Page 181 of The Shadow Wand

Valasca slides behind me, takes hold of my arm, and demonstrates how to position the knife in my hand. I follow her directions, holding the hilt loosely against my palm, my index finger pressed against the dull edge of the blade.

Valasca points to a rune on the blade’s hilt that encases a telescoping design with a small dot of what looks like a flickering blue flame in its center. ‘Place your thumb on this central rune.” Valasca gives me a significant look. “It’s a fire elemental.”

“You’re sure I won’t explode?” I ask her mirthlessly.

Valasca gives a short laugh. “The blade won’t pull on your power. You’ll simply amplify the runes that match your affinities. If you were Water Fae, you’d naturally amplify a rune containing water power.”

“I’ll mark a target,” Chi Nam says as she angles her rune staff at the dead Baobab tree’s trunk. Blue light bolts from the staff to the tree, a glowing blue circle blasting onto the wide trunk, a smaller circle glowing in its center.

“Watch me carefully,” Valasca directs. “I’ll show you the proper form.”

As soon as Chi Nam steps away, Valasca unsheathes a similar blade, throws her thumb over the fire rune, pulls back her arm, then whips her blade into the air, lightning fast.

The blade spears forward to impale the target near its center with a clean, snappishthwack, a small burst of blue fire flashing out from it like a transient star.

Valasca shoots me a slight grin, then sweeps her arm toward the target in graceful invitation.

I step forward, grasping my blade’s hilt tighter as I eye my target like it’s a formidable adversary.

“Go ahead, Gardnerian,” Valasca prods.

Bleakly skeptical that I’ll be able to land this blade anywhere near the tree, much less hit the target, I pull my arm backward and artlessly ready the throw.

The Wand of Myth starts an insistent buzz where it’s sheathed against the side of my waist. Translucent green lines burst from the knife and arc through the air toward the tree, like a glimmering track that spans from weapon to target.

Thrown by the odd vision and the Wand’s sudden awakening, I blink my eyes and lower the blade.

The shimmering green lines blink out of sight.

“Did you see that?” I ask Lukas, Chi Nam, and Valasca, flummoxed.

“See what?” Valasca asks, tensing her brow quizzically.

“The lines,” I say, acutely aware of the Wand’s buzz tamping down. I point at the tree. “I saw green lines. And my Wand was buzzing against my waist.”

Chi Nam straightens as her grip tightens around her staff, her gaze sharpening on me. “Try again,” she prompts. “Throw the blade this time.”

I pull my hand back, and the Wand’s insistent buzz kicks up once more. Shimmering green lines fly toward the tree in a visible trajectory, everything surrounding it blurring. I thrust my arm forward as the lines contract, and I’m filled with an intrinsic sense of when to let the blade go, just as everything but the slender path to the target blurs to a haze.

I release my grip...and the blade sails through the air, following the bright lines and cartwheeling twice before impaling the trunk with a pronouncedthwackright through the bull’s-eye.

Everything snaps back into clarity as the dead tree bursts into an explosion of sapphire flame.

Astonished, I whip around to face Lukas, Valasca, and Chi Nam.

Valasca lets out a long, low whistle and turns to Lukas, who seems just as astonished, his mouth open as he blinks at the tree.

“Well, that’s a game changer,” Valasca crows with a laugh as she nods to me appreciatively. “And a hell of a nice throw.”

“It was my Wand,” I marvel, a bit overcome as the tree crackles with spitting, swirling blue flame. “It guided my aim.”

“Give me the Wand, Elloren,” Lukas says, holding his hand out for it.

I unsheathe the Wand of Myth and pause.

Its usual starlight glow has been replaced by a green luminescence, its spiraling handle warm to the touch instead of cool.

“It’s turned green,” I marvel, the Wand’s energy pulsing faintly against my palm.

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