LOGINAvaThe first thing I heard was a low, tired voice, reading words I couldn't quite catch yet. My body felt heavy under the sheets, pinning me to the bed. I could hear the steady rasp of my own breathing. My open eyes blinked dryly in the dim light.I opened my eyes wider. A small, pale room with a c
AvaDad let go of the shackle and sat back, his face relaxing from the concentration. He was quiet for a long moment. Then his eyes met mine."Baby," he said gently, "do you want to know what happened?"Something in his tone made my chest tighten. I had a feeling that this was a truth I wasn't ready
AvaHe stepped out of the blackness, edging closer, until I could finally see him. Unbelievable. He was so young, the age he was when...when he died. His warm brown eyes, both of them, looked at me with a fond smile.I stared, my mouth hanging open, unable to make a sound. My dad. Standing in front
LeviI settled into the chair by her bed and took her hand in mine, rubbing my thumb over the back of it. "Hey, Ava. It's Levi," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "I just talked to Sofia. We had some things to say to each other."I sat there, rubbing her hand, trying to find the words Maya and
LeviI sat with my father in his room, a week after Hilda's funeral. Some families had already packed up and left the pack after becoming human. Others had stayed, unsure of where else to go.My father wheezed beside me, the hiss of his oxygen tank an ever-present sound now. He was thinner, frail, h
MayaI zipped Sofia's dress as best I could with my good hand. The collar was tricky. I fiddled clumsily with the small metal fastening. "There, perfect," I said, releasing the dress and stepping back.Sofia blinked hard at her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was pulled back in a neat bun. The dr
I stared, then looked at her. “Is this real?”She nodded. “That’s larimar. Very rare. I had a friend in the Caribbean source it. Took almost three months to find the right cut.” She shrugged, like it was nothing, like she hadn’t just spent a quarter of a year tracking down a rock for me.“It’s beaut
LeviIt was at this point that it clickedI watched the pattern resolve: the proximity, the attention, the obsessive way Sofia tracked Ava's moods, the way she always defaulted to physical touch, the way she never spoke about Maya's accident without looking to me for validation first.She loved Ava.
EvelynThe road home was a straight line out of the university town and into the bare hills. Two hours of highway, then a climb up the switchbacks until the world dropped away and only the scrub pines and stone fences remained.Ava didn’t look out the window, not once. Her eyes were on the back of t
EvelynAs I reached the landing, I heard him ordering the driver to park my car around back, and in the echo of his voice was the fact: This was his house, now, and I’d just become a visitor in my own life.I walked the hallway toward Ava’s room, and I found her door shut, but not locked.I knocked,







