Page 144 of The Shadow Wand

The skin of my arms prickles from the tempest of affinity power at our backs as I internally wage war against my spiking apprehension.

The wind picks up as the low storm clouds overhead thicken and Lukas and I stride down the onyx-stone path that cuts through the garden. The slim scarlet heels of the shoes Aunt Vyvian provided click against the stone, the morning air laden with the smell of bloodred roses. I throw a glance over my shoulder to find Vogel, Aunt Vyvian, Lachlan Grey, and the rest of Lukas’s family staring at us through the arboretum’s glass wall with intense scrutiny.

A stiff breeze cuts through the gardens and pushes the surrounding roses into a unified tilt as we approach the iron fence. Lukas presses his wand to the deep-green rune that marks the gate and murmurs a spell, then resheathes the wand as he pushes the gate open.

We step through and approach the rustling line of forest.

Black Witch.

The hostile words sound in my mind, riding in from the wilds before us—wilds we’re supposed to escape into.

Lukas gives me a significant look just before we step into the trees, his fire blisteringly hot and tightly held at bay. Wordlessly, we stride into the wilds, fingers entwined, as Lukas pushes his invisible fire aura out toward the hostile trees in firm warning.

Shadows close around us as Lukas pulls me deeper and deeper into the woods, practically dragging me now as I struggle to keep up with him on my thin-heeled shoes, our guards close at our backs.

Lightning flashes overhead and thunder booms.

After a while, Lukas halts and draws a velvet bag from his tunic’s pocket that contains the ashes of the tree we destroyed during our Sealing ceremony. He pretends to survey the forest for just the right tree to throw the ashes onto in sacred warning, as I ready myself for the ruse we came up with as a contingency plan just before we left for the Sealing breakfast.

A ruse that will turn the way Gardnerians treat females against them.

Lukas focuses on a towering Black Oak. But instead of throwing the ashes onto its textured trunk and reciting the Dominion Blessing, Lukas drops the bag to the ground, yanks me around, and grabs hold of my arm as he clamps his mouth down on mine. My feet skid against the forest floor as he presses me against the tree’s rough trunk, and the tree’s essence recoils violently from us.

I whimper dramatically and pretend to fight Lukas, but he holds on tight, “forcing” his mouth onto mine as he reinforces my internal shield and draws hard on my power.

I mock struggle against him, finally wrenching myself free. “Stop!” I plead with a beseeching look toward our guards who stand in an arcing row nearby. Predictably, they turn away, clearly both surprised and uncomfortable. And somewhat amused.

Lukas’s hold on me tightens, his face twisting into an intimidating snarl. “You don’t tell me tostop. You are myfastmate. Shall I take the lash to you like I did last night?”

I’m trembling, and it’s good. Even though the trembling is from nerves set alight because I know what we’re about to attempt.

“You listen to me,” Lukas snarls as he leans toward my ear and surreptitiously reaches for his wand. He leans in closer, whispering spell after spell after spell after spell too low for the guards to hear, flooding his lines with both his magic and mine.

Then Lukas pushes me roughly aside, whirls around, and throws his wand arm out in a sweeping arc.

Dense vines shoot from his wand’s tip in a fusillade of spears, raying out to impale every guard straight through their heads before they have a chance to raise their wands.

The guards fall to the ground in heavythumps, but one manages a sharp, rasping cry that I know will carry.

Lukas and I exchange one fiercely determined look as I scuttle around the tree to retrieve the sturdy boots that Lukas had Thierren leave there for me. I cast off my flimsy shoes and pull on the boots.

Lukas grabs my hand, and we set off at a fast clip through the woods.

A male voice booms out from the direction of the estate. “That way!”

Fear slices through me as Lukas and I sprint up a rocky incline, rapidly gaining a higher vantage point as we crest a wooded hill. A clearing just beyond two sizable boulders allows us a sweeping view of the gardens below.

A large number of Level Five Mages are running toward the spot where we entered the wilds, wands raised, several more leaping astride broken dragons and rapidly tracking us.

Fear crests inside me. “Lukas—there’re too many of them. We don’t have enough of a lead to—”

A huge explosion booms and rocks the world into nothing but a flash of blinding blue light.

Lukas throws his body over mine protectively, pressing us both onto the ground, a dark negative of the blast spotting my vision. My heartbeat slams against my ribs as no new blast sounds and we rise and look out over the scene.

The entire estate and its surrounding grounds churn with bright sapphire flames. Dragons shriek. Soldiers scream as vivid blue flames and indigo smoke rise high into the air.

I tense and gasp, not believing what I see next. Close to twenty black-clad Vu Trin soldiers stream in around the inferno, storming the estate from its eastern side, hurling stars and picking off soldiers and broken dragons with streaks of blue rune fire and whirring rune weapons.

---