Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 441: Ava: A Familiar Place

White nothingness stretches in every direction. No up, no down, no sense of space or time. My last memory places me on the couch in my cabin, exhaustion finally claiming me after what feels like days with minimal sleep.

Yet here I float, in a familiar void.

A memory teases at the edges of my consciousness—a similar sensation of falling without movement, of existing without breath or body.

"Why does this feel so familiar?" The words disappear into the silence, no air to carry them. Yet somehow I know I've spoken them.

Because I've been here before. In another time, another dream. I just can't remember—

But suddenly, the white is no more, and I blink my eyes against bright sunlight. Warm air surrounds me, my body baking beneath the warm layers of winter.

Jagged cliffs rise around me, familiar yet different. Last time, clouds dotted an impossibly blue sky. Now it stretches endless and clear, like someone wiped away every imperfection.

I remember this place now. The pond with its gorgeous, clear aqua water. The strange sensation of magic in the air, something now familiar to me. It's a placed not only imbued in mana, but created from it.

This is where I met the Moon Goddess, so long ago.

"Selena?" My voice echoes in this gorgeous vale, but no answer comes.

The crystalline pond draws me forward, its surface a perfect mirror. Magic pulses beneath my skin, stronger than before, reaching toward something in this place.

"Hello?"

Still nothing.

The water reflects my face, but something's wrong. No glow emanates from my form like last time. No ethereal light dances across the surface. Just... me. Regular, exhausted Ava Grey staring back.

making my skin prickle with

through the cool water. The ripples distort my reflection—but it remains just a normal, tired face staring back. No magical glow, no hint

makes no sense. I've grown stronger. I've learned

I stood in this place, my magic blazed like wildfire in the water's surface. Selena was beside me

ago? This place is a reflection of my inner self. Also, the world needed its children to

I murmur, remembering how dismissive she

suppose that would be how

these riddles. No snarky comments from my magical companion, no gentle guidance from

the water's surface. "I wish you two were here. You'd probably

breaks through my reverie,

though something's different. Her form wavers like heat rising from summer pavement, less solid

what you meant by the world being in drought? Does this place have anything to do

hands, cutting me off. "I have little

"But—"

Grey. You are not

mental balance. All the questions I have, and she goes in a direction so different—I vaguely recall something like this from our past visit, though. I'm not alone, and others will help

much help recently. "I've made friends with vampires and Fae, who have

candle in wind. "The path ahead

world lurches. An invisible force yanks me backward, away from her fading form. "Wait! Please! I need to know more!" I reach for her, but my fingers pass through empty air. "The taint,

vale dissolves into white nothingness,

the couch, slamming into the floor with a

the familiar ceiling of my cabin, the floor

"Lucas…?"

to sift through everything, and Grimoire pops into my head, sounding concerned.