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.

are you doing? Selene's

how I'm supposed to learn to read it." My finger traces the graceful lines of a particularly intricate

text. Selene's voice is

stilling on the page. "What do you mean? It's right here. Can't

skull. The

swirls through me as I stare at the book,

can you come here for

with caution, boots heavy, each thud a countdown to

the open book.

together as he studies

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

mean? Selene's

on a page, I can feel the warmth and tingling against my

my hand, offering silent

we're

figure it

get through it

We'll do it together.

somehow, we're never together for the

at the thought of Selene being somehow separate from my magic. Why can't she

some sort of terrible omen

It isn't, Selene insists.

the graceful lines dancing across the pages, each stroke imbued with a meaning that hovers just beyond my grasp. It's like trying to remember a dream—the harder I focus, the more it slips away, leaving only a

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. Like water. Ink spilled from an artist's brush. Each

anything like this before. The runes are alien, yet somehow familiar. They tug at something deep inside me, at that core of glowing warmth within my chest. It's as if they're whispering secrets, ancient

I can't hear

what do you see? Selene's voice is a distant echo, a whisper in the

trembling as they

I try, I can't seem to project the images into her mind. It's

heart aching at the distance between us. I don't

silent comfort even as I sense her unease. It's okay, Ava. We'll

my arms and into my chest. It's like the