Ava’s POV
I pulled open the door and stepped into the hallway, half-expecting another binding spell to stop . When none ca, I took a deep breath of freedom and pulled out my phone.
Nina answered on the second ring. "Ava? Everything okay? It’s pretty late."
"No, everything is definitely not okay," I said, my voice trembling slightly as the adrenaline began to wear off. "I just had the fight of the century with my mom, and I... I need a place to stay. Just for a few days until I figure things out."
"Say no more," Nina replied without hesitation. "I’m coming to get you. Where are you?"
I glanced back at our apartnt door, knowing my mother was probably still standing exactly where I’d left her. "I’m leaving my apartnt now. I’ll et you downstairs."
Minutes later, Nina pulled up to the curb in her beat-up Honda. One look at my face and she didn’t ask questions, just helped put my bag in the trunk and drove us back to her place.
It wasn’t until I was lying on her pullout couch in the dark that everything really hit .
I’d broken free from a spell my own mom cast on .
I’d sohow used power I didn’t even know I had.
And I’d walked out on the closest family I had left.
I woke up on Nina’s couch feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. For a split second I had no clue where I was. Then everything ca flooding back—screaming at my mom, that weird energy thing, storming out.
"Morning, sunshine," Nina said from the kitchen. "You look like you wrestled a bear all night."
"Feels like it too," I mumbled. "Thanks for letting crash here."
Nina slid a mug of coffee toward . "What happened with your mom?"
How could I possibly explain without sounding insane? Hey Nina, my mom used a magical binding spell on , but surprise—I broke it with powers I didn’t know I had!
"My mom wants to leave Harbor Bay," I said instead. "She thinks it would be better for to start fresh sowhere else."
"Your mom’s usually so chill though," Nina said. "What made her go all ’escape Harbor Bay’ on you?"
"She just freaked out. Said it wasn’t safe for here anymore." I sighed. "She’s keeping things from , Nina. Important things about who I am."
"What are you going to do now?"
"I think I need to visit my grandmother in Silver Creek. She’s always been straight with . If anyone can help figure out what’s going on, it’s her."
"Just promise to text if things get weird. Or weirder than they already are."
I forced a smile. "Promise."
Within an hour, I was on the road.
As I drove out of the city, the traffic disappeared and everything slowly changed from buildings and suburbs to hills and thick forests. My hands kept tingling on the steering wheel, reminding of whatever that power thing was last night.
What was happening to ? The question looped in my mind like a broken record.
My grandmother had always been my safe harbor when I was growing up. Her cottage in Silver Creek was my favorite place when I was little—like a magical hideaway packed with weird old stuff and jars full of herbs that she always said were just "family decorations."
But she never ntioned spells or magic. Never explained why sotis the air around her seed to shimr when she was angry or why birds would gather on her windowsill every morning as if waiting for instructions.
When I’d ask about the strange books with symbols I couldn’t read or the crystals that seed to glow in the dark, she’d just smile and say, "When you’re older, dear. So knowledge cos with ti."
Well, I was certainly older now. And after last night, I desperately needed that knowledge.
The five-hour drive gave plenty of ti to rehearse what I’d say to her. "Grandma, I broke through a magical binding spell last night. Mom’s freaking out. What the hell am I?"
By the ti I turned onto the dirt road to her cottage, the sun was going down behind the trees. The path seed smaller than I rembered, with branches hanging over the road like they were trying to block my way.
I parked at the end of the road and walked the last bit, my boots making noise on all the dead leaves. Then I saw the cottage—just a little wooden house with a stone chimney, tucked between so really old trees.
Right away, sothing seed wrong. No smoke coming out of the chimney. No lights on inside even though it was getting dark.
"Grandma?" I called, knocking on the door. Only silence answered .
I knocked again, louder this ti. Nothing.
The door wasn’t locked.So I pushed it open, stepping into the familiar main room.
"Oh no," I whispered, taking in the scene.
The cottage wasn’t ransacked exactly, but it was clearly abandoned in a hurry. Books lay scattered across the floor, a chair was overturned, and dried herbs hung forgotten from the ceiling. In the small kitchen area, a cast iron teapot sat on the cold stove, the tea inside long since gone cold.
"Grandma?" I called again, though I knew there would be no answer.
I moved through the cottage, noting more signs of hasty departure. In the bedroom, dresser drawers stood half-open, clothes spilling out. Her favorite shawl was missing, as were the crystal pendants she always wore.
Stepping outside, I circled the cottage, searching for any sign of where she might have gone. In the back garden, I noticed sothing disturbing—large footprints in the soft earth, much too big to be human.
I crouched down, examining them closer. They weren’t bear tracks, I knew what those looked like from my sumrs here. These were... different. Canine but massive, with claw marks at the tips of each toe.
Wolf prints. But far larger than any natural wolf could leave.
Werewolf tracks.
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