Page 105 of The Shadow Wand

When his words finally come, they’re clipped. “Tomorrow, stay here until I send for you.”

“I will,” I concede, filled with remorse and feeling uncomfortably formal toward him.

“Try to get some sleep,” he says, averting his gaze from mine. “You’ll need to be sharp.”

I swallow and eye him searchingly. “You too.”

Lukas shoots me an enigmatic look, turns, and walks out the door.

Part Three

CHAPTER ONE

THREAT

SPARROW TRILLIUM

Sixth Month

Valgard, Gardneria

Sparrow stares at Lukas Grey in sheer astonishment. What he’s just revealed to her and Thierren is a life-altering thing.

A world-altering thing.

“Elloren Gardner is...the Black Witch?” Sparrow can barely get the words out, her mind spinning as if caught in a maelstrom.

“Are you sure?” Thierren asks Lukas. The light from a single lantern set on the storeroom table flickers over them all, midnight’s shadows darkening the estate.

“She’s told me everything about her power,” Lukas answers him with a poignant look. “And I’ve felt its magnitude. It’s leagues stronger than mine.”

Sparrow takes in the gravity that washes over Thierren’s face, his chiseled features stark in the lantern’s flickering light.

“You take her at her word that she’s on our side?” Sparrow presses them both. She meets Thierren’s pine green gaze, seeking the reason that jaded, cynical Thierren would believe this without question.

“Strong earth magery means they both have strong Dryad lineages,” Thierren explains, his gaze flicking toward Lukas. “Which means they can’t lie to each other. It’s physically impossible.”

Sparrow’s deep-seated rebellious streak gives a flare as she eyes these two Mages, gratified to hear them speak with such easy blasphemy about their Tree Fae blood—blood the Mage holy book staunchly denies. Blood that’s blaringly obvious to Sparrow from the Gardnerian fixation on trees and forests and dominating the wilds. As well as in the green glimmer of their skin.

Sparrow turns this new knowledge about Dryad lineage over in her mind, Lukas’s news still reverberating through her like a runic blast, shortening her breath. “So, there’s absolutely no way for you and Elloren Gardner to speak a lie to each other?” she presses.

“No, there isn’t,” Lukas states emphatically. “And I can read Elloren’s affinities when I touch her, which means I can read her emotions and her magic clearly. She’s the most powerful Mage the Gardnerians have ever seen. She can create an ocean of fire with the candle-lighting spell alone. And she’s fully set against Vogel.”

Sparrow sucks in a wavering breath, all of them quiet for a moment, the air crackling with the explosive ramifications.

The Black Witch is not Fallon Bane after all.

Holy Am’eth.

Holyallof the Ge’o deities.

“So, the true Black Witch...is ready to fight for our side?” Sparrow finally manages to say, still barely able to believe it. And yet...she does believe it. She’s overheard Evelyn Grey railing against Elloren Gardner’s “traitorous” brothers. And against Elloren’s penchant for forming forbidden friendships with Lupines and Elves.

And Icarals.

“Elloren may well be the only thing that can tip the balance of power against Vogel,” Lukas says, calm and slow, as if waiting for it to thoroughly sink in.

“But Vogel doesn’t know what she is,” Thierren voices, clearly piecing together the same conclusions that are forming in Sparrow’s mind.

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