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."

the teneian tore

200 Ava Call it

a simpler time, before I knew about the complexities of pack politics, before I discovered my own magical

grandmother used to say that all the time," Vanessa says, her eyes softening with the memory.

ahead. "As much as I appreciate the trip down memory lane, we should focus. It must be important, for him to warn her

time 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 can light a candlestick if you need me

so much," Vanessa chimes

figure out how. Right?" Vanessa turns almost completely around on the passenger side of the bench to face me. There are no seatbelts. Well, there were once upon a time-they were all cut out at some point

huh? That makes sense. Magic

"If I lose concentration, I lose control. So it's

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

a bit foolish.

whisper, "He just doesn't have the imagination

what you can do."

hear

chides. "Don't make her feel bad when she's trying to figure

back the rest of his words.

I close my eyes and try

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. I push

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

260 Ava Call It

disappeared

what

deep breath, trying to center myself. The truck hits another pothole, and I grit my

Focus, Ava. Focus.

and shifting. I try to grasp them, to hold onto their meaning,

need

my concentration. "Are you okay?

nod, not opening my eyes. "I'm trying

she says softly. "We'll

and I sink deeper into my thoughts. I picture the book again, trying to will it into existence. Come on, I think.

I open

in my

ancient rust bucket on wheels,

traveling.

Orion said to call it to me, so it must be possible; I just have to figure out

massive undertaking for

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

have a long way still before

held it. The sense of power, of potential. The way it seemed to hum with