Page 219 of The Iron Flower

I pull back to meet his molten gaze. “So...now we’re bound?”

He shakes his head, a ruddy flush on his cheeks. “No. You’re not a dragon. In our case...it only goes one way. I’m bound to you.”

“Like fasting?” I ask haltingly.

He tilts his head, considering. “No. It’s more of a bond of fealty. I’ll know when you’re in danger. I’ll sense any pain you experience.”

A troubling thought occurs to me. “And if I die?”

Yvan’s face tenses at the idea. “For a time, I’d be stripped of my fire, my power.”

“Oh, Yvan.” I pull in a long breath. “Maybe you should have held off on kissing me.” I reach up to touch his face, running my thumb along his angular cheekbone.

A large branch crackles and falls to the ground, making both of us jump. I glance at the fire, trepidation rising. “We should go. We need to find the Vu Trin and tell them what we are.” I lift up my wand hand. “And I need to learn how to use this...thispower.”

If we’re going to fight, we’re going to have to learn how to fight well.

“Commander Vin will bring us east,” Yvan says with certainty, watching the fire.

I reach down and pull the White Wand from my boot, my affinity lines lurching toward its spiraling wood. I tighten my fist around it and test the weight of it in my hand.

Weakness is no longer an option.

“I’m going to learn how to use this.” I look up into Yvan’s fiery eyes. “I’m going to harness every last bit of power inside me, and I’m going to learn every spell in every grimoire. And then I’m going to come back for Marcus Vogel.”

CHAPTER NINE

RESISTANCE

Yvan and I set out for the eastern outskirts of Verpax City that evening, the two of us heavily cloaked and riding on the same horse. We pass through the city, then farmland and into the starlit wilds, our path lit by the lumenstone lantern I’m clutching in my hand.

I cling to Yvan, drawing some comfort from the warm solidity of him, but still, trepidation swells in me, threatening to overwhelm. Yvan’s palm slides over my hand, as if sensing my disquiet, his fire reaching out to me and enfolding me in warmth.

After a time, Yvan abruptly veers off onto a slim road that passes through the dense forest and comes to a stop before a small clearing.

Silence fills the air around us, save for the spring peepers sounding their chirping call. I take in our surroundings as we dismount, and Yvan secures our horse. There’s a short, sloping hill before us, a hillock at its crest with a large, flat stone face.

“Elloren.”

I turn to find Yvan by my side. He takes my hand in his, our fingers lacing, and we start up the hill.

We’re not more than halfway up when emerald runes abruptly burst to life in a circle around us. We both freeze, the plate-sized runes glowing brightly and floating in the air.

A tall, slender man strides toward us from the shadows near the hillock, runic-illumination washing over him as he nears. He’s a Smaragdalfar Elf, the emerald pattern of his skin enhanced by the green light. His silver eyes bore into us, then widen as recognition spreads across his face.

“Professor Hawkyyn?” I ask, surprised.

“Elloren Gardner,” my former Metallurgie professor says, his voice riddled with confusion. He looks to Yvan, as if searching for some explanation.

“We need to see Commander Vin,” Yvan says, his hard tone brooking no contradiction.

Professor Hawkyyn eyes him with incredulity, his gaze flicking to me. “She cannot go in there.”

“She has power,” Yvan states.

He shakes his head, unmoved. “I don’t care if she has some wand-power, she can’t—”

“No,”Yvan says, his voice sharpening. “She haspower.And I have wings.”

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