Tangled in Moonlight: Unshifted (Ava and Lucas)

Chapter 229 Ava: Fire

Bureaucracy in the Fae Ward moves with the pace of a paralyzed sloth, leaving me with an itchy feeling between my shoulder blades, as if staying here is the worst decision I've ever made.

Selene spends most of her time slinking around the Fae Ward, finding pockets of space with less wards to sneeze over. Vanessa and Marcus stick with me, with Vanessa sharing my bedroom.

Our first lesson doesn't happen for three days. Why?

Application for Unlicensed Magus to Practice Dangerous Magic Within Residential Areas.

It's an actual title of a piece of paperwork Magister Orion had to file. Apparently, new wizards (though the official Fae-paperwork term is magus, unknown origin) are deemed a deadly force. Whoever runs this place has a serious stick up their butt about me learning magic.

"I don't like it," Vanessa says, staring out the window. "They'll have your name on official paperwork. We have no idea how deep Renard's influence lies."

"It's only within the Fae Ward," I point out, like I have the other thirty times she's mentioned it. "If they're going to find me here, the paperwork won't be the only reason."

Marcus, of course, is quiet. We already know how he feels. He hates it and doesn't trust the paperwork, either.

Not that I disagree with either of them—it's just that, like them, I feel stuck.

for three days. Knowing that they're fighting over there,

all

the subject to sit on the bed beside me, where I'm surrounded by five papers with different runes written on them. Unlike the magic book I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in my room at the lodge, these runes don't disappear, and

Frustrated, I grab the different papers, looking them over again and again. There's nothing that happens when I touch them; no tingle or buzz within my fingertips. I

Orion, grumbling about red tape, gave me these five papers and told me to find the elements within me that correspond to them. With

matter how I try to commune with a single

grimacing at the papers before me. "It helps with fighting. Learning to center, to

look—it's not like I haven't tried that before—I grab the one that means fire,

let out a slow breath as I center myself. The sounds and scents of the world fade away, leaving only the sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through my chest,

energy that warms me from within, I imagine myself reaching out to touch it. Nothing happens. I try to visualize tugging at it, like pulling on a string, but it remains stubbornly distant. Knocking on it in my mind yields

access this power if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force myself

for fire sitting on the paper in front

Burning.

of this life, but of another. A dream? A vision?

couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but the all-consuming agony

phantom sensations wash over me. I want to pull away from the memory, to escape the

self, just pure sensation. And in that moment of complete

magic within me pulses in response, as if recognizing a kindred spirit. For