Page 154 of The Shadow Wand

“Hold my wand hand,” I cut in. “Tell me what you feel.”

Lukas comes over to stand just behind me as he places both his hands around mine. I tighten my fist around the branch in turn and point it at the forest in front of us.

Just that action prompts a palpable cinching of my magic. The threads of power hooked to my lines pull stingingly taut into what feels like a binding weave, and I look back at Lukas.

His eyes have tightened with grim appraisal as his gaze flicks from the branch then out toward the mist-shrouded trees.

The eerily calm trees.

“Do you sense their hostility anymore?” I challenge him, my voice tight from the pain cinching my wand arm.

And from my rising alarm.

Lukas considers this as he grows quiet with apparent concentration, as if listening to the air. “No,” he finally says.

A dread of certainty takes hold. “That’s because I’ve been bound.”

Lukas shakes his head. “It doesn’t make sense. Trees can’t wield magic.”

“Can an entire forest bind it?”

Lukas grows still, a dark sense of realization enveloping us. He scans the forest surrounding us, as if sizing up a foe he’s vastly underestimated before he brings his piercing green eyes back to mine. “We’ll get past the forest and unbind whatever they’ve done to your lines. How’s the shield?” he asks, still holding my hands.

“It’s strong.” Of course it is, with the amount of power we generated last night. My face warms just to think of it as I shoot a glare at the wilds, feeling as if we’re surrounded for leagues and leagues by a wrathful army.

That’s patiently waiting to strike.

A chill snakes down my spine. “I need to get out of the forest, Lukas.”

Lukas nods and finishes securing our packs as I move to mount my horse and lift my foot to the stirrup.

Suddenly, my back is hit by a blast of magic and the world goes dark.

My body arches and I fall to the ground as the breath is forced from my lungs and every muscle goes rigid. The image of the Shadow tree crashes through my vision, its limbs forking like lightning over Lukas’s shield, rattling it as it strikes.

And then the blast of magic is torn away, like bindings viciously ripped off, as fire races over my lines and the darkness blinks out, the sensation of Lukas’s embrace and fiery kiss sweeping in, feeding power into my shield.

I gasp for breath against Lukas’s mouth, surprised to find myself on my knees along with Lukas, my whole body trembling against his.

The trees have drawn back, their hold on me loosened, as if they, too, have been blown back by terror. As if they felt Vogel’s power.

But my shield is intact.

Lukas draws back and presses his forehead to mine, both of us breathing hard, his arms tight around me as I keep desperate hold of him and his fire pulses through me. But his magic and his shield around my lines can’t assuage the horror that’s taken hold.

“Vogel knows I’m alive.”

Lukas swallows and pulls back a fraction more, and I notice there’s a line of sweat along his hairline, his face still tensed from obvious magical effort. “He does,” he says, his tone rattled. “And he must have some idea of our direction.”

“He’s coming for me.”

Lukas nods, his mouth a tight line. “Yes. But hopefully we’ll be out of the Realm and ready for him before he finds us. We need to leave.Now.”

Lukas and I rise and swiftly mount our horses.

Doubt claws at me as I take hold of my mare’s reins. “How can we possibly get over the Caledonian Mountain Range before Vogel finds us?” Morbid sarcasm bubbles up, fueled by desperation. “Do you have a dragon hidden somewhere who can fly us over the mountains?”

Lukas doesn’t smile as he prods his horse into motion. “We’ll go east through a Noi portal. We’ll use it to bypass the mountains completely and transport straight into the Eastern Desert.”

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