Margo

Chapter Twenty Eight

Your eyes look like coming home.

--Everything has changed; Taylor Swift ft. Ed Sheeran

Nate Lyons

"You're an Ace?"

My face must show how confused I am.

Ace? What's that? A card?

"A what?"

"An Ace!" This time, she doesn't have a shocked expression but a happy one. She basically squealed. I just give her a "what's that" look before heading towards the kitchen to clean up.

"You're a werewolf." This time, I feel my body stiffen; slowly I put the clean plates on the drying rack and slowly turn to face her. I put on my most anti-social expression and stare at her.

"Excuse me?" I ask.

Margo just smiles fondly at me and says, "You don't have to be defensive, Nate. I'm a werewolf too." I feel my eyes widen at that revelation. I thought I was the only one.

"You're a were too?" I whisper, wide eyed. She smiles and nods before going back to the living room to sit on my couch. She then pats the spot next to her and beckons for me to sit down as well.

"How did you know?" I ask as I stare at her. I just have a newfound respect for this girl and my protectiveness over her seems to have grown in just a few minutes after I've learned of her nature.

I'm not alone.

That fact has just started to sink in when she does something completely extraordinary.

"No, you're not alone, Nate." She smiles. What? Did I say that aloud?

"No, you didn't." She answers again and I scoot away from her on the couch. What the hell? This is freaking me out.

"Don't freak out, Nate. I'll explain it to you." There. She did it again. She read my mind. She actually answered my thoughts!

"Nate, you are an Ace." She states, and I look at her in confusion. "What's that?" I ask. She shuffles around before getting a comfortable position, as if she's about to engage in a long talk. and I bet she is.

She then proceeds to tell me about the Aces—a special kind of werewolves who are the descendants of witches. I have witch blood? Is this really true? Am I being pranked on right now? I mean, I've never known that there is someone out there like me.

Living in the middle of New York—the city that never sleeps, doesn't really help. I mean, I couldn't just print posters saying "werewolf club, members wanted". All this time, I thought I was the only one.

I thought I was a freak of nature, that there was something wrong with me. When I shifted at sixteen, it was one life-altering experience. The pain was so fucking intense I was shocked to still be alive after.

I can still remember how my bones broke. My fingers, one by one and then my arms. And then my clavicles (collar bones) broke inwards, my scapula felt like they were going to pop out of my skin as the other end dug into the flesh underneath them.

Then I fell on my knees because my legs gave way. It felt as if the cartilage in my knees where melting. My whole body was burning. When my spine snapped, yes it fucking snapped, I thought it was done. But my head—damn. I felt and heard my skull crack and then I felt it—the crack getting longer and longer, like my skull's going to break in two at any moment.

"I felt that too, Nate." I was so caught up in my thoughts that I forgot Margo was still here. I feel proud and in awe. She went through that too? That indescribable pain of feeling all 206 bones in your body breaking.