Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 284 Ava: Yet Another Strange Forest

Shaking off the morbid thoughts clouding my mind, the images of war and supernatural chaos, I breathe deeply and close my eyes.

Focus, Ava. There's work to be done.

Concentrating on that elusive string of connection I can feel deep within me, it's like a gossamer thread. Barely visible, but undeniably present.

I tug at it gently, as if saying hello to an old friend. No response.

I press on, trying to deepen the connection, fumbling along in this strange magical mental space. It's like groping in the dark, unsure of what I'm looking for.

The sound of Lisa's breathing and subtle movements a few feet away threaten to break my concentration, and it's an effort to push those distractions aside, diving deeper into the recesses of my mind. The world around me fades away, replaced by a vast emptiness.

Then, I'm falling.

By now, the sensation is familiar enough for me not to panic, waiting it out as space whizzes past at breakneck speed.

My stomach lurches, instinctual panic taking hold of my body; my mind might understand that I'm not falling, but every physical reflex of mine insists that it is.

And then, a torturous second or two later, it's gone and I'm alone in the middle of what looks like the creepiest forest to exist on the planet.

Gnarled, dead branches wrap together in a dense canopy of trees that block out the majority of light.

Dead leaves litter the ground, crackling and crunching beneath my feet, but there's a shocking lack of underbrush. It's like walking inside an unfinished painting.

There's a pond, of course. Why is there always water? Is it symbolic, or just coincidence?

Unlike the pond where I met with the Moon Goddess, this one is so murkily dark that it seems filled with black water. Just looking at it makes my skin crawl, and I step back reflexively, not wanting to get near the edge—even when I'm a solid ten feet away already.

There's an unnatural quiet to the space. No birds singing. No insects buzzing. Fuck, I'd take a cicada to break up the oppressively creepy environment. But no.

crunching with my every movement

in every direction, seemingly endless. The trees all look the same—tall, dark, and foreboding. There's no path, no sign of which way I should go. Only the pond breaks

surface remains perfectly still, not a ripple in sight. I approach the water's edge, peering

even reflections on

Whatever this pond is, it might look

pebble into it, it sinks

self:

Ava. You wanted to connect with your magic. Is

in response to my words, a gentle breeze stirs the branches overhead. It carries a whisper, so

trying to

my

overlord. Dead

kind of thing I want associated with

the Moon Goddess, it was

is just

way closer. There's some sort of glint in the inky

eyes straining to catch another glimpse of that elusive glint. It's maddening, like trying to catch light with my bare hands. Every

mutter, leaning forward. My reflection should be visible on the surface, but there's nothing. Just

my eyes ache, and I give up to walk

This isn't working.

going about this

the hell am I supposed to do? I can't see anything. I can't hear anything. I'm not about to

I've been…

Fuck.

Wait a second.

my physical senses are telling me. But this place... it's not real. Not in the way the physical world is. It's connected to my

or smell, I reach out with something else. That intangible sense that's connected to my