Page 207 of The Shadow Wand

It doesn’t need to be said. We both know that any one of these moments could be our last time together.

“Well, then,” he says, his fire pulsing, “we’ll just have to make it count.”

I pull the root from the bottle and place it in my mouth, feeling Lukas’s attention tight on me as I set the bottle back on the ledge. The glass scrapes against the stone with aclinkthat sounds loud in the silent room, a combustive tension charging the air between us.

I turn to find Lukas’s eyes trained on me, his fire ratcheting up to a blaze and shuddering through me, and I’m lit up and intimidated and excited by the wild desire that’s riding with it.

I walk over and pause before him.

“So,” I say with a nervous half smile, suddenly wanting him with everything in me. “You think I’m good with my hands.”

Lukas doesn’t hesitate. He slides his arms around me and pulls me close, his lips coming to my temple as he kisses me there fervently and his fire breaks loose, intense emotion in the way he’s holding me now, in the way his fire is covetously encircling my lines.

Suddenly, it all washes over me. How I’ve held myself back from him. Not able to move past my grief over someone lost to me forever. While Lukas has risked his life for me again and again and thrown his lot in with me completely. And that look on his face last night...

I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my entire life.

Casting off the last of my heart’s hesitation, I release my fire to him in a shuddering rush, and Lukas inhales sharply, his gaze growing even more impassioned.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him ardently, my voice breaking even as a tighter desire for him takes hold. “I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to care for you like you care for—”

“Shh,” he says with real tenderness as his fingers thread through my hair.

And then he pulls me closer, his fire blazing through me as our lips meet and he kisses me, long and deep.

“Give me your fire, Elloren,” Lukas whispers as my power streams into his. “Give me all of it.”

Flames rearing, I press him against the wall and kiss him passionately, my soft curves fitting against the hard lines of his body as Lukas embraces me, our lines fuse, and we give each other everything.

CHAPTER TWO

SHADOW FIRE

ELLOREN GREY

Sixth Month

Northwestern Agolith Desert

I wake to a shock of painful, wet cold.

My panicked heart races as I spring up to a sitting position, my gaze darting wildly around as I shake my wet head. The fog of sleep rapidly clears as I struggle to adjust to what’s before me.

I blink up at Valasca, my whole body shivering. She’s dressed in Vu Trin fighting gear, her expression blade-hard, a wooden bucket in her hands that I realize she’s just used to douse me with water. I clasp my wet blanket around my gray naked self as embarrassment and blistering outrage surge through me.

Lukas stands just behind Valasca, dressed in a dark Noi tunic and pants as well, weapons strapped all over his body. His gaze on me is devoid of any of the affection and passion from last night, his fire held completely back.

“What are you doing?” I cry at them, stunned.

“Get up,” Valasca orders.

“What? N-n-no!” My teeth chatter as I protest. “I—I’m un-c-clothed!”

“Learn not to care,” Valasca says, her voice hard.

“Well, I do care!”

Valasca darts toward me and roughly grabs my arm, wrenching me up as I futilely hold the blanket to myself. Valasca tears the blanket away as I pointlessly try to cover my chest with my arm.

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