
And we ran.
The light twisted tighter around us as we followed the Academy-bound beam; the ground beneath our feet glowed like stardust. The Moonbeam fought us now, almost like it wanted to pull us apart and study each thread of our souls.
Stella surged forward, wrapping Celeste and Nova tighter in a cocoon of golden mist.
Ardetia whispered words I didn’t understand, and the path opened wider.
Skonk darted ahead, his tail a streak of blue fire. “Clear up here!”
The Academy’s silhouette appeared in the distance, its spires shimmering in time with the Moonbeam, alive with breath and waiting…but barely.
And I knew then, this wasn’t about just saving the Academy or breaking the curse.
This was about protecting the magic that connected us all. The place. The people. The possibility.
We reached the last arc of the Moonbeam just as the Veil shuddered. Nova and Lady Limora turned in perfect sync and slammed their staffs into the ground.
A shockwave of magic rippled through the air like thunder and shattered the pursuing darkness behind us.
