Page 79 of Magical Moonbeam
It feltwrong, but not unfamiliar.
I moved slowly as my hand brushed against the cool stone of a crumbling storefront, fingers catching briefly on cracked mortar. The illusion was convincing, down to the scent of wet stone and the faint trace of smoke in the air.
A shopfront blinked into focus to my left. The old apothecary. I’d dreamed of it once, but now, vials were shatteredacross the floor, and something had spilled that shimmered black and violet in the lamplight.
Why had I come here alone?
Because no one else could do this for me. Not Nova, not Ardetia, not even Keegan.
Certainly not Twobble or Skonk.
Because I had to know that I could stand in the shadow of Gideon’s domain andnotlet my knees buckle. That I could face the whisper of his presence and still think clearly. That I could control my thoughts. My dreams. Mytruths.
I kept walking.
Past a fountain nearly swallowed by vines. Past a twisted streetlamp that sparked intermittently. Past a set of stairs that led to nowhere at all.
And then I saw the mansion.
It loomed at the top of a sloping street, just as it always had in my dreams and illusions. Wrought iron fences, twisted like skeletal fingers. Gables that clawed at the sky. A front door that never stayed shut for long.
I stood at the base of the path and stared up at it.
My mouth went dry.
There was no sound. No wind. Even the fog felt like it had paused to listen.
“I know you’re not real,” I whispered.
But even that felt too loud.
I turned my back to the mansion before it could pull me in further. I wasn’t here to lose myself. I was here totestmyself. Todraw lines in the sand. To walk the edges of fear and still come out whole.
I made my way toward the church instead. Or what passed for one in this illusion. It had no bell. No altar. Just a hollow structure of stone and shadow.
Inside, the air was colder still.
I stood in the center and closed my eyes.
And I remembered.
The Moonbeam.
The dragons’ warning:The Moonbeam reveals what you are, not what you wish to be.
My grandmother’s voice. Besides your dad, you’re the first Bellemore in generations not to run.
The heat of Keegan’s hand in mine.
The terrible chill in Gideon’s voice when he whispered that he’d missed me.
All of it stirred inside me, a storm I hadn’t learned how to still.
I exhaled slowly, focusing on the way Ardetia had taught me. Not pushing the thoughts away, butcontainingthem. Naming them. Holding them without letting them spill.
Because this was where the Moonbeam would lead me.
Into this fog, into this shadow, and into this place where dreams leaked and reality bent was where I would be.
