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

200 Ava Call it

such a small thing can bring back memories of a simpler time, before I knew about the complexities of pack politics, before

her eyes softening with the memory. "She had a saying

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

car hums, jostling its way over 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 can light a candlestick if you

chimes in

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, there were once upon a time-they were all cut out at some point in this truck's long and

Magic seems to be all about

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

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

shrug, feeling a bit foolish. "Maybe? It's worth

"He just

what you can do."

can hear you,

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

bites back the rest of his words. "Never mind.

I close my eyes and try to empty

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

the ornate silver clasps, tarnished by age. The way the pages felt beneath my fingertips. The symbols

260 Ava Call It

disappeared

That's what

The truck hits another

Focus, Ava. Focus.

onto their meaning, but they slip away

I need

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

opening my eyes.

she says softly. "We'll be

truck rumbles on, and I sink deeper into my thoughts. I picture the book again, trying

I open

book in my

of us, this ancient rust bucket on wheels,

traveling.

concentrating harder. Magister Orion said to call it to me, so it must be possible; I just have to

for a

It's distracting, pulling me out of my focus. I try to push it away, but

a long way still

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