Crescent World

15

We sat at the dining room table, plates of delicious food I didn't pay any attention to sitting in front of us. Sarah and I sat across from our parents and Bryan. Bryan was chatting with our parents good-naturedly and I tried to keep all the swirling emotions inside of me from my face as much as possible.

I knew Bryan was on my side and he was helping us, but I still had no idea how to feel about him due to him messing with my memories. I knew he had his reasons for erasing his memories of me, but it still made me uneasy to know he was able to take my memories away then give them back. And he was a Sorcerer using his magic to disguise himself as a Shapeshifter to go to my school.

We would've been only fourteen at the time. I didn't know that much about magic, but there was no way a fourteen-year-old Sorcerer would've been able to do such complicated magic like that.

It made me wonder what else he was hiding. I didn't know if he could even be twenty-one. Maybe he was older than what he was saying or maybe he was messing with me.

I knew Morgan trusted him, though now I was starting to wonder if I should trust Morgan.

I was starting to doubt whether or not working with Morgan was such a good idea after all. I wanted the prisoners Donald had to be free as well and I wanted to get everyone who was captured by him to get out of there, but things were getting more and more dangerous by the second.

I had no idea what those marks on Blake and Perry's necks were, but they kept getting worse and I was worried they were going to hurt or even kill them. They didn't appear to have any side effects, but they could still produce negative results.

I had to get my Pack out of here, my deal with Morgan be damned. I couldn't risk the lives of my Pack even more. I had to find a way to help us all escape and get us to a part of the world where no one would ever find us. We'd be hiding permanently. Things were getting even worse and I had to focus on getting my Pack out of here unscathed.

I should've done this from the start. I should've never made a deal with Morgan because he'd no doubt have a target on my back as well for not honoring our deal.

I turned back into the conversation and listened to what Sarah was saying to Bryan, absentmindedly eating. "My team and I are competing for the championship this year," she was saying.

"That's awesome!"

"Yeah, I'm so excited. My team hasn't done well for the past few months, so a championship win will be great for us."

"Totally." Bryan looked over at me and gave me an easy smile. "Did you play volleyball in high school, Ava?"

I choked on my food, coughing loudly, the question throwing me off. Anna hastily reached over and pounded on my back as I glared at him. He had to damn well know what my life was like and that being on a volleyball team was never an option for me. Now that my memories of our time together during middle school were coming back, I remember deeply confiding in him about everything I was going through.

"Are you okay?" he asked once I caught my breath.

I took a huge gulp of water and offered a quick, "Yeah," in a hoarse voice.

Donald cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. "Ava actually didn't get the chance to grow up with us, Bryan."

Bryan frowned in confusion and I barely resisted the urge to give a round of mocking applause. What a phenomenal actor. Should be up for an Oscar. "She didn't?"

No, you asshole, I didn't.

"Her grandmother placed her for adoption behind our back and we managed to track her down twenty years later."