Page 28 of A Silenced Midlife

Dawn had barely broken when my phone jolted me awake. I fumbled for it, bleary-eyed, my heart pounding with sudden alertness.

"Olivia, it's go time! Get over here," Ava said, urgent and sharp.

"Okay, I'm on my way." I kicked off the tangled sheets and scrambled into my jeans and a sweater, yanking my hair back into a ponytail. With one swift move, I grabbed my shoes and turned back to my husband. I’d been sleeping hard. I didn’t remember him coming home at all. "Sam," I whispered, pressing a kiss to his cheek. His eyes cracked open, dark blue and sleepy. "It's time. Ava needs me."

"Be careful," he mumbled, reaching up to brush a thumb across my cheek before rolling over for his day of sleep.

I nodded, already halfway out the door. In the kitchen, Luci and Phira were making coffee.

"Guys, Sammie needs to get to camp. I have to go," I said, slipping on my shoes.

"Leave it to us," Phira said with a reassuring smile.

"Go do what you need to," Lucifer added.

"Thanks." I didn't linger. I focused my energy, the familiar tingle of magic at my fingertips. A portal opened up with a ripple in the air, and I stepped through it without looking back, landing on Ava's doorstep.

Ava and Drew were geared up and waiting, tense but ready.

"Melody’s. Now," Ava commanded.

"Got it." Another portal swirled to life, this time opening at Melody's place. The coven leader stepped through without hesitation, her eyes wide but determined.

"Where to?" I asked, closing the gap between worlds.

"Shipton Park, by the founding fathers' statues," Ava replied, her gaze locked onto mine.

"Let's move." Without further ado, we all stepped through the final portal.

The park was quiet except for a handful of joggers who had stopped in their tracks, staring at something bizarre. I glanced at what held their attention—to uh, what?

It looked like four ghosts doing the YMCA dance. That was a new one, even for Shipton Harbor.

We stood there, rooted to the spot as a group of spectral figures struck poses straight out of a disco routine, right in front of Shipton's stony founding fathers. The joggers' eyes were saucers, and I'd bet my last wand they weren't thinking about their morning sprints anymore.

"Quick, the tracking spell," I snapped out of the frozen tableau. Realizing time was slipping like sand through our fingers, I nudged Ava into action.

Melody approached the joggers with her hands raised in a calming gesture. "Don't worry, just some... unusual local wildlife," she said with a chuckle. They nodded, bemused, as she gently led them away from the spectacle.

Ava was already murmuring the incantation, her fingers dancing through the air. The ghosts flickered once, twice, then vanished like smoke on the wind, leaving behind a trail only Ava could see.

I huffed, trying to keep up. Ava was freaking moving. "You'd think after all this time, we witches would've come up with a fitness spell or something," I panted, half-joking, half serious.

Drew shot me a glance, his teal-blue gaze twinkling with amusement. "Witches not quite as in shape as hunters?" he said back, a sly grin spreading across his face.

"Ha. Ha," I managed between breaths, rolling my eyes but smiling despite myself. We continued on, threading our way through the town, the magic pulling us like an invisible thread towards the unknown.

13

AVA

The tracking spell led us to a modest single-story house, the kind that blends into suburban anonymity. There was a moving truck in the driveway and a teenager lugged a cardboard box toward the open front door.

"Hey there," Drew called out, stepping toward him, his sheriff’s badge already in hand. "Can we have a word?"

The kid looked up, puzzled, then glanced over at the woman by the truck, presumably his mom, as she hoisted a box labeled 'kitchen stuff'. She set it down and walked over, glancing to Drew's badge, then to me, Ava, and back to her son.

"Is something wrong?" Her voice pitched with concern.

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