Grachi: In English

A soft knock came from her window. She looked up to see Matías, his silhouette framed by the dying light. He was holding a small, wilting sunflower in one hand and a worried smile on his face.

Daniel pocketed his phone and nodded. "Laughter."

"Worse. I almost set off me ," Grachi sighed, extinguishing the last of the sparks fizzling in her hair. She told him everything—the toupee, the floating desk, the sudden bursts of fire when she only wanted a flicker.

She remembered the first time Matías had made her laugh so hard she’d floated to the ceiling. She remembered Mia defending her from a bully, no magic needed. She remembered Daniel staying up all night to help her decode a difficult enchantment. grachi in english

The dark shard didn't shatter. It didn't explode. It simply… dissolved. It was a shadow that couldn't exist in the warmth of that light.

Mia understood first. "Joy. Friendship."

The sunset over Miami painted the sky in shades of tangerine and violet, but Grachi Alonso barely noticed. She was hovering—literally—three feet above her bed, her textbooks floating in a slow orbit around her. A tiny, stubborn flame danced on her fingertip, refusing to be extinguished. A soft knock came from her window

But her mind was a storm. Lately, her powers had been… different. Unpredictable. Yesterday, she’d tried to levitate a pencil during a boring history lecture and accidentally turned Mr. Harrison’s toupee a brilliant shade of fuchsia. The class had roared with laughter. Mr. Harrison had not.

He was right. A secret was eating at her. For weeks, she’d been having dreams of a dark, swirling vortex—a magical echo from a spell she’d broken months ago. A spell that had promised to erase magic forever. She had saved magic, but a shard of that broken darkness had latched onto her, feeding on her anxiety.

"I know what I have to do," she said, her voice firming. "But I can't do it alone." Daniel pocketed his phone and nodded

"Ugh!" she groaned, burying her face in her pillow.

Grachi opened her eyes. The air was clean. The weight was gone. She looked at her friends—her family.