Page 176 of The Shadow Wand

I feel the sharp sting of his guarded behavior as I step outside, flustered by my new knowledge of how strongly Lukas feels for me. And saddened to know the reason he’s closing himself off.

But none of this matters compared to what we’re all faced with, and I know that Lukas and I will have to set our complicated emotions aside and focus on the coming fight.

“I’m ready,” I tell them as I hold Lukas’s intense gaze. “Teach me how to use a wand.”

“Relax your grip.” Lukas’s deep voice is soft in my ear as he traces a slow line down the thumb I have pressed against the wand. “You’re not trying to crush it. Pretend it’s a violin bow.”

My firelines shiver toward his, unrestrained, as Lukas’s arm slides around my waist, pulling me closer, his pianist fingers curling around my wand hand. His sinuous movements spark a tingling warmth that’s rippling through me in slow strokes, and I struggle to keep my focus.

He’sso close, his rigidly contained power only a fraction away from mine. And he’s left his shield off my lines, which only makes it harder to resist being consumed by his draw.

I know he feels it too, his skin as feverishly hot as mine.

I loosen my fingers under Lukas’s caressing grip as I prepare to let him send his magic through me in a demonstration of control over the candle-lighting spell.

Brow tensed, I set my eyes on the predawn desert before us as magic shivers along my heels and shudders up through my lines as it reaches for the wood.

Red Manzanita, Lukas informed me when he handed me this wand. Wood harvested from the bloodred trees that dot the edge of the sands stretched out before us, the trees’ thick oval leaves a vivid plum that burns bright against dawn’s gentle glow. Beside the sparse Manzanita grove stand three Striped Baobab trees with dark, ballooning, water-filled trunks. And to our other side, Black Date trees twist under one of the desert’s multitude of arcing crimson-stone formations, a few Golden Yucca trees thrown into their mix. Knots of what appear to be dead, desiccated trees are interspersed throughout.

They’re so silent and still, all of the living trees. No trace of hostility in the air.

A chill snakes up my spine.

Because I can sense them watching.

“A wand is like an instrument,” Lukas says, ignoring our strong affinity draw, “and the magic is the music.”

I glance at him askance over my shoulder. “Music that can level cities.”

Lukas’s mouth tilts up. “Even so. You’re a musician. This is something you can intuitively understand.”

Determined to focus past Lukas’s seductive pull, I squint at the landscape. The dawn sun is tinting the arches of crimson stone with a soft blush of rose as it breaks free of the dark storm band.

Silver lightning crackles through the murky horizon of storm.

“I’m ready,” I say, nerves spiking.

“Good,” Lukas says, his voice a low thrall that threatens to scatter my magical focus into oblivion. “Now, sound the candle-lighting spell.”

Surprise flashes through me, sharp as a blade.

I round on him as I vehemently shake my head. “You said you were going to send your own magic through my hand,” I insist. “I can’t release my power. It’s not safe.”

“I’ll control it,” he calmly returns.

“No, Lukas.” I step out of his arms and turn to face him fully as I slash the air with my free hand. “If you wantmeto do this, every one of you needs to get far away from me and shield yourselves.”

Lukas gives me a cynical look. “Elloren, you used an actual wand for that testing. You’re holding a single layer wand carved from a branch. Besides...” He drops his voice and gives me a poignant look. “...I have a pretty good working knowledge of your power.”

I shake my head, unmoved, remembering the river of fire.Myriver of fire. “No,” I emphatically protest. “Youdon’tknow, Lukas.”

Chi Nam cuts in from where she and Valasca are watching. “She’s right. If you’re going to have her use her own magic, you need to step back, and we’ll form a combined shield. I’ve witnessed what she can do.”

“Apparently, she makes her grandmother look like a baby Dryad playing with sticks,” Valasca crows. “I’d take care if I were you.” She mock toasts me with her water flask, smiling broadly.

Lukas eyes Valasca appraisingly. Then he gives me the trace of a humoring smile, turns, and strides to where Chi Nam is leaning on her rune staff and Valasca is perched atop a red boulder that lies at the base of a huge stone arch. Valasca’s mouth is set in its usual rakish half smile, anticipation narrowing her sharp eyes.

Chi Nam taps her staff, and an aqueous blue haze flies out to envelop all three of them. Then Lukas draws his wand, murmurs a spell, and sends dark lightning forking through Chi Nam’s shield. Valasca pulls out her rune blade and idly touches it to the shield, and the entire thing, including the sparking lightning, turns Amaz crimson.

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