“What was prophesied?
I don’t know all the details. Only that you must go back.
“What do I do?”
Find the map. Find the portal. You must go home.
“I… I can’t.”
You can and you must. I know the Elderoak calls to you. Whispers to you in your dreams. It is your destiny, Ava.
“Elderoak?”
The Elderoak is a sacred tree. Revered by your people.
“Can’t I just search the property for the portal?”
No. Your grandfather made it so the portal is invisible unless you have the map.
“He could do magic too?” Ava had never seen him do it. At least, not that she could recall.
Of course he could. Most of those from our world can do magic. To find the map, you must look in the place where life is created. Only then will you find the answers you seek.
“What does that even mean? Please tell me more,” she begged the cat who was still staring at her seated on the couch.
You must hurry. There isn’t much time left. She’s coming. Eorhan needs your help.
Ava awokeand scanned the living room, her eyes landing on Luna who was still asleep at her feet on the sofa.
Everything seemed normal, though the eerie feeling from her dream remained. Thoughts of talking cats and mysterious portals swirled about in her head, blurring the lines of what was real and imagined.
She tried to calm herself by denying the plausibility ofthese strange occurrences. Animals couldn’t speak. She knew that. It was just a weird dream. Probably because she had been reading, it was late and she was exhausted.
And yet.
Something continued to badger her, to push her to believe. To accept.Magic.
She stood and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. After taking a long gulp she set the cup down harder than intended. Deep down she knew it was true; all of this meant something.
Clenching her fists she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, her body overcome with anger. Her mother died, then Grandpa and now they’d left her this disaster, keeping secrets her whole life. If this so-called prophecy was true, why didn’t they tell her? Why didn’t they go back to their world and face it? What were they hiding from?
Ava knew nothing about magic or what she herself was capable of. If only they had helped her, trained her, she’d be more prepared. But now here she was, alone, scrambling for answers she wasn’t sure she wanted any more. She was settling into a life here with Eleanor and Henry, and now she was supposed to go help some world she had never heard of?
She opened her eyes and glared at Luna, still fast asleep.
“Fine,” she said out loud. “I’ll look for the fucking map.”
Luna perked up and looked at her, staring as if she understood what Ava had said. She continued to scowl across the room at her cat. “Is that what I need to do? Find the map?”
Luna huffed and set her head back down and Ava rolled her eyes.
She glanced at the microwave and saw it was well past one in the morning. Finishing her water, she set the glass in the sink and trudged upstairs leaving Luna asleep on the couch. Thunder rumbled in the distance as the pitter patter of rain tapped on the bathroom windows. A coldfront was arriving in preparation for the transition into winter.
She washed her face and changed into her soft sage green pajamas. The storm rolled closer, gaining momentum as the wind blew the leaves on the trees and the thunder increased its volume. Flashes of lightning illuminated the dark hallway through the windows of the bedrooms across from hers, throwing eerie shadows along the walls.
As she walked back to her bedroom, a deafening clap of thunder sounded, followed by complete darkness. Ava cursed as she stubbed her toe on the corner of her bed frame in the pitch-black room.
Using the flashlight app on her phone she looked around her room, locating the light switch on the wall. She flicked it on and off, willing the lights to return.