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."

tore

200 Ava Call it

thing can bring back memories of a simpler time, before I knew about the complexities of pack politics, before I discovered my own magical abilities, before the world seemed to be falling apart around us. Not a happy time.

time," Vanessa says, her eyes softening with the memory. "She

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

road as if it's full of potholes, making it even harder to concentrate. "We spent most of our 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

Vanessa chimes in with a

be useful. "He did mention something 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

sense. Magic

I lose concentration, I lose control. So it's the bedrock of my

can't hide his skepticism. Probably because it leaks out in his voice. "So what, you just think really hard about the book

foolish. "Maybe?

whisper, "He just doesn't have the imagination

what you can do."

can hear you,

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

rest of his words. "Never

my eyes and try to

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 task

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

260 Ava Call It

and disappeared

what

myself. The truck hits another pothole, and I grit my

Focus, Ava. Focus.

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

I need to

through my concentration. "Are you okay?

nod, not opening my eyes.

she says softly. "We'll be

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

open my

book in

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

traveling.

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

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 try to push it away, but it lingers, stubborn and

long way still before we make it to

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,