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."

reenite from the teneian tore heen miling tighter and

200 Ava Call it

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

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

us back to the present as his eyes remain glued to the road ahead. "As much as I appreciate the trip down memory

"We spent most of our time on basic control exercises. Also known as the thing that would keep me from kabooming everyone within

chimes in

about intent being crucial in magic. He must think I'm capable of doing this, so I just need to figure out how. Right?" Vanessa turns almost completely around on the passenger side of the bench to face me. There are no seatbelts. Well,

makes sense. Magic seems to

lose concentration, I lose control. So it's the

the back of Marcus' head can't hide his skepticism. Probably because it leaks out in his

shrug, feeling a bit foolish.

the seat to whisper, "He

what you can do."

can hear you,

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

rest of his words.

a deep breath, I close my eyes and

old truck rattles and shakes, every bump in the 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 it all away, focusing on the

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

260 Ava Call It

and disappeared like

That's what

to center myself. The truck hits another pothole,

Focus, Ava. Focus.

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

I need to be

breaks through my concentration. "Are you okay?

not opening my eyes.

softly.

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

I open my eyes-nothing

book in my

of us, this ancient rust bucket on wheels,

traveling.

frown, concentrating harder. Magister Orion said to call it to me, so it

massive undertaking for a new

smell of smoke grows stronger, and I wrinkle my nose. It's distracting, pulling me out of my focus. I

Besides, we have a long way still before we make it to

this time focusing on the feeling it gave me when I held 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