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.

reach Lucas for three days. Knowing that they're fighting

has all of us

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

that happens when I touch them; no tingle or

the elements within me that correspond to them. With such vague instructions, it's no surprise I've

how I try to commune with a single

"It helps with fighting. Learning to center, to focus only on what

not like I haven't tried that before—I grab the one

own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through my

to visualize tugging at it, like pulling on

inside me. How am I supposed to access this power if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force

the silence of my meditation, my thoughts drift to the rune for fire sitting on the paper in front of me.

Burning.

of another. A dream? A vision? Whatever it was, it feels as real as anything I've

move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but the

throat as the phantom sensations wash over me. I want to pull away from the

name, no self, just pure sensation. And in that moment of complete dissolution,

being unmade by fire. The bright core of magic within me pulses in response,