The Shadow Wand

by Laurie Forest

  “All right,” I manage, breathless from the strength of our magical pull.

  We’re quiet for a moment, the dire nature of our situation cutting through our haze of affinity desire.

  “Are you ready to leave?” Lukas asks, his fervid gaze turning searching and serious.

  “Ancient One, yes.” My flush deepens as soon as I say it, every last boundary between us about to fall. A heightened awareness of his body takes hold, his hand loosely on my waist, our bodies pressed against each other, and I can feel the hunger our affinity attraction has kicked up in both of us.

  A different type of trepidation rises.

  Lukas and I have kissed on more than one occasion to the point of wrapping around each other quite passionately.

  But this is a big step for us both.

  “You know,” I say, “Aunt Vyvian met with me earlier. To let me know she wouldn’t tell me any of the ‘secrets of the Sealing night.’ Instead, I got the impression that I was about to endure a military attack on my body.”

  Lukas raises his brow, his lip tilting up. “Certainly not the evening I’ve envisioned.”

  “Well, that’s a relief, Lukas.” A complex vexation rises within me, my brow tightening against it. “It’s not right, you know. How I’ve been kept ignorant about all this because I’m female.”

  Lukas takes my other hand and rubs the back of it gently, affection warming his gaze. “I imagine you’ll catch on quickly enough.”

  I glower at him. “That’s not the point.”

  Lukas looks closely at me. “I know that’s not the point.”

  “I’m angry. About a lot of things.”

  “Good,” he says succinctly, losing the smile. “Hold on to that. Because it’s much better than fear.”

  I study him. My subversive, warrior fastmate.

  Wicked mischief lights his eyes. “When I’m done ‘ravaging’ you,” he says, clearly mocking the idea, “I’m going to reshield your lines with a tighter weave of magic.” He gives me a significant look. “But as soon as I can, I need to teach you how to shield them yourself. You’re too vulnerable, dependent on my magic like this.”

  I throw him an appreciative look, both his humor and his frank offer steadying. Gratitude for his friendship rises as it hits me, just how much he’s sacrificing, jumping over to the side of the Resistance and now throwing his lot in with mine. Ready to risk his life to help me escape and survive Vogel. And it strikes me that I don’t mind, so much, being Elloren Grey while I face down my destiny.

  “All right, then,” I tell Lukas as I glance at our clasped, fastmarked hands then raise my eyes to meet his compelling stare once more. “I trust you. Let’s get out of here. And go change these lines.”

  * * *

  We approach Vogel’s table, and I’ve a sense of every other magical force in the room suddenly being pulled to the side.

  Vogel sets his penetrating, pale-eyed gaze on me, and I have to fight the urge to fold inward. He’s like a dark star, everything in the world now orbiting around him and that Shadow Wand.

  “We’re to take our leave now, Your Excellency,” Lukas impassively states as I hold Vogel’s unflinching stare and wait for his Shadow power to crash through me, but he holds it back.

  I think of the Lupines, of the refugees running for their lives, the wreckage Vogel is visiting upon the world, as my affinity fire rears and kicks up to a blaze just under Lukas’s tightened shield.

  Enjoy your moment while you can, I silently rage. If I ever get hold of what’s inside me, I’m coming for you.

  A shriek sounds above. My head jerks up along with Lukas’s and most everyone around us, unsettled murmuring rising as more shrieks sound and the orchestral music dies off.

  A broken dragon horde tears through the sky overhead as sounds of surprise burst forth from all directions, the incoming dragons visible through the glass ceiling, the arboretum’s green light washing over their scaled black bodies. The ground thuds as first one, then another, then another dragon lands, lit by the surrounding green torchlight just outside the arboretum’s glass wall. Mage soldiers are astride the dragons’ backs, more soldiers riding in on horseback to ring the estate.

  Lukas and I exchange a swift glance, his fire giving a quick, urgent pulse as mine surges under his shield, and I surmise that this is unexpected for him, as well.

  Lukas rapidly collects himself. “Is there new concern about a Vu Trin attack?” he asks Vogel.

  Vogel narrows his pale eyes at Lukas. “The Vu Trin seem to have been effectively subdued. But we need to ensure the safety of so many Council members and high-ranking military until we’re sure.” Vogel smiles as he casts me a knowing look. “And we need to keep Carnissa Gardner’s granddaughter well protected. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  I catch the rush of tension in Lukas’s fire as my hope for escape implodes and fear overtakes me.

  This goes beyond a guard to ensure safety during a Sealing night and Sealing breakfast.

  This is an army to guard a Black Witch.

  “Escort Mage Lukas Grey and his lovely fastmate, Elloren Grey, to their Sealing chambers,” Vogel intones, his pale gaze flicking toward the soldiers to his left. He gives me a narrow look, a flash of his power slithering over my shielded lines, an unsettling sting racing over the rune on my abdomen.

  Ten Level Five Mage soldiers break off from the surrounding guard and stride toward Lukas and me, and I blanch at the feel of their combined power. It’s devastating, the sheer pressure of its incoming force close to blasting right through Lukas’s shield. And none of it is aimed at Lukas.

  It’s all aimed at me.

  “Thank you, Your Excellency,” Lukas says to Vogel with a polite dip of his head, “but such a large guard is unnecessary.”

  “I insist,” Vogel counters. “For your protection. They’ll escort you to your chambers and to the Sealing breakfast tomorrow morning.” He looks to me. “And then, to your wandtesting. We can’t be too safe now, can we?”

  Lukas stares at Vogel for a beat, then stiffly bows. “Thank you, Your Excellency.”

  Vogel’s steady smile is the smile of someone ten steps ahead of us all. “Sanguin’in,” he says, looking straight at me.

  My pulse kicks up to a violent rhythm as Lukas tightens his grip on my wand hand and leads me away, a stream of his fire shuddering through my lines. My own fire lashes out toward Lukas in response as I match his long, determined stride with ten Level Five Mage soldiers tight on our heels.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SEALING NIGHT

  ELLOREN GREY

  Sixth Month

  Valgard, Gardneria

  When we get to his bedroom chambers, Lukas escorts me inside the heavy Ironwood door, motions with his finger to his lips for me to remain quiet, all the while keeping his hand tight around mine. Then he locks the door and bolts it against the ten Level Five Mage soldiers on guard outside.

  It doesn’t keep the unyielding press of their magic out.

  Magic aimed at me.

  The aura of their combined magery has my affinity lines in an unsettled uproar and tangling around each other, and I can feel the edges of my shield beginning to degrade once more from the ceaseless assault of so much power.

  My body sings with tension as Lukas holds tight to my wand hand and guides me down an Ironwood tree–lined hallway, through another door and into his bedroom. He bolts and locks this door too. Then he unsheathes his wand and uses it to unlock a black-lacquered box set on a shelf built into the tree-embedded walls, the trees’ dark gleaming limbs branching out over our heads. He opens the box to reveal a sizable number of black Noi rune stones, the hazy sapphire glow of the runes illuminating the air above them in a puff of blue.

  Lukas pulls out four of the rune stones and places them on the shelf, then sheathes his wand, reaches under the hem of his pant leg, and pulls
out a hidden wand—a wand marked with Noi runes. He taps this wand’s tip to each rune stone in turn, murmuring spells, and the glow of the runes intensifies. I follow beside him, our hands still clasped to maintain my shield, as he places one of the stones at the base of the room’s door and the others at the bottom of each of the room’s remaining walls.

  We move to the center of the room and Lukas raises his arm, points his wand at the rune at the base of the door, and murmurs another spell.

  Static sizzles over our clasped hands as a thread of white lightning flashes from Lukas’s wand toward the rune. The moment it hits the rune, faint, luminous blue lines, like a spider’s web, fly up from all three stones and cobweb over the surface of the door and the walls and the room’s ceiling, then appear to melt into the surfaces.

  I blink at the vanishing lines, stunned by Lukas’s display of yet more cross-magic as the prickles coursing over our hands recede. The press of the magic coursing in from outside the room abruptly vanishes, only my sense of Lukas’s magic remaining, both his magic and mine able to traverse my internal shield since it’s woven from our combined magic.

  Lukas lets go of my hand, and apprehension leaps inside me as I prepare myself for our guards’ affinity power to flood back into me, but...nothing.

  “We can speak freely now.” Lukas turns and focuses on me.

  “I can’t sense the magic of our guards anymore,” I marvel.

  “That’s because I set up a runic barrier.”

  I stare at him, amazed. “You’re pretty adept in the use of forbidden Noi magic,” I note with a touch of wry challenge.

  Lukas’s lips lift as he gives me a smoky look. “Are you disappointed in my lack of magical purity?”

  The rakish gleam in his eyes sends a shot of unsettled warmth through my lines. I give him an arch look. “You continue to be a very bad Gardnerian.”

  A laugh erupts from him. “True.” He looks me over. “But then, so do you.”

  Our eyes catch and hold, a spark of tension lighting between us that has me remembering just how closely allied we’re about to be.

  Cheeks heating, I look around and let out a shuddering sigh, nervous about crossing so many lines with him but deeply relieved to be away from Vogel and the rest of the Mages.

  “One night here,” I think out loud, turning to look at him, this man I’m about to give myself to.

  “Yes, Elloren,” Lukas says as he moves to take another rune stone from the box and sets it against the base of the wall before him. “One night until all hell breaks loose. Enjoy the very brief respite.” He touches his rune wand to the stone and murmurs another spell. The walls around us briefly shimmer with a gauzy, wavering blue film.

  I tighten my brow in question. “What does that rune do?”

  Lukas rises and turns to me. “Holds the barrier magic. At least until we’re gone.” He glances up at the ceiling’s lingering blue shimmer. Seeming satisfied with his work, he sets his rune wand down beside the box of rune stones. “I’ve broken down their magery.” He cocks a brow at me. “Someone had a Light Mage set up echo runes in my bedroom.”

  “What are those?”

  “They absorb sound and allow its echo to be accessed at a later time. Tricky magic. The runes take months for a Light Mage to build and can be used only once.”

  Comprehension lights. “Did Vogel have them placed to listen in on us?”

  “I suspect so,” Lukas somberly concurs, apparent disgust tightening his features. “And, perhaps, to hear all that transpires between us this night.” Revulsion surges in me as Lukas gives me a poignant look. “I, for one, would prefer that everything that happens between us remains private.”

  “Does this mean they brought the Council’s Light Mage here?”

  “Yes, Elloren,” Lukas grimly answers. “It also means that Vogel thinks you’re important enough to spend complex runic magery on. So he can anticipate your next move.”

  His use of your instead of our catches troubling hold.

  “You think Vogel has figured out what I am?” I murmur.

  “Perhaps,” comes Lukas’s unvarnished reply.

  “Why hasn’t he confronted me, then?” I challenge.

  “Because he’s a religious zealot, above all else.” Lukas’s lips tighten with derision. “It says right in The Book of the Ancients that no new spells are to be cast from the time of Sealing until the Blessing of Dominion. And I don’t think Vogel realized what you are until he cast the Sealing spell.”

  Fear makes a harder play for me, and I force a wavering breath, struggling to not let it pull me under.

  “Lukas,” I say, my voice constricting, “how are we going to get past so many soldiers? Vogel’s got an army of Level Five Mages surrounding this estate. And dragons too.”

  Lukas gives me a predatory look. “When they see our changed fastlines tomorrow morning, their defenses will be down.” His gaze darkens. “Ours won’t.”

  “But how can we possibly outrun them? Will the Blessing of Dominion give us enough time?”

  Lukas takes a step toward me, a lethal glint in his eyes. “We’ll be allowed the open-ended solitary time in the woods that The Book of the Ancients demands during the Blessing. Vogel is fanatical about following the Book to the letter. That’s his weak spot, and we’re going to take full advantage of it. We’ll gain a lead on them and take to the high ground.”

  I shake my head in desperate refute. “They’ve got dragons. Our odds are not good.”

  Lukas draws closer and gently touches my arm, a pulse of his warmth rippling through my lines. “Elloren,” he says, his voice low and emphatic, “do you trust me?”

  Pressing back my haze of fear, I glance around the room at all the unexpected rune stones and take in Lukas’s creative melding of magical systems, my confidence in him reinforced. I know he wouldn’t have brought us both down this path if he didn’t truly believe we have a real chance of escape.

  Our eyes meet, and Lukas gives me a slight smile, his green gaze warm and full of resolve.

  “I trust you,” I tell him.

  He sends a caress of earth magery around my lines. “Good,” he says, and I’m overwhelmed by the level of emotion in his eyes.

  I look away, eager to distract myself from thoughts of what tomorrow could bring, focusing instead on the fine craftsmanship of everything in Lukas’s bedroom. It’s all fashioned in midnight black and forest greens, with a sizable library built into one wall. A fire roars in the fireplace, which faces the foot of a very large bed.

  I swallow at the sight of the bed, a dart of nerves tingling through me.

  It’s made up with elegant coverings—a dark green quilt with an intricate fabric depiction of a River Maple, midnight-black sheets underneath. There’s a forest green canopy held aloft by ebony branches, sanded and worked in beeswax until they gleam.

  Two side tables bracket the bed, stained-glass lamps set on them with Ironwood stands carved into the shape of tree trunks, their glass lampshades a gorgeous canopy of leaves. A black-velvet-cushioned mahogany chair faces one side of the bed, and an artfully woven rug lies beneath my feet, green vines on black. The intricacy of the weaving brings to mind the North Tower tapestries that Wynter fashioned, and a small ache gathers in my chest.

  Where are you now, Wynter? Are you still in Amaz lands?

  Please don’t be lost to me like Yvan.

  Before misery can take hold, I press my longing for my family and friends firmly away, everything in the outside world needing to be stamped down this eve. This room and Lukas. That’s all there is. There’s no better choice. I’m Elloren Grey now, and Lukas and I need to be fully sealed so that we can escape.

  Setting my focus back on the luxury surrounding me, I move toward the bed and finger the black embroidery on the edging of the canopy curtain. The silk is smooth beneath my fingers, small black tassels h
anging from corners. I run my hand along the wood of the canopy post, a shiver of magic passing through my lines. Black Oak.

  Lukas is watching me, his hand resting on the back of the velvet-cushioned chair. His fire is banked, but I can sense its presence, molten and simmering.

  I glance uneasily at the bed and back to him again as vulnerability takes hold.

  “Lukas,” I say, feeling tremulous, “I want to stay sealed once we make it to Noi lands.”

  Lukas holds my gaze. “I want to stay sealed to you no matter where we go.”

  “No, I mean...if we make it to Noi lands,” I haltingly continue, “I want you to be as bound to me as I am to you.”

  “Elloren, our fasting is permanent. And after tonight, the Sealing spell will be too.”

  “No, it’s only permanent for me,” I counter, resentment breaking through. “Because I’m female. You can be with other people.”

  Comprehension lights in his deep-green eyes. “I won’t be,” he says definitively. “I want only you.”

  He says it so absolutely that something inside me loosens. I nod as I hold his gaze in what feels like joint understanding.

  “Sit down. Relax,” he offers. “You’re safe here tonight. And this evening won’t be anything like your aunt told you. I’m not going to force myself on you, regardless of what she said.”

  I frown at him. “You can be pretty aggressive when you want to be.”

  “I can be,” he agrees as he opens a cabinet at the base of a bookshelf and retrieves two long smoked-glass bottles and a corkscrew from it. He rises and meets my gaze once more. “But I would never force myself on anyone. Ever.”

  I nod and pull in a deep breath as I sit down on the edge of the bed facing him, running my fingers over a delicate fabric branch embroidered on the quilt beneath me. Lukas has assuaged some of my anxiety, but the outside threats have my whole body tensed and primed for flight. And as reassuring as he’s being, I’m apprehensive about tonight.

  Lukas sets down the bottles and the corkscrew on a small table by the chair, his brow furrowing as he takes me in. “Elloren,” he says with understanding, “I know this situation is not ideal. I’ve told you that. It’s much too fast, and I’d have preferred to court you first.”