Page 73 of The Black Witch

“She’s completely demonic!”

“Maybe so, but I doubt she’ll do anything to harm any scholar this year. If she does, she’ll be arrested, expelled from Verpacia and sent back to the Valgard Sanitorium. Her wings will be cut off and she’ll be thrown into a cell, where she’ll rot out her days. She’d be as good as dead. Ariel knows this, and it terrifies her. Don’t let her fool you.”

“I don’t understand why the Mage Council hasn’t cut her wings off and locked her away already,” I grouse.

“Verpacia is bound by international treaty to surrender onlymaleIcarals to Gardneria. Because of the Prophecy.”

“And she’s not male.”

Lukas nods resignedly. “Imprisonment of female Icarals is still voluntary, and at the discretion of the Icaral’s family. For now. There are some on the Mage Council who hold romantic ideas about Icaral ‘rehabilitation,’ but they’re slowly being voted out.”

“Good.” I shake my head. “So why didn’t Ariel’s family have her committed?”

“Her father. He left her wings intact to punish his unfaithful fastmate. So Ariel’s mother has to face the fact that she gave birth to a winged demon as a result of her evil.”

“Charming.” I let out a deep breath. “And the other Icaral? The Elf?”

“If you were to complain to the Elfin hierarchy about Wynter Eirllyn, she’d be cast out of Alfsigr lands and never allowed to return. The Elves hate the Icarals as much as the Gardnerians do. The only reason she hasn’t been cast out already is that she has a brother who’s fond of her.

“And there’s something else. Something you can use to your advantage,” Lukas confides. “Ariel is very fond of Wynter Eirllyn. She fancies herself Wynter’s protector and doesn’t want to leave her. So, you see, you have the upper hand.”

I slump down on the bench. “I really don’t feel like I have the upper hand.”

“Elloren,” he cautions, “you can’t be weak here. You’ll be eaten alive, especially with your appearance, your connections.”

“But Iamweak. I have no magic whatsoever.”

A magic-free Level One. But still, there was that feeling of power during my wandtesting. Coming up from the earth.

He’s thoughtful for a moment. “I was surprised by the results of your wandtesting.” Lukas shrugs. “I have a good sense about these things, and I can sense magic in you. I still think it’s there, perhaps dormant.”

“You’ve only just met me,” I observe, feeling defeated and not powerful in the least.

“Doesn’t matter,” he says with a shake of his head. “I can feel it. I can hear it in your music, and...” He hesitates for a moment before continuing, his voice gone low. “I can feel it in your kiss.”

Coloring at his words and the memory of his fiery kiss, I lower my eyes. My skirts are filthy. Covered with dirt, and Ancient One knows what else. And my wrist, my head and the side of my face ache.

Now is not the time to be thinking about kissing Lukas again.

I groan and let my head fall into my hands. “So what am I supposed to do, Lukas?”

For a moment he’s silent.

“Wands aren’t the only tools of power, Elloren,” he says, his voice level. “Find your enemies’ weaknesses. And become dangerous.”

CHAPTER NINE

Balance of Power

Later that afternoon I walk to the kitchen, bolstered by the fact that I’m being escorted by a Level Five Mage in full military regalia whose father is the High Commander of the Gardnerian Mage Guard.

After our talk, Lukas brought me to Aislinn’s lodging, so I’m now cleaned up and wearing one of her conservative tunics over a clean, long black skirt. I’m curvier than Aislinn, and my hips and bust strain a bit at the black silk, but the clothes fit me reasonably well.

Lukas walks ahead of me through the small storage foyer leading to the main kitchen. He strides toward the door ahead and throws it open so hard that it slams against a wall, instantly getting everyone’s attention. They all grow silent and freeze as we walk in, their expressions of fear more intense, more stark, than those inspired by my arrival the day before.

Only Yvan glares openly at Lukas, slowly rising from where he’s just finished loading wood into the cookstove, moving with the slow caution one uses around a predator.

It’s clear that they all knowexactlywho Lukas is.

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