Chapter 5
Selene considered herself an LA-lifer. She loved the city’s hodgepodge of incongruent, endless neighborhoods piled atop one another to the horizon and beyond.
It never bothered her that the sprawl made having a car nonnegotiable, and she probably should have been charmed by her walk to Avondale’s quaint downtown.
If not for the fact that her every step was haunted by Allie’s shocking revelation.
Even so, she couldn’t deny the little town was lovely.
During her visits Selene teased Emma mercilessly about the fairy-tale perfection Avondale manifested on every block.
Come to think of it, even the facade of the convenience store she’d stopped at on the way into town reflected a carefully curated small-town appeal in the same way every tourist-bait location did, like the McDonald’s in Lake Tahoe that mimicked a ski chalet.
Avondale’s zoning laws endeavored to cultivate whimsy and were strictly enforced.
Emma simply smiled at Selene’s barbs, which was fair because despite all the cute and cozy, Avondale was not a tourist trap. Gorgeous, yes, alluring, for sure, but as far as Selene could discern, it wasn’t fake. Nary a gaudy or garish trinket vendor in sight.
But none of that explained why Emma had moved to Avondale. And why did she stay if she knew it was filled with monsters?
Until last night, Selene believed she and Emma didn’t have secrets. Their relationship was built on unshakable trust, unwavering love. Their shared history had taken them on a path from friendship to family.
After graduating from college, Selene and Emma shared a tiny LA apartment they could barely afford while they pursued their dream careers—Emma’s as a promoter in the indie music scene, and Selene’s as a fundraising and outreach coordinator for a variety of nonprofits, particularly those related to environmental conservation.
Over the next handful of years, they advanced in their respective careers, eventually moving out of the shoebox they lived in and into their own places.
Along the way, Emma fell hard for Daniel Brix, the lead guitarist of a buzzy alt-rock band.
When Emma got pregnant, they had a quick courthouse wedding—Daniel was about to go on his first national tour.
To say their marriage was rocky was an understatement.
Emma soon discovered that her husband viewed monogamy as a suggestion, not a requirement of their wedding vows.
She was heartbroken, and he apologized, promising never to do it again.
Until he did it again. And again. Emma hated it, but she was desperately in love with him, and he with her .
. . as long as they were in the same room.
Then, without warning, shortly before Allie’s sixth birthday, Daniel vanished. He didn’t simply ghost Emma. No one knew what happened to him. Not his manager, nor his bandmates, who were all pissed because he’d bugged out in the middle of a European tour.
There was a search. Authorities were involved. But he was gone. No evidence of foul play. No conspiracy. Just no Daniel.
Emma was devastated and Allie confused and sad that her larger-than-life daddy was never coming home.
But one night, after too many drinks, Emma confessed to Selene that Daniel’s disappearance was something of a relief.
She couldn’t take the cheating, the broken promises.
She could grieve him and let go in a way she hadn’t been able to but had needed to for so long.
She cried while Selene hugged her and convinced her she wasn’t a horrible person for feeling that way.
In Selene’s opinion, Emma and Allie were better off without Daniel.
She’d been debating for several months before his disappearance whether to tell Emma that Daniel had made a pass at her one night when the three of them were meeting for drinks, but Emma had to cancel at the last minute.
Selene and Daniel were already at the bar, and he convinced her to stay for a drink and then tried to talk her into taking him back to her apartment.
She threw her drink in his face and left, but she hadn’t told Emma, who already knew her husband was a cheating bastard.
Selene couldn’t decide if making Emma aware of Daniel’s new low would change anything for the better.
Nothing to that point had convinced Emma to break things off with him, and Selene was afraid Daniel would twist things around and try to make it seem like Selene had been the one who hit on him.
She wanted to think Emma would never believe she could betray her best friend that way, but Daniel was a master manipulator.
Selene didn’t want to risk losing Emma’s friendship if he managed to convince her that he hadn’t done anything wrong but Selene had.
When Daniel went away for good, that problem was solved.
From the first, Selene was Allie’s de facto aunt.
Selene did everything she could to help Emma over the hurdles of being a mostly single mom.
Daniel was always on the road and unreliable even when he was around.
He liked playing at being Allie’s father because the cute little cherub was his biggest fangirl.
Her adoring, innocent love fed his ravenous ego.
Allie was too young to grasp that his doting was born of narcissism, and Emma thought it would be cruel to break a little girl’s heart with the truth.
A few years after Daniel disappeared, Emma decided she was done with Los Angeles and the nonstop pressure of trying to discover the next breakout band. Instead, she pursued a new career in holistic wellness, earning certifications in nutrition, yoga instruction, and massage therapy.
“Life is too stressful for everyone,” Emma told Selene. “I’d rather help people deal with it than keep drowning in it myself.”
Selene fully supported Emma’s career reboot, but she was less enthused about Emma’s decision to leave LA and move to a hamlet in Northern California that Selene had never heard of.
Avondale.
She’d considered going with them. She really had.
So much of her work was remote, and when it wasn’t, it involved traveling to locations all over the state.
Emma and Allie were her family. It didn’t matter that much where home base was, but Selene loved cities.
Especially cities with international airports.
Yet no matter how many times she tried to persuade Emma to move somewhere in the Bay Area instead of a tiny town tucked away in the Santa Cruz mountains, Emma wouldn’t change her mind.
For some reason she’d fallen in love with Avondale, and nowhere else would do.
But despite Emma’s devotion to her new home, she had steered Selene away from visits, insisting that it would be better for her and Allie to come to LA or for the three of them to travel somewhere together.
At the time, Selene hadn’t thought it was that strange and assumed Emma was catering to Selene’s preference for cities.
They shared every holiday. Took vacations together.
Neither of them had other relatives. Selene had been raised in the foster system, and Emma was an only child whose parents were gone.
They really were a found family. Their perfect little trio.
Emma dated, Selene dated, but no one had stuck.
Emma was gun-shy after Daniel. Who could blame her?
And Selene was so focused on her career that relationships felt like a hassle.
Neither of them was particularly worried about finding “the one,” even as they glimpsed middle age on the horizon. They had good lives. They were happy.
All the memories they’d shared were priceless. They would always be priceless, even if painful as sharp knives.
Selene crossed from the residential street into the heart of Avondale: a town square featuring a green quad with city hall at one end and a public library at the other.
On the side streets, Selene spied the businesses that Emma raved about whenever she went on a spiel about the wonders of small-town life.
There was the Midnight Broil, a twenty-four-hour diner where she’d shared a few scrumptious brunches with Emma and Allie.
Queen Mab’s Madness was a cocktail bar Selene had yet to try.
Ciel was a Michelin-starred fine-dining establishment where Emma said it was near impossible to get a table.
There was the Scottish-themed pub, Tam O’ Shanter’s Ride, and next to it a sewing and knitting shop called Darn It that advertised all locally sourced wool and fabrics.
An art-supply shop leaned hard into Shakespeare with the name More Things in Heaven and Earth.
The surfeit of independent stores with cute, clever names bordered on ridiculous but was admittedly adorable.
Selene made a beeline for Page Turner, the bookstore.
Books were comfort, escape. And Selene was having a tough time with reality.
Though part of her reason for heading to the bookstore was research.
Maybe this magical town had a special section on paranormals that would help Selene navigate her new life.
If she got really lucky, they might even stock a self-help book with rules for dating werewolves.
Selene stepped into the shop, a bell ringing as she pushed the door open. Page Turner managed to be gargantuan and tidy at once, reminiscent of an archive housing esoteric knowledge yet still distinctly cozy. Pure wrangled chaos.
“Welcome, my dear!” A voice warm as a crackling hearth beckoned her. “Looking for anything special today?”
Selene made her way to the front counter, where she found a silver-haired woman wearing glasses that gave her owlish eyes and the smile of a grandma who would sneak you candy from her purse.