Page 170 of The Shadow Wand

Where are you, Rafe and Trystan?I wonder, as I’m seized with a desire to be reunited with my brothers that’s so strong I’m ready to fight through every horrific thing Vogel can throw at me just to get back to them.

“I’ll do a perimeter check,” Valasca announces, and she forces herself to her feet with a tense groan, her rune blade fisted in her hand. She tests her leg, bouncing slightly on it, her gash still encased in a streak of glowing blue, a fringe of shredded fabric framing it.

“Be mindful of the wraith bats,” Chi Nam cautions just as the interior of the cavern’s door ripples blue and the stone disappears, revealing the Vonor’ssapphire-lit passageway.

Valasca smirks at Chi Nam, a lethal gleam entering her dark eyes as she deftly flips the blade in her hand. “You should be warningthem, Chilon.”

Chi Nam cuts Valasca a look of censure over her cheeky use of the sorceress’s informal name, a tang of power flaring in the air that sends a frisson of bright blue energy through my lines. But then Chi Nam’s expression quickly morphs to one of narrow-eyed amusement and she lets out a long sigh, as if resigning herself to the rebellious company she’s keeping.

Valasca tightens her hold on her rune blade, strides toward the runic dome, and raises her palm to it. Her rune-marked palm rays blue light as it makes contact with the dome, and she effortlessly passes through it, then makes her way to a twisting path that switchbacks down the long incline set directly before our stony platform, sheer cliff drops to either side of it.

“What are wraith bats?” I ask Chi Nam, nerves jittering.

“Bat-like predators,” Lukas answers, his voice deepened by his labored breathing.

“Bred during the Elfin Wars using twisted magic. They’re not difficult to take down if you can resist their psychic attack.”

I meet his pain-glazed eyes with concern as he sends a tendril of his fire out to embrace mine, solid strength in his magic now that I’m heartened by.

“They feed on fear,” he adds, an edge of challenge in his eyes. “Catch hold of it. Amplify it.” The side of his mouth quirks up slightly. “Which meansyouneed to hunt them.”

To learn how to control my fear, he means.

I consider this, along with our short window for me to train before we take the portal farther east.

I drove Vogel out of me, I think as I glance down at the gray hand I have wrapped around Lukas’s shimmering green one.I drove Vogel straight out of me with my magic.

And by finding my courage.

“All right, Mage Grey,” I tell Lukas, suddenly ready to face whatever he and Valasca and Chi Nam want to throw at me. “I’ll hunt some wraith bats.”

Sparks light throughout Lukas’s restored firelines and send a charge through us both, a sardonic look coloring his gaze. “You’ll be slaying wraith bats in no time, Mage Grey.”

Another shiver of his heat rushes through me as I unexpectedly warm to my new name.

“Both the wildlife and the weather here are quite dangerous,” Chi Nam says, giving me a canny look. She steps toward Lukas and me, supported by her staff. “But they’re our good friends, toiya. They’re what keeps Vogel and the Alfsigr from being able to easily bring an aerial or ground force to the East.” Her lips curl into a lethal smile. “And they’re what will enable us to train you, during this short respite. So you can fight with us to take down both Vogel and his Shadow Wand.”

CHAPTER TWO

DESERT LAIR

ELLOREN GREY

Sixth Month

Northwestern Agolith Desert

“I got us some dinner!” Valasca announces as she climbs up the switchback path to our broad stone ledge, her spiky blue-and-black-haired head bobbing in the gaps between boulders.

A cool breeze rising from the desert ruffles my own pale gray hair as I watch her ascend, her slender form washed in crimson moon and starlight.

Lukas’s arm is draped diagonally along my back, his hand snug against the curve of my waist. Chi Nam, Lukas, and I are all gathered around a blazing-red metal firepit, my bloodstained cloak balled up beside me.

Valasca throws her rune-marked palm against the dome-shield in a spray of blue light, then steps through it and onto the ledge, a sizable python marked with a stunning blue-and-violet-diamond pattern slung over her shoulder, some slim branches tucked under her other arm.

Valasca throws the dead snake and the branches onto a flat stone, then pulls a knife and begins to skin the serpent. “I took a look around,” she blithely tells us, and I’m relieved to find her natural bravado so quickly restored. “No hydreenas or wraith bats. I did spot a small herd of scorpios, though.”

“S-scorpios?” I sputter, almost dropping the warm mug of tea I’m cradling in my hands.

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