Tangled

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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.

210 Ava: Moon Goddess (1) END Season 3

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. 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. What are you doing? Selene's question breaks through my fascination.

I

to learn to read it." My

<

Ava: Moon Goddess (II)-END

text. Selene's voice is

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

flatten to her skull.

the book, at

you come here for a

each thud a countdown to the answer I know he's going to

ma'am?"

to the open

leans over, his brows knitting together as he studies the

skitters down my spine as I look between Marcus and Selene. How is it possible that I can see these cryptic words so clearly while they perceive only emptiness? Ava, what does this mean? Selene's question

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

We'll

37

Moon

figure it

through it

We'll do it together.

we're never together for the

separate from my magic. Why can't she see what

some sort of terrible omen

It isn't, Selene insists.

just beyond my grasp. It's like trying to remember a dream-the harder I focus, the more it slips away, leaving only a tantalizing impression, of something profound and

almost seem fluid, as if they shift and change in my peripheral vision, then breathe in static form as I focus on

speaks to my soul even as my mind- struggles

familiar. They tug at something deep inside me, at that core of glowing warmth

477

Moon Goddess (III)-END Season

I can't hear

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

fingers trembling as they hover

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

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

my leg, offering silent comfort even as I sense

sensation in my fingertips, a warmth that spreads up my arms and into

secrets.

amazement, the runes begin to move in a way that I

new patterns, new shapes. I watch, transfixed, as they slowly coalesce

Letters.