Page 23 of Fortune Fae Academy
In particular, the quaint cabin in the woods I’d stayed in during my days as a dancer. I’d lovingly referred to it as a shack because it was small and off the beaten path.
But right now, that sounded like home to me.
Closing my eyes, I pictured the cabin that was one of the many safe houses I’d paid for myself. Its worn wood interior, awobbly recliner chair, and mismatched furniture gave the place its own special charm.
I remembered the dust on the windowsills and an old clock still paused in time because I’d never pulled its long chains to get it going again.
It was stuck, just like me.
Perhaps when we got there, I’d let it walk through time once more.
Tapping into my newfound power, I worked on opening a portal to the cabin.
I expected Amell’s collar to feel what I was doing and stop me. Surely there was some sort of safeguard.
But whatever Amell had done to it had seemingly turned it off—or, perhaps, he wanted to see what I would do next.
Maybe this was just a continuation of his experiment. But if that meant I could be free, I didn’t even care.
Tunneling was like dropping through the Web, but I understood that skill better now. It wasn’t about forming a portal, but rather accessing the natural gaps in the Web that were already there, connecting one place to the next. Souls traversed through those worn paths and it was more difficult to travel across realms simply because timelines didn’t stretch across clusters like that as often. It took magic to connect the threads and work a Tunnel through the strands.
As I focused, the spell around the Collegium fought me with heavy waves.
I wasn’t supposed to be able to Tunnel out of the Collegium, but that, too, was a spell like any other that could be broken. Amell himself had formed it and commanded the Web to remain rigid, but he wasn’t its master.
I need to leave,I told the Web, coaxing it with a touch that was soft like a mother’s comfort.
It fluttered and responded to me, but the bubble around the tower’s stone walls remained in place. Like a net cast over an ocean to keep all of the spirits locked within it.
Please. I need to be free.
Not free to run, but free to remember who I was supposed to be.
Free to take a stand.
Free to bestrong.
Bright lights twinkled along the strands, telling me that my memories were out there waiting for me to find them.
One of them was in that cabin.
Reaching out for it felt natural. I outstretched my fingers and a yearning to become whole again made me sigh.
A warm pull of power from the universe echoed my call. The energy gave me strength, as if the Web was a living thing that had been waiting to hear my voice. It rushed around me like a warm embrace, blocking out the darkness emanating from this place where Amell wanted to keep us prisoner.
Amell’s spell was nothing against the power of the universe. I didn’t rely on my own strength. I asked the Web for help. I didn’t command it. I didn’t demand. I simply asked.
And it gave me what I wanted.
Amell’s spell crumbled away until there was nothing left but a mess of broken Dust particles falling like rain.
Pulling up my Alphas, I buried myself in their chests and wrapped my arms around them as far as I could reach.
They were massive, so they enveloped me instead with tender respect.
I closed my eyes and the portal rushed around us. My stomach dropped and my hair flung back, stinging my cheeks.
Time passed as we fell through the Web holding one another.
