Page 145 of The Shadow Wand

Through the dark blue smoke, I catch a glimpse of a Mage soldier throwing out a hard jet of water from his wand. It knocks two Vu Trin down just as the Vu Trin soldier advancing behind him throws a glinting silver star that slices straight into his neck. She darts forward and slashes his back with a sword at the same time that he’s hit by a barrage of silver stars from his opposite side. The Mage arcs back and falls to the ground in an explosion of sapphire fire.

A ferocious roar sounds above, and I jerk my head up as six sapphire Noi dragons pierce the storm clouds like arrows aimed at the estate, jets of golden fire spearing down to take out the remaining soldiers and dragons.

I gape at the roaring inferno, astounded. Vu Trin soldiers at the explosion’s periphery shout to each other in the Noi language as their sapphire dragons circle and land.

They’re all dead, I dazedly realize.

Vogel.

Most of the Mage Council.

Aunt Vyvian.

Lukas’s entire family.

Gone. They’re all gone. Everyone who attended the Sealing.

I’m paralyzed, my legs unsteady beneath me. Because I know what the true target of the Vu Trin invasion is.

Me.

I turn to Lukas to find him staring at the scene with a stunned look, and when he turns to me, his eyes flash with a momentary devastation.

His whole family.

“Lukas...your family...”

“Stop.”His expression goes hard, the word silencing me. “We just got the diversion we needed,” he rasps. He glances back at the huge fire that has engulfed his family’s estate. “And I don’t think the Vu Trin saw us.”

There’s another explosion at the edge of the churning blue flame, but this conflagration is gray flame that spits silver.

Bolts of silver-gray fire spear out of the strange conflagration toward the Vu Trin and their dragons, rapidly killing them, as a smoke-darkened figure emerges from the compact silver-gray inferno. His wand is raised as he slashes out shadowy fire, the Vu Trin’s runic weapons seeming powerless against him.

A fresh terror bolts through me.

Marcus Vogel.

Sweet Ancient One, no.

Impossibly, incredibly, and horrifically...he’s survived.

Marcus Vogel turns and scans the smoldering landscape, the many Mages and Vu Trin and dragons now lying dead, strewn all over the gardens.

Vogel raises his eyes toward the elevated wilds where we’re hidden as he lifts his Shadow Wand.

Lukas wrenches me to the ground and throws himself on top of me, gripping my head with both hands as he brings his mouth down hard on mine and forces all his affinity power into my shield in one overpowering surge.

I clutch Lukas’s arms, pulling on his power as it spirals tightly around my lines and forces every last shred of my magic down behind it.

I gasp as I’m hit by a blast of Vogel’s Shadow power from clear across the grounds and through the wilds, my whole body shuddering against Lukas’s as Vogel’s magic streams over us like an inescapable tide and grays out my vision, even as Lukas sends magic through me and holds on tight.

And then...the tide of Shadow magic passes over us and streams into the wilds, fanning out in a continued search for me as Shadow fire roars and the whole world changes.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ESCAPE

ELLOREN GREY

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