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."

from the teneian tore heen miling

200 Ava Call it

I knew about the complexities of pack politics, before I discovered my own magical abilities, before the world

grandmother used to say that all the 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 trip

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

so much," Vanessa chimes in with a

figure out how. Right?" Vanessa turns

huh? That makes sense. Magic seems

latching onto the idea. "If I lose concentration, I lose

can't hide his skepticism. Probably because it leaks out in his voice. "So what, you just

shrug, feeling a bit foolish. "Maybe?

to whisper, "He just doesn't have

what you can do."

can hear

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

rest of his words. "Never

my eyes and

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

the silky feel its leather cover and the ornate silver clasps,

260 Ava Call It

disappeared like

That's what I need

deep breath, trying to center myself. The truck hits another pothole,

Focus, Ava. Focus.

to hold onto their meaning, but they slip away like smoke. Frustration bubbles up inside me, and I push it

I need

concentration. "Are you okay?

not opening my eyes.

softly. "We'll

picture the book again, trying

I open my eyes-nothing

in my

ancient rust bucket on wheels, and the deserted

traveling.

call it to me, so it must be possible; I just

for a new

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

long way still before we make it to wherever

book again, 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