Page 166 of Magical Moonbeam
It didn’t resist.
Itwelcomed me.
The Hedge flooded my senses like wild wind through cracked windows. The corridors of the Academy melted away for a moment, and I was in the in-between.
The light curled gently against my skin, recognizing me now, not as an intruder, but as kin.
I reached down, deep, calling not for power…
But fortruth.
“Show me,” I whispered.
The Hedge answered.
A bit of Moonbeam light burst beneath my hands. Not full. Not whole. But enough. I felt the lingering silver of the night’s power, the last thread of the Moonbeam still shimmering on the root-lines of the Butterfly Ward, tangled through the Academy like delicate lace.
It hadn’t fled.
It hadwaited.
For me.
For truth.
I pulled it up, slowly, carefully, letting the glow curl around my arms like a cloak. It was cold, sharp,true. The Moonbeam’s power wasn’t soft.
It was ancient clarity and everything sacred.
With it in my hands, I rose.
The corridor pulsed with dark magic, and from it, he emerged.
The Moonbeam wasn’t about breaking the curse. It was about finding the truth.
Gideon’s silhouette, slick as oil, flickered in and out of the shadow threads. His face half-formed, his voice a smirk without lips.
“Still trying to sweep up moonlight, Maeve?”
My heart stuttered, but I stood firm.
“I don’t need all of it,” I said. “Just enough to cut you out like the rot you’ve become.”
He laughed.
The shadow behind him twisted, and he charged, faster than thought.
His form shifted, sleek and hungry, a predator made of smoke, charm, and teeth. I threw the Moonbeam forward like a net, catching his fear.
It flared silver, searing into the dark mist of his body, and hescreeched, a sound like broken glass being inhaled.
Keegan snarled beside me, blade at the ready. “You sure you don’t want help?”
“Cover the others!” I shouted. “This part’s mine for now.”
He hesitated, but nodded once. He turned to guard the corridor behind us, where Stella and Lady Limora scrambled to reinforce the fading spells.
Gideon’s shadow darted left, slicing toward me like a whip.
