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 heen miling tighter and

200 Ava Call it

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

grandmother used to say that all the time," Vanessa says, her eyes

ahead. "As much as I appreciate the

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

Vanessa chimes in with

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

huh? That makes sense. Magic

"If I lose concentration, I

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

foolish. "Maybe? It's worth a try,

over the seat to whisper, "He just

what you can do."

hear you, Healer

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

rest of his words. "Never mind. I'll just

a deep breath, I close my

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

with the silky feel its leather cover and the

260 Ava Call It

and disappeared like

That's what I need

breath, trying to center myself. The truck

Focus, Ava. Focus.

to grasp them, to hold onto their meaning,

I need to be

voice breaks through my concentration. "Are you okay?

opening my

says softly. "We'll be

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

open

book in

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

traveling.

it to me, so

undertaking for a new magic

me out of my focus. I try to push

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

potential. The way it seemed to hum with energy, as if it was alive somehow. I reach out with my