Page 206 of The Shadow Wand

Lukas flicks his finger against the hilt of the Ash’rionblade sheathed at my side. “You could have taken those creatures down or driven them off solely with what we taught you today. You don’t need to cower before them.” His brow tenses. “That’s why, starting tomorrow, we’re going to be hard on you. Because a lot of what you need to learn has nothing to do with magic. You need to build up your confidence.”

Sobered by what he’s telling me, I look past him and watch the silhouette of the deadly flock as it flies away over the moonlit sands.

The fear they’ve amplified in me slides down into a sullen sense of foreboding.

We’re both quiet for a moment, the air cool and still as I move toward the shield. I can feel Lukas’s gaze on me.

I take a long, shuddering breath as I stare at the barrier of storms in the distance, lightning forking all over the stormwall. We’re hidden for the moment, in the middle of nowhere, but eventually, Vogel will find me.

“I want to learn how to be truly brave,” I say, my voice low and firm. “Like you.”

A ripple of Lukas’s fire rushes through me, and after a moment his arms slide around my waist as he folds himself against my back. A tide of emotion rushes through me, like a storm breaking open.

“I’m going to learn how to face down those bats without a shred of fear,” I say in a harsh whisper as I watch the flash of lightning in the stormwall. “And I’m going to fight Marcus Vogel. Without backing down.”

“You will,” Lukas agrees as our fires feed into each other, pulsing heat. “We’ll help you learn to harness your power.” He leans down to softly nuzzle my neck, his voice pitched lower when it comes. “You could start by learning how to dominate me.” I feel his mouth tilt into a slight smile against my neck.

He sends out more fire, and his heat tingles straight down my spine, catching on my affinity lines and sparking a hard flash of desire that has me flushing.

I give him a wry look over my shoulder, increasingly flustered by his power as I slide my hands along his muscular arms. “I have a feeling you’re a lot harder to dominate than the wraith bats.”

Lukas gives a low laugh. “I am. Which is why learning to dominate me would be well worth your effort.” He leans in closer, his lips brushing my ear, suddenly serious. “Come back with me, Elloren.”

It’s clear what he’s offering. To bed me, yes, but more than that. I can feel the longing in his fire, how everything in him is oriented toward me. And suddenly...I want him. And not just physically. I want to merge with what he is and claim it for my own. Because he’s everything, in this moment, that I desperately want and need to be.

I turn around, take his hand...and bring him back inside with me.

We pass by Chi Nam and Valasca exiting as we enter the Vonor’s cavernous front room en route to Chi Nam’s meditation chamber. Lukas grabs our bedding and the Sanjire root, then leads me through a long and winding passage that eventually comes to what appears to be a small map room inside one of the Vonor’s many caverns, rolls of maps lining shelves hewn into the stone and affixed to the walls, a black carpet marked with an ivory dragon image under our feet. The walls are a gleaming onyx stone that glitters sapphire from the runic light that emanates from a single lantern set on a small shelf.

I close the doorway’s rune-marked curtain with a decided yank that I feel straight down my spine, because this feels like something new. Like my heart is opening up to him more than it ever has before.

Lukas lays the bedrolls side by side, pulls the Sanjire root bottle from his tunic’s pocket, and sets it on a small alcove in the cavern wall, eyeing me poignantly as he does so.

We remove our tunics and weapons, Lukas’s eyes flicking up to meet mine every so often, his muscles flexing as he moves. I let my gaze roam freely over the hard planes of his rune-marked chest and his muscular arms as he pulls off his boots and the blades he has strapped just under his pants, fire rising in me and simmering through my lines in a slow burn.

Lukas straightens, unfastens his wand sheath, the wand still inside, and sets it aside as I pull off the black Noi pants I’m wearing, now dressed only in a black linen Noi camisole and pantalets.

His gaze fixes on my body and travels over my thin, sparse garments.

We both still as our eyes meet and Lukas’s fire flashes out to ripple through my lines.

An invitation.

My breath stutters as I take him in. The familiar lines of his face. His deep-green eyes. His hard body and the way his skin glimmers green. The fastlines on his hands.

The Sealinglines on his wrists.

Heat blooms on my face, my chest, as I remember the wild thrill of our joinings. And the feel of his unrestrainedpower.

He’s all mine. I know it to be true. He’s given himself to me fully over and over again.

I walk to where the Sanjire root bottle rests on stone, pick it up, and clumsily unstopper it, feeling breathless and giddy with nerves. As if this is our first time again.

I look down into the bottle and realize there’s only one tendril of the root left.

“This is the last one,” I tell him.

Lukas’s expression tenses.

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