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.

Vanessa changes the

I'm surrounded by

still kicking myself over for

disappear, and Vanessa and

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

these five papers and told me to find the elements within me

instructions, it's

try to commune with a single element within me,

with fighting. Learning to center, to focus

you

haven't tried that before-I grab the one that means fire, close my eyes, and

SVR XS. FIR

only the sensation of my own body, its thudding heartbeat vibrating through my chest, and

of reach.

to visualize tugging at it, like

either.

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

thoughts drift to the rune for fire

it consumes, how it transforms, 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

anything I've experienced.

Searing, scorching pain that raged through every fiber of my being. I couldn't move, couldn't scream, couldn't see. There was

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

17.50

220 Ava. Fire

matters.

just 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

power.