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 over there, not knowing the

stress has all of

runes written on them. Unlike the magic book I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in my room at the lodge,

the different papers, looking them over again and again. There's nothing that happens when I touch them;

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 element within me, nothing

papers before me. "It helps with fighting. Learning to center, to focus only on what matters. Maybe you're too in tune

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

myself. The sounds and scents of the world fade away, leaving only the sensation of my own body, its

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

power if nothing works? Taking another deep breath, I force myself to relax. Maybe

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

Burning.

memory surfaces, unbidden. Not a memory of this life, but of another. A dream? A vision? Whatever it was, it feels as real

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

as the phantom sensations wash over me. I want to pull away from the memory, to escape the torment, but something holds me there. This

Only pain. No name, no self, just pure sensation. And in that moment of complete dissolution, something else emerged. Something primal and

of magic within me pulses in response, as if recognizing a kindred spirit. For the first time, I feel a connection to