Page 114 of The Shadow Wand

And now I am the Black Witch.

I wonder, if there was some alternate Erthia where I was not raised by my uncle but by Aunt Vyvian instead...

What type of monster would I be?

“She’s ready,” Aunt Vyvian says to Mage Blythe, her eyes homing in on me. “Leave us.”

Mage Blythe politely dips her head and exits along with Sparrow, who quietly closes the changing room door behind her.

Aunt Vyvian comes up behind me and fingers the lacing down my back as my spine tingles with revulsion in response to her proprietary touch. Then she smiles at me in the mirror, unties the top lace, and yanks the strands even tighter, tighter than is seemly, my shape on brazen display, my breasts now straining against the silken tunic as she ties the laces.

“This is the moment,” she croons as I struggle to pull in a full breath, “that I’m supposed to tell you what to expect on your Blessed Sealing night.” She leans in and gently brushes a few stray tendrils of my hair back behind my shoulder. Then she arches her brow suggestively and lowers her voice to a purr. “It is my duty, as your oldest female kin, to impart the secrets of the Sealing chamber so you know what to expect from a man’s attentions on this sacred night.” Her smile fades and is replaced by a look of animosity, her gaze pinned to mine in the mirror. “But I will impart no such knowledge to you. It is my fondest wish that heshocksyou in every way. That hebindsyou if he has to.Beatsyou if he must. And is asroughwith you as possible.”

Suddenly, she reins herself in. Her eyes still blaze with hate, but her mouth turns up in a cruel smile as she reaches out and runs one perfectly manicured finger over the fastlined hand at my side.

I flinch away, resisting the urge to strike her.

“I want to see those lines thick on your wrists tomorrow morn,” she tells me. “After he’s taken you repeatedly.” She straightens and sighs. “But you’ll get no advice from me this eve. No quiet, soothing conversation to prepare you for what’s to come. Youcertainlydeserve none.”

She leans over my shoulder, eyes narrowed maliciously as she voices the traditional Sealing phrase, teeth bared. “Sanguin’in, Elloren.”

Bloody the sheets.

And then she gives me one last chilling look, turns, and sweeps out of the room in an elegant cloud of menace, shutting the door behind her.

Furious, chaotic magic is lashing so hot through my lines that I suddenly yearn to go find Lukas, but I can’t. Because while I’m being kept prisoner here, he’s preparing for our escape. As Sparrow and Effrey and probably Thierren will be all through the night.

While Lukas and I become true fastmates, binding ourselves to each other in every way.

Sorrow overtakes me as I stare at myself in the mirror. I remember the feel of Yvan’s arms and wings around me when I last saw him, and the words he whispered in my ear.

Wait for me.

My heart constricts, the swell of grief momentarily unbearable.

He’s gone, Elloren. You have to let him go.

I battle back the tears as I force my grief for Yvan roughly to the back of my mind. And when my eyes settle once more on my reflected visage, an impassioned, hardened look stares back at me.

There are threats from every side bearing down on me, Vogel and his Shadow Wand about to close in.

And Yvan would want me to survive all of it.

Because he loved me. And because he always knew that this fight is bigger than us.

I know all these things with as much rock-solid certainty as I know one other thing. Something that I know Yvan would want me to grasp tight hold of, as well.

There is no time for grieving if I’m going to survive.

CHAPTER THREE

FEALTY

ELLOREN GARDNER

Sixth Month

Valgard, Gardneria

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