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

where I'm surrounded by five

the magic book I'm still kicking myself over for leaving in

disappear, and Vanessa and Marcus are able to

over again and again. There's nothing that happens when I touch

about red tape, gave me these five papers and told me

vague instructions, it's no

how I try to commune with a

meditation," Marcus 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

you

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

SVR XS. FIR

away, leaving only the sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through

of reach.

to touch it. Nothing happens. I try to visualize tugging at it, like pulling

either.

supposed to access this power if nothing works?

my thoughts drift to the rune for fire sitting

its properties-how it consumes, how it transforms,

Burning.

but of another.

anything I've experienced.

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

catches in my throat as the phantom sensations wash over me. I want to pull away from the memory, to escape the torment,

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

was nothing. Only pain. No name, no self, just pure sensation. And in that moment of complete dissolution, something else emerged. Something primal and powerful. I focus on that

power.