Tangled

Unshift 229

Unshift 229

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.

17:05

that I've been unable to reach Lucas for three days.

ty

Knowing that they're fighting over there, not knowing the full

us on edge.

progress" Vanessa changes the subject

where I'm surrounded by

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

disappear, and Vanessa and

when I touch them:

red tape, gave me these five papers and told me

such vague instructions, it's no surprise

to commune with a single element within

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

you

that before-I grab the one that means fire, close my eyes, and focus deep

SVR XS. FIR

away, leaving only the sensation of my own body,

of reach.

me from within, I imagine myself reaching out to touch it. Nothing happens. I try to visualize tugging

either.

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

to the rune for fire sitting on the paper in front of me. Fire,

its properties-how it consumes, how it

Burning.

of another. A dream? A vision? Whatever it

anything I've experienced.

raged through every fiber of my being. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was nothing but the all-consuming agony of flesh melting

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

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

pure sensation. And in that moment of complete dissolution, something else emerged. Something primal and powerful. I focus on that feeling, on the memory of being unmade by fire.

power.