My back had found the rough bark of a maple somewhere during the chaos, and now that the adrenaline was draining out of me, my legs didn’t seem especially interested in cooperating.
My chest rose and fell in uneven pulls of air.
The hedge still hummed under my skin.
Not violently anymore.
Just… there.
Alive.
Something in the clearing felt… different.
Not louder. Not brighter.
Just aware, somehow. Like the place itself had woken up and was quietly pleased about it.
Footsteps came pounding across the dirt.
“Maeve!”
Nova reached me first. She dropped to one knee right in front of me, her green eyes scanning my face the way people do when they’re bracing themselves to find something wrong.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” I said automatically.
Which was mostly true.
I felt wrung out, my legs a little shaky, and there was a very real chance I could fall asleep if I leaned against a tree for too long.
But I wasn’t hurt.
Ardetia came up beside Nova, calmly brushing a leaf off the sleeve of her coat as if we’d just walked through a gust of wind instead of a battlefield.
Her gaze drifted to the hedge surrounding the clearing.
“That,” she said, nodding toward it, “was impressive.”
“I was making it up as I went,” I admitted.
“That tends to be when the interesting magic happens.”
Bella skidded to a stop a few paces away. Her magic hadn’t fully settled yet—fox ears still poked through her hair, twitching as she looked me over.
“You sure you’re okay?” she asked.
“Pretty sure.”
Behind her, Stella was marching across the clearing with a cast-iron skillet still clutched in one hand as she’d happily smack another shadow if it so much as twitched.
“I swear,” she said breathlessly, “I step away from my tea shop for ten minutes, and you start a supernatural riot.”
“And for the record, I’m glad I left Cindy in the Maple Ward. This would have been just too much.”
“Timing,” Skonk said proudly as he waddled up beside him. “We are very good at timing.”
Skonk leaned on the broom like a soldier after a battle.
