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.

doesn't help that I've been unable to reach Lucas for three days. Knowing that they're fighting over there, not knowing the full

all of

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

again. There's nothing that happens when I touch them; no tingle or buzz within my fingertips. I can't feel anything. It's

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

try to commune with

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

him a dubious look—it's not like I haven't tried that before—I grab the

world fade away, leaving only the sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through my chest, and the pulsing core of magic

reaching out to touch it. Nothing happens. I try to visualize tugging at it, like pulling on a string, but it remains stubbornly

How am I supposed to access this power if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force myself to relax. Maybe I'm trying

rune for fire sitting on the paper in front of me. Fire. Destructive, passionate, life-giving. I think about its properties—how it consumes, how it transforms, how

Burning.

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

pain that raged through every fiber of my being. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but

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

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

being unmade by fire. The bright core of magic within me pulses in response, as if recognizing a kindred spirit. For