Chapter Two
Littlemoon Investigations
Evening
A Tense Standoff
The stress level in the waiting area where the whole Littlemoon family had congregated after meeting Oracle in person for the first time was off the charts. In fact, that energy vibrated around them, proving that this family was one step from losing it.
Tonight had been one of the worst nights of their lives, and here they were, being faced with a stranger in their midst.
A stranger that was a bit too comfy with THEIR Monroes.
Yeah, Tori wasn’t happy.
Only, she was trying to be diplomatic.
Before she could say anything to her, Avalon went there, doing what Avalon did best.
Mitigation.
“Just say it. We’re all adults here, and I’m not easily offended, Victoria. I’m a big girl, and I don’t hold a grudge. Just say what’s on your mind.”
So, she did.
“Yeah, I am angry. No, I’m pissed over all of this. You could have just showed up here and told us that Wynter was going to die. You could have called us, or Lucian, for that matter, and told us she was in danger! Now, we’ve lost our friend, our sister, and Ridge’s wife!”
Oh, her anger was palpable.
Both Bishop and Lucian knew that it wasn’t as simple as that. After spending a few years with Avalon, they understood that the static was a complicated thing.
As Lucian went to say something, Avalon put her hand on his leg.
It was done naturally, and immediately, he closed his mouth.
That told them everything about the kind of clout this woman wielded.
Why?
Oh, maybe because no one stopped Lucian Monroe from speaking his mind. That this woman could do that told them everything they needed to know.
She.
Was.
Powerful.
In fact, she was a force to be reckoned with and driving the bus—unfortunately.
Avalon spoke, and true to her word, she was calm and not offended.
“For the record, my gift doesn’t always work like that.
I didn’t know she would die—only that someone was going to lose their life.
This entity, for a lack of a better word, where I don’t curse, has a wall up in the static.
He’s built a box, and his intentions are buried in it.
He’s not a weak psychic, by any means, and I’ve never encountered anyone who runs on this kind of vitriol. ”
They let her talk.
“I wish it was so easy to just change fate and the outcome, but it’s not.
On top of that, I’m hitting the same wall that Lucian was hitting, I’m unable to see behind it to figure out who this is.
There’s only one way that could happen. This is going to be more than it seems because shutting me out isn’t easy. ”
From where he sat, Raven suspected that he knew what the woman was encountering.
He could feel the stench of it permeating the situation where Wynter hurt herself.
“He’s mixing dark magick with his psychic power and thusly building a powerful cage. A circle, if you will, but with ill intent, not one to protect. You won’t be able to get through that wall.”
From where she sat, she glanced over, sunglasses still on, and she smiled at him.
Speaking of magick…
“Jonathan Davies, we finally meet,” she said. “The spirits in the static speak of you often.”
At her use of his name, he shut that down. Jonathan was his son, and he’d buried his name a long time ago when he found himself in Salem.
This witch liked his REAL name far more.
“You can call me Raven,” he stated. “I don’t go by the name my parents saddled me with anymore. It’s like your name. You prefer Oracle over Avalon in some situations, no?”
She nodded.
“I stand corrected, Raven, and when I’m in the static, I prefer Oracle. Here and now, I’m simply Avalon.”
Well, now that they’d settled that, Raven was to the point on what he was experiencing.
The hair on his arms was standing up, and that told him two things. This woman was surrounded by the dead on a daily basis, and that she was a powerful psychic.
When Lucian and Ridge came together, he got that same feeling across his whole body.
“I can feel the dead around you, Avalon,” he admitted. “Even here in a dead zone, they call for you.”
She sighed.
Tell her about it.
“Yeah, that’s annoying, but part of my world,” she stated. “I’m like a beacon. What's dead outside your building is trying to get in here. I see you warded the basement, so I couldn’t send anyone to speak to you. You, too, have built a powerful cage.”
Well, that explained the spirit that had popped in to warn them and then disappeared into the ground again. It was nice to know it wasn’t anything evil, but just a messenger trying to circumnavigate his spell.
“I like to be thorough,” Raven admitted.
Clearly.
From where she sat, opposite their guests, Tori had her doors open, and there were NO dead around her.
“Are there any here?” Tori asked. “I don’t know what you’re feeling, Raven. Because I can promise you that there’s not a dead person to be found here.”
Lucian explained.
“You see the dead, but she sees souls. Each ghost had a soul once, and it’s a different thing,” he admitted. “The souls call out to us, needing help. The ghosts that are taken violently no longer have their souls until they cross. They need to be reunited with them to move on.”
To be a good host, Julian handed her a mug of tea and offered her some honey and lemon.
“Just plain, thank you,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the mug to be warm. Beside her, Nate kept them connected at the knees so that she could continue to see.
Because he was a curious witch, Raven wanted to know why she was wearing the sunglasses. He also wanted to know how she knew where they all were, even when they weren’t speaking. He’d watched her check out all of the family without any cues from her husband.
“Lucian said you’re blind. You’re tracking everyone, so how is that possible?”
She explained.
“Magick. Like you wield spells, I also know a few. My husband is my eyes when I need to be aware of everything in the room. It’s part of my psychic gift to join with him, so I can utilize his vision.
We have the same bond you have with your wife, and that Lucian has with his and Ridge.
But I can also use anyone else’s eyes if Nathaniel isn’t near me as long as they are psychic. ”
Raven sighed because he knew exactly why she was able to utilize her husband in that way.
“Sex magick.”
She nodded.
“In your world, that’s what it’s called. In mine, it’s something more. A vow of sort, and a promise to be bound together forever. When I pass, my soul will find Nate’s and vice versa. Like when you pass, and Bexley’s will find yours.”
She looked over at the woman.
“By the way, I love your books.”
At her words, Bex blinked.
“You read my books? How?” she asked.
That amused Avalon.
“Audio books. I still have ears,” she admitted, laughing.
As she did, that warm sound cascaded through the room, drawing goosebumps across their flesh, and it wasn’t lost on them that they’d heard it before.
Well, some of them.
Yeah, powerful would be an understatement when it came to this woman.
No.
Doubt.
At her faux pas, Bex apologized.
“Of course, you do. I’m sorry. It’s been a night. Right now, I’m sure my house is a-rocking and not in a fun way. The dead are there, and hopefully, not tunneling to China to escape.”
She was aware, and she shared.
“Trey is NOT happy,” she admitted. “He’s screaming across the static to get out. He wishes to tear me a new one for not, and I use his words, not mine, ‘spring him from this witch-forsaken spell hole’. I do have to say that he’s something.”
Julian took his seat again beside his wife, and he could only sigh.
“Oh, well, he’s something, all right. That’s for goddamn sure.”
Oh, she was aware.
As they sat there, Raven held his wife’s hand. Now that they were speaking and getting everything laid out, he could feel all the energy coming off of Avalon.
Oh, and it was good. Her aura was clean, and in fact, it was pure white.
To be honest, he’d never seen anyone’s aura be this pristine in his whole lifetime.
This showed that she was connected to enlightenment and the other side.
Like lived in it.
He was beginning to believe that she came here to do good, and not with ill intent. That now allowed him to take a breath and relax.
For now.
“It was you who told Lucian and Ridge to do the sex magick,” he stated. “Now, they’re bound together, and this caused a huge issue.”
Avalon had, and while it handicapped Lucian for now, in the long term, that sex magick spell would help them both survive. The bottom line was that she was trying to mitigate what was coming for them.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that alone or back in California.
“What is coming will need them to be bound together,” she said, not elaborating so as not to stress them out further. Everyone was on pins and needles, as if they were going to get blindsided.
Well, they weren’t wrong.
Only, her answer wasn’t good enough for the Littlemoons. They wanted transparency so they could figure out how to navigate this.
So, Julian went there.
“What is coming?” he inquired. “Asking for the people who lost part of their family tonight because of this.”
She paused, and Lucian knew what was coming.
One of the worst parts about Avalon was that she didn’t like to share until she was absolutely sure of what would happen. One of her least favorite things was when fate changed, and she had to disappoint people.
Or devastate them.
That vague energy gave…holding back, and at this point, with these people, she needed to be open. Julian and Tori were always skeptical, and today, they were three days past willing to tolerate anything.
She needed to read a room.
Avi, you need to tell them. If you want their help defeating this, they need to know. Leaving them in the dark is a very bad idea.
Oh, she was aware.
Only, it wasn’t as easy as that, and he knew how she worked.
I’m working on it, Lucian. You of all people know that I don’t like playing around with lives. It’s one more burden in the static when I have to mourn watching them die. Only, my hands are almost always tied.
Oh, he knew.
They’d lost Roxy.
They’d lost Luke.