The morning after the consolidation ritual, I woke up feeling like I'd been reborn as someone entirely different. The change wasn't just in my magical abilities—though those were dramatically enhanced—but in my fundamental understanding of what I was becoming. The face that looked back at me from the bathroom mirror was recognizably mine, but my eyes now held flecks of silver that shifted like liquid starlight, and my skin seemed to carry a subtle luminescence that pulsed gently with my heartbeat.
*Mama looks extra sparkly today,* Stella observed, appearing in the doorway with her hair sticking up in impossible directions and her favorite stuffed dragon tucked under one arm. *Like someone painted her with moonbeams while she was sleeping.*
"Something like that," I agreed, reaching out in
