Page 95 of Magical Moonbeam

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One of the sprites dove.

I gasped.

“Hold it,” Ardetia whispered. “Draw it back.”

I pictured the spoon. I pictured Celeste’s crooked grin, the wood shavings in her hair, her pride.

The sprite flinched mid-flight, reeled, and turned away.

My breath hitched. “It worked.”

Nova stepped forward. “Again. But this time, something newer in your heart.”

I didn’t want to, but I did.

Keegan’s face rose in my thoughts. The first time he looked at me after the kiss. His eyes were dark with something I still didn’t have a name for.

The sprite dove.

I flinched.

But I held it.

Barely.

It pulled at me, like a fish on a hook. I dug my heels into the stone and whispered, “No.”

The sprite stopped.

Then retreated.

Ardetia gave a rare, full smile.

“You’re learning.”

Nova stepped beside me. “One more.”

I braced myself.

My father’s voice.

His bark of laughter and the memory of him before the curse.

The sprite came hard and fast, but I was faster.

I wrapped the memory in light, tucked it behind the shape of the spoon, and buried it beneath the sound of Celeste’s laugh.

The sprite jerked away.

The forge calmed.

The lesson was over.

But something inside me had shifted.

The chaos of Hedge magic… wasn’t chaos at all. Not if I could shape it. Not if I knew where to look.

As I stood, sweat slicking my spine and my pulse finally steadying, I knew something I hadn’t known when we entered this room.

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