I stiffened. “Don’t call me that.”
She smiled. “But that’s what you are.”
I swallowed hard.
Because it was true, wasn’t it?
No one else had been tapped.
It was me.
Mom.
Maeve Una Bellemore.
Divorced.
Ordinary.
Now, head of an Academy that had slumbered for longer than most had been alive.
“Well,” I said, straightening my shoulders, forcing the old fears into the shadows. “Guess I better start acting like it.”
The wind tugged at my dark hair as I stepped onto the threshold, the Academy breathing behind me, alive with purpose again.
And I smiled.
Because for the first time in what felt like forever, I wasn’t scared of what was coming.
I was ready.
Wewere ready.
Magic belonged to the people again.
And no one,not even Gideon, was going to take that away.
Torches flickered to life, casting pools of amber glow across the old stones and vast yard. Their flames danced in the breeze like they couldn’t believe they were finally needed again.
And neither could I, honestly.
The air buzzed with nervous laughter, excited murmurs, and the occasional confused snort from a centaur who insisted the welcome line was moving far too slowly for her liking.
I stood awkwardly on the cracked stage at the head of the courtyard. Twobble by my side, practically vibrating with the effort of holding in all the words he wasdyingto blurt out.
Nova leaned casually against a pillar, arms crossed, eyes focused as she scanned the crowd.
Grandma Elira stood just behind me, her presence steadying in the way only grandmothers who’ve outlived wars and curses could manage.
And Bella and Ardetia slowly walked along the crowd's edge, taking in every being who came to Stonewick.
And the students?
They were a living mosaic of everything I’d hoped for and everything I’d never dared to dream.
A troll in a perfectly pressed waistcoat, her spectacles perched on the very tip of her elegant nose, politely chatted witha trio of giggling witches from the Laramie Caverns. I only knew because I heard one of them bragging about their village back home.
I glanced at a goblin with calloused hands and oil-smudged cheeks. She looked like she could dismantle the entire Academy brick by brick if given half a reason. Twobble took notice of her, too.
