Tangled

Unshift 260

Unshift 260

260 Ava: Call It

"I know" Nibbling the side of my finger, my brows pull together. Why would he tell me to keep it safe, knowing it might be too dangerous?

What were the words he used again? They seemed significant.

"Ava, I need you to tell me you're not going to the Blackwood territory."

Jerking my head up, I blink at Vanessa's worried stare. "I'm not going. I'm just trying to think."

My brain's dead set on remembering what Magister Orion said.

What was it?

Call my book?

Yeah, that's it.

"The book is useless to anyone even if they find it," Marcus says, his words soft. Is he trying to comfort me? "Don't worry, Ava. It'll be a paperweight. Or, if we're lucky, they'll be allergic. Like Selene." He is trying to comfort me.

How sweet.

"That's if we assume they don't know how to open it. The knowledge has been lost to us, but there are Fae involved now, remember?"

Marcus sighs. "Life was casier without this magic shit," he mutters, almost too soft for me to

hear.

But I do.

My lips quirk. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

"Magister Orion said to call the book to me," I say, looking to Vanessa instead. Sometimes it helps to talk out my thought process. "He wouldn't have said it like that if I were to go pick it up, right?"

Her eyes squint as she thinks it through. "That sounds right. But what does it mean? Can you move it from place to place with your magic?"

My nose itches, and I rub at it in frustration. "I think that's exactly what he means, but I have no idea how to implement it." A long sigh, filled with regrets and lack of time. Time is always in short supply. "I wish Magister Orion had taught me something like that before everything happened."

Vanessa's lips quirk into a small smile. "If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.

I stare at her for a moment, the unexpected phrase catching me off guard. Then, despite the

gravity of our on a laugh bubbles up from my chest. "I haven't heard that phrase since I

was in human school."

teneian tore heen miling tighter

200 Ava Call it

I knew about the complexities of pack politics, before I

all the time," Vanessa says, her eyes softening with the memory. "She had a saying

present as his eyes remain glued to the road ahead. "As much as I

on basic control exercises. Also known as the thing that would keep me from kabooming everyone within radius if I didn't get training. "I

so much," Vanessa chimes in

I just need to figure out how. Right?" Vanessa turns almost

huh? That makes sense. Magic seems to be

lose concentration, I lose control.

it leaks out in his voice. "So what, you just think really hard

a bit foolish. "Maybe? It's worth a

the seat to whisper, "He just doesn't have the

what you can do."

can hear you, Healer

she chides. "Don't make her

rest of his words. "Never mind.

breath, I close my eyes

road threatening to jostle me out of my concentration. A stale, acrid smell of cigarette smoke lingers in the air, tickling my nose and tempting me to sneeze.

picture it in my mind, with the silky feel its leather cover and the ornate silver clasps, tarnished

260 Ava Call It

disappeared like

That's what I

trying to center myself. The truck hits

Focus, Ava. Focus.

my memory, swirling and shifting. I try to grasp them, to hold onto their meaning, but they slip away like smoke.

I need to

voice breaks through my concentration. "Are you okay? You look

not opening my eyes. "I'm trying to

softly.

I sink deeper into my thoughts. I picture the book again, trying to

whenever I open my eyes-nothing

book in my

three of us, this ancient rust bucket on wheels, and the

traveling.

call it to me, so it must

for a new magic

out of my focus. I try to push it away,

we have a long way still before we make

it. The sense of power, of potential. The way it seemed to hum with energy, as if it was alive somehow. I reach out with my mind, trying to