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 question

supposed to learn to read it." My finger traces

no text. Selene's voice is slow,

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

to her skull. The pages are

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

can you come here for

thud a countdown to the

the open book. "Can you see

over, his brows knitting together

Selene. How is it

mean? Selene's question echoes my own

I can feel the warmth and tingling against my palm. I think it has something to do

at my hand, offering silent comfort. We'll figure

what we're always

figure it

get through it

We'll do it together.

somehow, we're never together for

at the thought of Selene being somehow separate from my magic. Why

isn't some sort of terrible

It isn't, Selene insists.

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

almost seem 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. Like water. Ink spilled from an

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 knowledge long forgotten by the

can't

voice is a distant echo, a whisper in the back of

fingers trembling as they hover over

this experience. But no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to project the images

sorry, I whisper, my heart aching at the distance between us. I don't know

presses her nose against my leg, offering silent comfort even as I sense her unease. It's okay, Ava.

the pages, I feel the familiar tingling sensation in my fingertips, a warmth that spreads up my arms