Page 123 of The Shadow Wand

Lukas whips his wand outward and throws a tight line of fire into the clouds, the flame forking into horizontal streaks of bright white lightning. Lukas jerks his wand backward, and the clouds swoop down and contract into a tight, rotating ball suspended just before him and spitting lightning. Then Lukas murmurs a spell, and the contained storm morphs to wispy smoke and dissipates, the crowd of Mages emitting sounds of gratified awe.

I turn toward the onlookers to find Evelyn Grey’s gaze set on her son with a look of fervent pride. And then her eyes shift and meet mine. Her expression transforms into a venomous glare.

Vogel begins intoning the prayer for dominion over light as one of the priests carries out a brick of golden lumenstone and sets it on the floor. Lukas pulls his sword and brings it down on the lumenstone in a shower of yellow sparks, deftly rendering it to ash with one focused blow. Water is then brought out, and Lukas throws fire at it and sends it up into a rush of steam.

Lukas lowers his wand to his side and faces Vogel.

“Mage,” Vogel says with a formal cadence, “you have shown us your dominion over fire and wind and air and light.” Vogel swivels his head toward the priests, who come forward once more, this time hoisting a small potted tree between them. I’m enthralled by the sight of it.

The exquisitely gnarled fir tree has an ancient look about it, as if a huge old-growth tree was shrunk down to size and set in a black porcelain container, its needles resplendently limned in gleaming silver.

The priests set down the tree in the clearing, and I’m mesmerized as a wave of the small tree’s love washes over me. A returning love wells up deep inside me as I’m overtaken by a surprisingly potent feeling of kinship.

“Mages,” Vogel intones, “please rise.”

The sea of Mages stands.

I know this is a pivotal part of the Sealing ceremony—the male Mage always ends the ceremony by killing a tree, the higher the status of the family, the rarer the tree. The next day the couple walks alone into the woods to perform the Blessing of Dominion and scatters the dead tree’s ashes in the forest over the largest tree they can find as a stark warning to the “Heathen Wilds.”

Unease rises as an inexplicable commiseration with this tree blossoms within me.

It’s been sheltered, this miniature tree. This rare Silver Spruce. I can sense its mournful isolation. Grown in captivity and cut off from its woods...

Dryad.

I startle as the tree’s whispered word fills the back of my mind, prompting an ecstatic wave of affection for this small tree to swell inside me, quickly followed by a tremor of fear.

Don’t kill it,everything in me rises up to implore.

Vogel lifts his arms.

“May the Ancient One bless your union and grant you dominion over earth. May you bring forth Mages who own Erthia for the glory of the Ancient One.”

Panic assails me, fueled by my enraptured connection to the small tree as Lukas steps toward it, grasping his wand.

No. Don’t kill it,I silently rail, barely able to hold myself back.

A single word reaches out to me, lancing through my heart.

Dryad.

Wave upon wave of adoration courses over me as I whip my head to Vogel to find he’s taken a sudden, strong interest in me. In my peripheral vision, Lukas lifts his wand.

Panic explodes as I round on Lukas.No, Lukas. No...

Flame shoots from Lukas’s wand just before I can stage a protest, engulfing the small tree in an explosion of fire.

The tree screams in my head, its agony spearing into me as my affinity lines contract, devastation ripping through my heart.

Ancient One. No.

Grief grips hold. Inconsolable grief. I’m barely aware of Vogel’s final prayer as it’s intoned by the entire hall. Of Lukas’s arm coming around me as I stare at the pile of ashes in the center of the clearing.

My gaze jerks to Lukas, my breathing erratic, my eyes brimming with furious tears.

Lukas’s eyes narrow as he takes me in with a long, searching look and I struggle to get hold of myself. I need to get away from all of thisright now. Away from Vogel and all of these Mages.

Away from this vicious ceremony that mercilessly kills innocent trees.

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