Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 210 Ava: Moon Goddess (III) -- END Season 3

Ava?

Ava!

Selene's mental shout has me shaking my head, startled. I'm back, and it's like I was never gone.

Ava, are you listening?

"Sorry. What is it?"

Selene stands in front of me, her ears twitching. You were here, but our bond was silent. Like you were far away.

"Ah." Clearing my throat, which is parched now that I've returned, I blink until I adjust to the darkness of my room, compared to the brightness of that magical place I was in just moments ago.

"Selene, what does the Moon Goddess look like?"

Why do you ask? Selene's head tilts, her icy eyes studying me with an intensity that would be unnerving if I wasn't so used to it by now.

I glance at Marcus, who stands sentinel by the door, before focusing my thoughts inward. It's so much harder to think this way, and I wonder if it will ever feel completely natural. I think I met her. The Moon Goddess.

Selene's confusion ripples through our bond. She was never here, Ava.

I know. We were somewhere else.

You never left the room. Selene's voice in my mind is tinged with concern, her mental words hesitant.

I think my consciousness did. It was like my spirit traveled to this magical place. I struggle to find the words to describe the ethereal experience. Even my body felt real there.

Selene's worry intensifies, a cold thread winding through my thoughts. Will it happen again?

I don't know. Absently stroking the pages of the book in my lap, I think back, trying to focus on the details. Yet the memories are already fading, vivid pictures blurring in my mind's eye. There was a woman there. She called herself Selena. She spoke to me about my magic, about embracing it.

I don't know what the Moon Goddess looks like. I can't remember, Selene admits. Though, they say she appears differently to everyone who sees her. Some even see her as a wolf. She pauses. I think I saw her as a wolf.

Nodding, I look down at the book again, my gaze drawn to the strange runic text that dances across the pages. Each symbol seems to breathe with a life of its own, pulsing in a mesmerizing rhythm.

doing? Selene's question

I'm supposed to learn to read it." My finger

text. Selene's

"What do you mean? It's right here. Can't you

her skull. The pages are blank,

I stare at the book, at the undeniable presence of the

you come

a countdown to

to the open

together as

skitters down my spine as I look between Marcus and Selene. How is it

mean? Selene's question echoes my

page, I can feel the warmth and tingling against my palm.

at my hand, offering silent comfort.

what we're always

figure it

get through

We'll do it together.

somehow, we're never together for the things that

of Selene being somehow separate from my magic.

hope it isn't some sort of terrible

It isn't, Selene insists.

that hovers just beyond my grasp. It's like trying to remember a dream—the harder I focus, the

fluid, as if they shift and change in my peripheral vision, then breathe in static form as I focus on them. They flow across the pages with a simple, elemental beauty.

somehow familiar. They tug at something deep inside me, at that core of glowing warmth within my chest. It's

I can't hear

a distant echo, a whisper in the

my fingers trembling as they hover over the pages. Mystery.

experience. But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to project the images into her mind. It's like there's a wall between us,

heart aching at the distance between us.

presses her nose against my leg, offering silent comfort even as I

warmth that spreads up my arms and into my chest. It's like the book is calling to me, urging me to delve deeper into