Page 125 of The Shadow Wand

Lukas’s power abruptly ramps up as he tightens his grip on me, as if he’s assessed Vogel and is ready for him this time. Lukas’s fire takes on a wrathful force as it flows out to encompass me and force back Vogel’s thrall—and I worry that Vogel will sense this rebellion for what it is if he possesses my rare magic-sensing abilities, a skill he’s somehow quickened.

Vogel releases my hand and wrests his power from my lines with whiplike force, and a whoosh of dizziness overtakes me as all the affinities in the room rush toward me with renewed strength to batter through my lines.

Vogel turns to Lukas and gives him a narrow look, as if reading his defiance. His lip lifts, as if he’s amused by it. “You’ll bring her to me tomorrow morn,” he says, his voice keen with interest. “For wandtesting.”

Another flash of Lukas’s fire blasts through me as my fear surges through the maelstrom of power accosting me.

Lukas’s voice, when it comes, betrays nothing. “I’ve recently wandtested her,” he placidly states. “She has no access to her power.”

Vogel’s pale eyes shift back to me and I avert my gaze as I struggle to contain a violent swell of my magic that mingles with the onslaught of magic in the room.

“Bring her to me after the Blessing of Dominion,” Vogel says, ignoring Lukas’s attempt at deflection. “I will test her myself.”

Lukas hesitates for a split second. “Of course, Your Excellency,” he capitulates with a graceful dip of his head, but I can feel his earth magery rearranging itself into spears pointed directly at Vogel.

“I want to see her fastlines changed by morning,” Vogel says. “Your Magelines combined will be a formidable thing. I will take an acute interest in the Mage children you bring forth.”

Lukas is furious now; I can sense it in how wildly his fire is scything around me as he holds Vogel’s piercing stare.

Vogel’s mouth lifts, a gleam in his eyes. “Sanguin’in,” he says to Lukas.

Bloody the sheets.

Outrage swells along with my magic. The traditional saying is like some vicious charge. As if Vogel’s challenging Lukas to force me down and bloody me in the most invasive way possible.

Lukas holds Vogel’s terrible, bottomless stare. “Sanguin’in,” he says back to Vogel like it’s his own threat, only leveled at Vogel instead of me.

Vogel’s mouth turns up in a chilling, vulpine smile, and he steps back, sheathes his Wand, and stretches out his arms for the final Sealing prayer. I can barely form the words around the storm of elemental magic that’s engulfing me, invisible flame scorching through me, branches and shards of ice spearing, the roar of wind in my ears.

“Elloren,” Lukas says, his voice cutting through the swirl of magery. There’s fierce urgency in his gaze, and I latch on to it with desperation as the cacophony of magic lashes against my lines.

We’re supposed to kiss, I distantly remember.

Lukas moves around the altar, pulls me into his arms, and brings his lips firmly to mine, his hand splaying out over my back as he draws me tight against his body.

I shudder as a hard stream of his fire blasts through me, his dark branches rushing out to twine through my battered earthlines and meld them together in a way that was never possible before. My dizziness dissipates as Lukas grips hold of my wand hand and kisses me, pulsing his magery through my lines, and bolstering my affinities with his. Pushing the room’s invading power out and drawing my own magery back into my center.

And, incredibly, forming a shield from our combined magic just under my skin.

When he pulls away, his eyes are blazing, his expression steeled.

Steeled for me.

As the crowd applauds, I’ve a sense of my branches restoring themselves as Lukas’s residual fire whips through my lines. My head is still swirling, and I’m still hyperaware of the magic in the room, but I’m steadier on my feet.

Lukas keeps firm hold of my wand hand as we face the crowd, my tempestuous power fused to his.

We’re truly sealed, I realize. But not in the way Vogel imagines. Lukas is not set on dominating me. He’s my ally, and together we’re a joint force.

Against the Magedom.

My grip around Lukas’s hand tightens and he responds in kind, our perfectly matched affinity magic twining tight.

Fire to fire. Earth to earth. Air to air and water to water.

One vast wall of Mage power.

CHAPTER FIVE

---