"Young love tends to be based on nothing but feelings. The couple has not yet faced and overcome a challenge or difficulty together. They are passionate about each other. They think about each other constantly and want to spend all their time"
Isaac...
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"I give you ten minutes to explain everything. Now."
James's voice rang sharp through the kitchen, cutting through the morning quiet like a blade. I sat on the stool, hunched against the counter, my fingers tracing idle lines in the wood grain as I listened to them argue.
"This doesn't concern you anymore, James," my mom fired back, for what felt like the hundredth time.
"The hell it doesn't!" He slammed his palm down against the counter with a loud crack, making me flinch before I could stop myself. "Divorce papers don't erase sixteen years, Ava. They don't change the fact that I'm her father!"
Or so he thought.
And the worst part? I still hadn't gotten used to hearing it — knowing it wasn't true.
"Are you sure?"
I'd heard my mom say that to him before, thrown like a careless insult in the heat of a fight. But now, the words hung in the air, poisonous and final.
James froze.
For a moment, there was dead silence.
"No, Ava. Are you sure?" he shot back, voice trembling with fury. "Because you're putting her in danger. You dragged her here. You're letting her get mixed up in God knows what while the witches are already circling. What are you planning that's so bad it requires her to burn through this much magic?!"
My mom stayed silent. And his voice only got louder.
And for reasons I couldn't quite name, I felt the rage bubble up in me — not just at him, not just at her. At everything.
I wasn't some little kid they could toss back and forth like a possession.
"What did you do now, Ava?!" he barked. "Why did you come back here in the first place? Don't tell me you're —" He stopped himself, eyes cutting toward me. "Angie. Upstairs. Now."
"James, don't—"
"Go. Now." He glared at her. "It's better you don't hear what your mother's done."
And that was it. The last shove. The last order I was going to take.
"It was me," I said.
The room went still. My mother shut her eyes, and I could tell she knew there was no stopping me this time.
"It wasn't her," I continued. "I chose to do the magic. I pushed for it. She tried to stop me — I didn't listen. It started as a stupid trick because I was trying to impress a boy. A boy who turned out to be a wolf. Then a friend. Then another friend got caught in it too and... I..." I swallowed. "I fell in love with him."
