My whole body shakes with power, with exhaustion, with the knowledge that something bigger than I could ever have imagined is taking place right here before me.
Screams start in the distance as the rising river fights against the magic holding it in. With everything I have left, I throw magic into the clouds. Not just summer, but all of it.
The cloud fights against me, thrashing from side to side. It’s strong, but it isn’t stronger than we are.
The merciless rain finally slows to a sprinkle, then to nothing at all.
The river runs over, but the strong current, the incredible mass of it, stays within its bed.
The screaming stops. People will be wet, but they won’t be swept away. They won’t drown.
The cumulonimbus cloud dissipates from bottom to top, revealing a perfectly clear sky and the partial eclipse. I stare at it in wonder, the new moon posing in front of the sun, blocking almost the entire star. I marvel at how little sun is needed to light the Earth. The sky is a bright, vibrant blue, as if it’s oblivious to the show taking place on its stage.
There’s a break in the music, and I think I hear cheering from the other side of the river.
I turn toward the sound, and there on the other side is…everyone. Clapping and cheering and hugging. A huge group of witches that must be the entire Eastern upper class. And in the very front, I see Sang, Paige, Ms. Suntile, and Mr. Burrows.
I want to run to them, dive into the raging river and fight my way to the other side.
They came for me. All of them.
My phone starts vibrating in my pocket, and I pull it out to see the timer Paige set for me going off.
It’s time to run.
I know I should run.
But I stay where I am.
Ms. Suntile is waving her arms wildly, pointing up the river, north. I follow her finger but don’t see anything.
Mr. Burrows is holding on to Sang, who’s struggling to get away, pushing and throwing his elbows. Paige rushes to him, but I can’t tell what she’s saying.
I’m confused and tired. So tired from dissipating the storm.
Ms. Suntile turns toward the group, then back to me.
In one coordinated effort, a single word made up of dozens of voices reaches me across the water: “Run!”
You won’t even fight for the things you care about.
I could run. I could get out in time.
But as Paige’s words knock around in my mind, I know with absolute certainty that this is my fight.
I trust in Mr. Hart, I trust in my magic, and I trust in myself.
I’m staying. I’m staying because I deserve to love without fear, and if this is my chance to reset my magic, to help it find the balance it’s always needed, I have to take it.
I put my phone in my pocket and slowly tilt my head back.
The moon’s full shadow sweeps across the Earth’s surface, barreling toward me at more than one thousand miles per hour.
I look up as the moon takes its place in front of the sun, blocking it from the Earth.
And blocking it from me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
“You have to believe you’re worthy of the life you want. If you don’t believe that, who else will?”
—A Season for Everything
The air turns cold, freezing. Goose bumps form all over my body. Bright-white light encircles the moon, the sun’s corona streaming out into space and into a sea of total darkness.
My connection to the sun is lost for one second, two, three, four.
I gasp.
It’s more excruciating than I could have imagined, as if all the blood in my arteries and veins and capillaries has turned to ice, as if the shards will poke through the thin walls at any moment. Magic drains from me in a sudden cascade, leaving my body with the force of a thousand landslides.
Everything hurts, aches, throbs.
Sharp pain invades my body, as if the darkness is a knife, slicing me open until there’s nothing left.
I can’t hear the festival. Everything is quiet, deferring to the show taking place above us.
The birds are silent. There are no squirrels running through the grass, no bees humming, no rabbits eating. A dusty-rose horizon encircles the inky-black sky.
The world around me falls asleep, and my heart falls right along with it.
Everything that holds me together is being shredded, muscle by muscle, bone by bone, and I cry out beside this rushing river to a sun that can longer see me.
And suddenly, I realize this was inevitable; I was always going to end up here. If I had never discovered my true magic, I would have stood in the path of totality to get stripped, the same path I’m standing in now to stop the cloudburst. The same path Mr. Hart thought would reset my magic, would correct whatever it is that drives it toward the people I love.
Maybe he was right. Maybe all my magic has ever wanted was to touch them, to feel that love and revel in it, if only for a moment.
Every road led here, to the eclipse I’ve been awaiting for so long. Every single one.
I’m not afraid. It was my choice to come here, to plant my feet on the ground and refuse to run. To love without fear. To put my faith in those who put their faith in me and believe I can survive this.
And I do. I believe I can survive this.
I think of my parents and Nikki and the future I want for myself, and I know that right here, under the shadow of the moon, is where I’m meant to be. Alice never spoke of a magic like what I experienced today, never found a way to
