Chapter 204

Ava

I blinked, my vision slowly coming back into focus. I was no longer in my childhood bedroom, but rather in Moonshine Manor; the parlor ceiling swam above me, and I realized I was lying on the floor. No fog anywhere to be found—just Chris’s face appearing in my line of sight, his brow furrowed with concern.

“Ava? Are you okay?” he asked, slipping a hand under my back and helping me to sit up.

I nodded, still feeling disoriented, although the thick fog that had entered my throat had seemingly dissipated—assuming it had ever even been there to begin with. “What happened?” I muttered, my voice froggy.

Fabian stepped forward and handed me a glass of water. “You passed out during the ritual. We couldn’t wake you up.”

I grabbed the water, drinking deeply. My throat felt cracked and raw, but the water soothed it. Once I had downed the entire glass, I looked around, noticing the absence of the thick fog that had rushed into the room right before I had passed out.

“But... the fog? It came into the house, didn’t it?”

The others exchanged confused glances. “The fog never entered, child,” Zara replied.

“But I saw it—”

“You probably imagined it,” Chris said gently. “The fog never came in.”

I swallowed, feeling wholly confused. Zara, nodding, muttered, “The spirit of Maria must have latched onto you because of your profound fear—more fear than the rest of us. What you experienced was likely nothing more than a hallucination.”

I struggled to process this information. It had felt so real, so vivid. The vision I had had of my mother holding me… Was that just a hallucination, too? That night, all those years ago, had she truly warded off an evil spirit or had that just been a machination of the fear in my heart?

“Is it... is it over?” I found myself asking.

The witch nodded and pulled the bottle that was around her neck out from under her shirt. The inside, previously empty, was now filled with a swirling fog. A tiny remnant of the mist that coated the ground outside.

“Maria’s spirit is contained here,” she said, slipping the vial back into her shirt. “I will release her safely once the proper preparations are made.”

“I want to hold a funeral for her,” Fabian said, standing. “A proper funeral. I want her buried with the rest of my family, and I want her memory carved in stone.”

Chris helped me to my feet, his arm steady around my waist. “How long was I out?” I asked.

“All night,” Betty said softly, nodding toward the window. “The sun is coming up now.”

We made our way outside, and I was immediately awestruck by the transformation. The oppressive fog that had blanketed everything was gone, replaced by the soft light of morning. Birds chirped in the distance, a sound I hadn’t realized I had been sorely missing these past few days.

Overwhelmed by everything that had happened, I turned and buried my face in Chris’s chest, hugging him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me, his muscles solid and warm against my body.

“I always believed in ghosts,” I mumbled into his shirt. “I was just... afraid. If I let myself believe, then what happened that night with my mother would have been real, and I couldn’t handle it.”

Chris stroked my hair gently. He didn’t know what happened that night, and I wasn’t sure if I could ever bring myself to tell him, but he didn’t ask.

Zara cleared her throat, and I looked up to see her standing nearby. “Ava, may I speak with you privately for a moment?”

I nodded, reluctantly pulling away from Chris. The others headed back inside, leaving Zara and me alone on the porch.

“Did you see the truth?” she asked once we were alone.

I took a deep breath, the memories of my vision still fresh in my mind. So that part hadn’t just been a hallucination. “Was my mother a witch?”

Zara shook her head and chuckled slightly. “No, not a witch in the literal sense. But she did dabble in witchcraft, in an attempt to keep an evil spirit at bay. Many spirits follow you, Ava. Only one ever meant you harm.”

I frowned, trying to piece together the fragments of my memories with this new information. “That night, when she made those symbols behind my back…”

“She absorbed the spirit,” Zara finished. “Six months later, it manifested as a violent cancer.”

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. I remembered my mother’s illness, how quickly it had taken her. Just two weeks after she had been diagnosed, she was gone. “I didn’t know... I had no idea it was because of that spirit.”

Zara placed a weathered hand on my shoulder. “Your mother was a hero, Ava. She sacrificed herself to protect you.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. “But why didn’t she ever tell me?”

“She only ever wanted to protect you, even from the truth,” the witch said softly. “But rest assured: she is with you, always. Out of all the spirits who surround you, she is the most prominent, the most attached. And she wants you to know that you’re on the right path. Don’t doubt yourself or your abilities.”

I wiped my eyes, struggling to process everything. “What do you mean?”

“With Chris by your side,” Zara said, her eyes taking on a faraway look as though she were subconsciously dipping into another realm, “you will do great things. Not just for Moonstone, but for all five packs, and the humans too.”

With that cryptic statement, Zara turned on her heel and left me alone on the porch.

I gripped the railing, sucking in a deep breath through my teeth. Spirits… Great things… Witchcraft… It was all too much. But somehow, hearing that my mother was always nearby was comforting.

Suddenly, I felt a gentle touch on my hair, as if someone was stroking it. I suppressed a sob, remembering how my mother used to do that when I was upset.

So she was here.

Tears blurred my vision as I watched the sun rise, painting the sky in brilliant hues of pink and gold. The grounds of Moonshine Manor were exquisitely beautiful, with sprawling hills and steep, rocky cliffs that dropped into a calm ocean, the bright blue water glittering in the sun.

Despite everything, I couldn’t help but smile through my tears as I looked out at that ocean. For the first time in twenty years, I finally felt a sense of peace about my mother’s passing.

The rest of the morning passed in a blur. Chris and I packed up our belongings, preparing to continue our journey—with Crescent Moon as our next stop. Now that the fog was gone, Betty had decided to stay with Fabian after all, who was already making plans to get his staff back and return Moonshine to normal.

As we loaded the last of our bags into the car, Fabian approached us with his hands in his pockets, looking far more like his regal and collected self again. He bowed his head slightly as he approached.

“I can’t thank you both enough for what you’ve done,” he said simply.

Chris clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

Fabian nodded, a smile tugging at his lips at that word: friends. “If there’s anything I can do to help you, just name it.”

Chris hesitated for a moment before saying, “Well, there is one thing. There’s a blight in Moonstone…”

Chris explained the blight to Fabian, the reason behind our tour of the packs. When he was finished, Fabian had a grim, but hopeful, expression on his face.

“Say no more. I’ll send help as soon as I’m able. Just keep in touch, okay?”

We said our goodbyes, exchanging hugs with Fabian and Betty. As Chris and I climbed into the car and our driver began to pull down the gravel road, I finally felt the exhaustion of a sleepless night hit me. We had accomplished what we came here to do, and now it was time to rest.

Until we got to Crescent Moon, at least. I wondered what would happen there.

As we drove down the road, leaving Moonshine Manor behind, Chris reached over and took my hand. He still hadn’t asked about my vision. “You okay?” he asked softly.

I nodded, leaning closer to him and resting my head on his shoulder. “I am now,” I replied, stifling a yawn. “Just… exhausted.”

Chris nodded, suppressing a yawn of his own. “Yeah, me too. We should rest.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I nuzzled closer, nestling into the warmth of his arms. “Love you,” I murmured, already feeling sleep tugging at the edges of my consciousness.

“Love you too,” Chris replied with a chuckle.

Within moments, we had both drifted off to sleep.