The Shadow Wand

by Laurie Forest

  “Yes,” I rasp as his hands hold tight to my arms, ferocity in his fire. I swallow, overcome.

  “I love you,” he says again, lashing the words out with a vehemence that takes my breath away. “But you’re the Black Witch. And if you’re going to survive Vogel, we cannot coddle you. And I want you to survive him! But it’s going to be nearly impossible to survive him! Do you understand?”

  I swallow again and nod stiffly, barely able to take a breath. So shocked by his fierce declaration.

  Lukas steps back and pulls in his fire, but I can still feel it, whipping out at the edges.

  He collects himself, hands on his hips, his breathing forced into a more even cadence. When he looks back at me, his face is once again remote, his fire held back. He glances at the weapons I threw down.

  “Again, Elloren,” he demands.

  * * *

  Twelve nights later, I’m sitting around the ledge fire with Lukas, Valasca, and Chi Nam, every muscle hurting, but I’m getting used to the constant ache as they all push me harder and harder. Every day and night.

  I’m changing. I can feel it. The weapons strapped all over my body are starting to feel like an extension of myself. Like extra limbs. And I’m starting to intimately know every inch of these weapons, every rune on their hilts and what they can do, the finger arrangements of their combinations beginning to feel as natural as the finger positions on the frets of a violin.

  Lukas and Valasca have sparred with me in the middle of the night, dragging me, disoriented, out of sleep more than once as they yelled and shoved me and tried to intimidate me and throw me off balance before pulling me into mock battles in which I’ve been mock slain every single time.

  But I’m feeling leaner. More honed. And I’ve begun going off on my own in the few spare moments they allow me to experiment with some of my throws and runic combinations. I’m starting to effectively wield more than one weapon at a time, following the Wand’s gift of guidance, to level them at my targets, even when driven to complete mental and physical and emotional exhaustion.

  I may not be a warrior yet, but I feel like a true soldier apprentice. I’ve also settled more fully into my Elfhollen glamour, getting used to the gray as I fall into my new, manufactured identity.

  No longer Elloren Gardner but Ny’laea Shizoryn.

  I’m drilled in this new identity until I’m fluent in my fictional history and answer to the name Ny’laea, speaking almost exclusively now in the Elfhollen language and outfitted in gray Elfhollen garb that’s internally warded with Noi military runes.

  Ever since Lukas’s blazing declaration of love, I feel different around all of them, their aloof severity no longer a source of chafing pain, no matter how hard they drive me. Lukas has remained closed off to me, but I fully understand, both rationally and emotionally, why he’s being harsh, and I accept it.

  But every now and then, I catch him giving me a stray ardent look and sense the heated arc of his power reaching toward me before he carefully reins it all back in.

  * * *

  On my thirty-sixth day here, the sun blazes fiercely down on the world, pouring heat into the motionless desert air. The shade cast over me offers only a slim respite from the unforgiving heat.

  I tighten my grip on the rune blades in my hands, the charged runes prickling under my fingers as they draw on my affinity auras.

  Rivulets of sweat drip down my scorching neck as I face off with both Lukas and Valasca on the crimson sands of the desert plain, the air like a kiln, my gray Elfhollen garb oppressively hot. Chi Nam calmly watches from the sidelines as she leans into her rune staff. A great arc of red stone rises behind her and swoops over Lukas, Valasca, and me before descending to the sands.

  Lukas and Valasca attack from opposite sides.

  They draw their weapons in a blur, and I sense, immediately, the affinities they’re powering up—

  Lukas is drawing fire into his blade. I can both see it and sense it if I look at his weapon, my fire affinity lines tightening as the image of flickering heat flashes inside the blade’s hilt. Valasca is pulling on runic power to weave complicated earth sorcery into a swarm of metallic darts, their translucent auras emanating from the runes on her weapon to hover around her form.

  By pure muscle memory, my fingers slide into the corresponding defensive runic combination as they hurl their weapons at me in unison.

  Lukas’s fire bursts to searing life around his incoming weapon, and hundreds of spearing darts blink into existence around Valasca’s as their weapons and magic barrel toward me.

  I splay my arms out and flip my blades’ gleaming sides toward Lukas’s and Valasca’s incoming power.

  Their magic is the first thing that slams into my blades, Lukas’s fire immediately snuffed out in a dramatic puff of steam by my blast of wintry water from one blade, and Valasca’s darts singed to a bright red spray of molten ash by my blaze of concentrated fire from my other weapon, both of their blades hurled off through the sky in opposite directions from the sheer force of my magic.

  They both whip out new blades, but before they can charge the weapons, I draw my blades back into my palms and amplify the knives’ sorcery with rapid fingerwork. Then I hurl both blades at Lukas and Valasca, following the Wand’s guiding green lines.

  The blades slam into them and ricochet to the side as Lukas and Valasca promptly explode into balls of churning golden flame.

  I gape at their twin conflagrations in complete openmouthed astonishment as the fire quickly dissipates against the translucent shields both Lukas and Valasca have thrown up over themselves.

  They exchange smiles full of blazing satisfaction before looking to me with obvious pride.

  I turn toward Chi Nam, stunned beyond belief. “I did it, didn’t I?” I marvel. “I finally did it. I killed them.”

  Chi Nam grins. “You did, Ny’laea. They are both most thoroughly and unequivocally dead.”

  * * *

  A few nights later, Lukas and I stand just inside Chi Nam’s shield on the cave’s outside ledge and study the six wraith bats that lurk in the trees, silently watching us through merciless eyes.

  I managed to suppress my fear and use runic sorcery to startle the beasts into leaving last night, but Lukas feels it’s time to face them without the protection of Vonor’s dome-shield.

  Exposed.

  To practice holding my fear at bay while we have the chance, since tomorrow we’ll be stepping through the portal and leaving the desert and its wraith creatures behind.

  I swallow as Lukas’s hand comes to my arm, his gaze steady on the camouflaged beasts. The desert’s night air is a cool, still embrace around us.

  “I’m going to drop part of the shield in a moment,” he says. “So, prepare yourself.”

  I pull in a deep breath and force fire into my lines as I clench and unclench my fist around my rune blade and picture the burning away of all emotion. I know that even the smallest rise in fear will be amplified by the monstrous bats and they’ll try to immobilize me with it. But still, a spark of trepidation manages to weave through, and I struggle to tamp it down.

  “There’re so many of them,” I say warily. And they’re fast, I’ve found. Unexpectedly fast for their size.

  I can sense their aura gathering around my mind, like a poison mist, seeking to stir my emotions into a panic.

  I grip the Ash’rion blade tighter and stare them down in turn, battling back the encroaching fear with a steady stream of my invisible fire power as I prepare to startle them into fleeing with lightning.

  “You can handle them,” Lukas prods. “You’ve bested both Val and myself.”

  His tone is so unexpectedly warm, a rush of affection washes over me. I glance appreciatively at him, drawn to the sight of his lean, rune-marked chest in the garnet moonlight, the red glinting off his skin’s deep-green glimmer. A slim, silvery scar from
the scorpio attack transverses his chest and shoulder.

  He threw off his tunic during this night’s vigorous sparring, much of it a demonstration in how to deflect a physical attack that required quite a few close holds.

  Heat simmers along my lines, hot as a brazier, as I take in his handsome form and consider how our nearness affected the two of us as we grappled with each other. Lukas’s fire escaped his tight hold a number of times this evening, his lines heated to a scald by the time we were done.

  Feeling brazen, I resheathe my blade and pivot to face him fully, then send out a hot, looping tendril of flame to tease his lines and draw his attention away from the bats.

  Lukas’s fire gives a hard flare as his eyes flick toward me, a question in them.

  My fierce affinity draw to him rears hotter, overtaking all caution. Because I miss him. Desperately, in this moment. Touching him, being close to him—it’s the only place my power feels free, loosened from the bonds of the trees. And I miss the way he sends fire through his kiss. Through his touch...

  My fire pulses toward Lukas, unrestrained, as I reach up and trace a finger down his chest. Across the scar he got protecting me. Then I slide my hand up and over the hard musculature of his taut shoulder, quickly growing dazed with both heat and want.

  I meet his eyes and a current of his power ripples through me.

  Lukas’s green gaze has gone dark as midnight, feral desire now in it.

  Emboldened, I slide my hand up his neck and thread my fingers through his thick black hair. Then I bunch it in my fist.

  I want him. Beyond all reason or caution. I want him.

  Reckless desire sweeps through me as I pull Lukas toward me and into a deep kiss.

  I can feel the curve of his mouth, his lips briefly tightening with amusement that’s soon whisked away by the force of my invisible fire as I blast it into him in a rush, wave after wave of fire, and I don’t stop. I keep filling him with a blazing stream of it, wanting to consume us both as his own fire mounts, his powerful flames spiraling around my sudden inferno.

  And then Lukas’s hands are around my wrists, pushing me firmly away as his fire whips toward me with searing force and my own fire surges relentlessly toward him.

  “Stop,” he says, all command as he breathes hard, his eyes glazed with passion. “We’ve no Sanjire root.”

  My power rushes harder toward him, feeding the flames and whipping them into a frenzy. “I wish we had Sanjire root,” I say, frustrated hunger in the words. I want him so badly that I’m almost ready to be completely reckless.

  “If we had Sanjire root,” Lukas says, his eyes burning with desire, “I’d take you right here. Against that wall.”

  I smirk at this. “Maybe I’d take you first.”

  Lukas’s feral look takes a turn for the darkly amused. He reaches up and brushes a finger along the side of my breast, trailing invisible flame. “Once you gain control over your lines,” he says, his voice deep and velvet smooth, “I’ll be completely at your mercy.”

  My smile inches higher. “That’s how I’ll begin my Black Witch reign over both Realms, then. By having you do my bidding.”

  Lukas’s answering look of humor drops away as if he’s been suddenly overwhelmed by emotion, his fire raging fitfully now. “We can’t do this,” he says, his tone flinty. “I need to be hard on you and training you like a soldier, not flirting with you.” The harsh edge of his tone softens slightly. “I need to keep some semblance of distance from you.”

  I scowl in frustration, all of my fire straining toward him, desperate for release. “Am I truly in the military now?”

  The edge of his mouth twitches up. “You’ve been drafted.”

  “Really? Into what army?”

  Lukas’s even stare doesn’t waver. “Mine.”

  I step back slightly from him and take a deep, ragged breath, eyeing him and his handsome form with open want. “What happens when we get to Noi lands, Lukas?” I ask, frustration making my tone harsh. I motion between us. “What happens with us?”

  Lukas’s smile is subtle as his eyes flick over me. “We’ll obtain a large supply of Sanjire root.”

  “You’re assuming the Noi don’t kill you as soon as you step foot over their border.”

  Lukas gives a short laugh. “They won’t kill me. I have information about the Gardnerian military that they sorely need. And I’m powerful. The Vu Trin aren’t fools. They’ll want to make good use of my power. You, on the other hand, they’ll want to kill. You’ll need to remain glamoured for a bit.”

  “So, we won’t be living together, I take it.”

  Lukas smiles. “Do you want to live with me, Elloren?”

  Yes, I want to live with you, I think. And share your bed.

  But it’s more than that, I realize. It runs so much deeper than that.

  I hold Lukas’s searching gaze. “I do,” I tell him. “I want to make my life with you.” Even as I say it, I’m hit by a pang of sorrow.

  Yvan.

  He’s gone, I harshly remind myself, pushing away the grief that rises at unexpected moments. You’re fasted. And sealed. To someone you’ve grown to care deeply for. You need to let Yvan go.

  “We won’t be able to live together initially,” Lukas says, growing thoughtful. “It would draw the Vu Trin straight to you.” He moves closer and enfolds me in his arms, his lips brushing against my hair. I can feel his sultry smile in his tone. “We’ll have to meet in back alleys and sordid taverns.”

  I pull back a fraction, serious. “I want to stay together. No matter what comes.”

  Lukas’s gaze turns as serious as mine, strong emotion flashing in it as something new takes root between us. “I want that,” he says. “I want to be with you. Always. No matter what.”

  Tears fill my eyes as affection wells inside me with unexpected force.

  And love.

  Love for Lukas Grey.

  “Elloren,” Lukas says, his voice thick with passion as he pulls me in for a heated kiss.

  Our affinity branches twine as tightly as our embrace as we give in to our craving for each other.

  And our love for each other.

  Overcome, I start to close my eyes as I let myself fall even more deeply into both Lukas’s kiss and his ardent affection, just as movement in a nearby tree catches my gaze.

  A glint of predatory eyes.

  Many eyes.

  Many eyes on the same strangely elongated bat, Shadow tendriling up from its leathery wings as the rune on my abdomen starts to sting.

  Fear strikes through me like a hammer to an anvil.

  I push away from Lukas and grab tight hold of his arm, my lungs constricting as confusion ignites in his eyes and his fire.

  Lukas whips his head around to follow my line of sight just as Chi Nam’s military-grade runic dome barrier around the Vonor blinks out of sight, like a candle effortlessly snuffed out.

  “Lukas,” I rasp out as the wraith bat and several others extend their wings and begin to lift off from the tree as one, the many-eyed bat trailing smoke. My wand hand reflexively reaches for the Ash’rion blade as I notice the deflection rune marked on the many-eyed creature’s chest. “Don’t use magic!” I cry.

  Lukas’s expression turns savage as he pulls me back, lifts his wand, and throws out a slashing line of fire to whip out across the unmarked bats as they launch themselves into the air.

  Every bat save the many-eyed, elongated one bursts into flames and hurtles to the ground with an earsplitting shriek.

  Lukas yanks me roughly behind him as the elongated, rune-marked bat lands before us with a hard thud and darts at Lukas with cobra-fast speed.

  Lukas ducks to the side and the incoming beast crashes against the Vonor’s stone wall, quickly righting itself as Lukas pulls his sword, lunges at the bat, and slashes the beast in two.

&
nbsp; One wing and half its lower body severed, the elongated bat sets every eye on me and throws down its remaining wing. It thrusts its taloned tip down into the stone like a dagger as it lets out a rasping shriek, snaps its teeth, and pulls its mutilated body toward me, trailing dark blood as I ready my blade.

  Enraged, Lukas lunges forward, lifts his sword, and brings it down, slicing the beast’s head off, its eyes remaining open and pinned on me.

  Dragon shrieks split the sky, and our heads whip up as several dragons soar in. The image of a dark tree made of Shadow shudders through my mind as the dragons begin to circle the Vonor in a wide arc and alarm spasms inside me.

  Lukas’s gaze meets mine with horrified urgency as he grabs hold of me once more and pulls me into a sprint toward the entrance to the Vonor.

  Valasca and Chi Nam are already there, Valasca strapping on runic weapons and Chi Nam repetitively tapping runic codes with a rune stone into the portal’s frame, the portal’s center a stubbornly uncharged silver.

  Valasca spits out a curse as her eyes meet Lukas’s. “Vogel’s forces can shut down advanced runic systems. We’re in trouble.”

  “Vogel’s here,” I say, taking in Lukas’s momentarily dire look.

  But then a steely expression descends on Lukas’s face. He looks to Chi Nam. “How long until the portal’s ready?”

  “Soon,” she says as she holds a rune stone against the portal’s frame, the central silver brightening in a sweeping ripple. She gives him a level look. “But for only one passage. Maybe two, but the second might fly off course.”

  “Can you speed it up?” he presses.

  “I’m trying.”

  Lukas turns to me, looking fiercely decided. He grips my arms, his voice rough. “Elloren. When you get to Noi lands, find your brothers. And then, if she’s still there, find Kam Vin. Warn them. Warn the Wyvernguard about what’s coming.”

  Terror spikes. “No! I’m not going without all of you!”

  “Be quiet!” Lukas snarls. “Listen to me! Tell them Vogel can shut down advanced military runes. Tell Kam Vin. She’ll believe you. She understands what’s happening in the Western Realm.”