Page 34 of The Shadow Wand

Tierney protested vehemently, clearly sensing, as Trystan did, an ulterior motive at play, but Ung Li was unmoved, tersely informing them both that Tierney was to join the Fae Vu Trin apprentices stationed on the Wyvernguard’s South Twin Island, where all the Fae divisions are located, while Trystan took his place on the Wyvernguard’s North Twin Island.

Ensuring Trystan’s complete isolation.

A test, Trystan supposes with bone-deep cynicism,to see exactly how much the grandson of the Black Witch can take.

Trystan’s chest tightens with apprehension, but he tamps down the useless pining for friends, for family. Even though he’s a renegade, he knew there would be no open-armed embrace here for the grandson of the Vuulnor.

His brother, Rafe, has fared much better, becoming Lupine during the first full moon on their journey east and casting off his Gardnerian heritage, his fierce amber eyes indisputable proof of his new allegiance. And Tierney was instantly embraced by the Vu Trin, as well—all the Fae Vu Trin military apprentices have been welcomed, their fierce loyalty to the Vu Trin unquestioned.

The Vu Trin hierarchy had initially assumed that Trystan would be eager to relinquish the echo of Black Witch power in his lines and would become Lupine during that first full moon under their protection.

They assumed wrong.

Trystan’s storming, elemental power has become an intimately valued part of himself, vital as the blood that runs through his veins.

Now the Vu Trin seem unprepared to be faced with a Black Witch descendant with overwhelming fire and water magic who has no intention of being anything other than what he is—a powerful Level Five Mage.

Trystan stands there, unmoved, as Ung Li’s formidable gaze sears into him.

“Vothendrile Xanthile has been assigned to guard you,” Ung Li finally says, a sly look that raises Trystan’s hackles slinking across her expression.

One of the Vu Trin apprentices behind Trystan strides into view.

Trystan’s breath hitches, all his storming thoughts flying right out of his head as he’s faced with the most dazzlingly beautiful young man he’s ever seen.

The tall, dark-eyed apprentice’s stance is regally assured, his sapphire Vu Trin apprentice uniform perfectly tailored to accentuate his muscular frame, the image of Vo, the starlight dragon goddess of the Noi people, emblazoned on his broad chest. He has the sculpted features and dark eyes of the Noi, his black hair short and slightly spiked, but the spikes are resplendently tipped in glittering silver, and a series of silver hoops rim his pointed ears.

And there are thin threads of lightning crackling all over his midnight-black skin.

Actual lightning.

Trystan meets Vothendrile’s dark gaze and their powers collide, a flash of energy coursing through Trystan’s firelines, his invisible lightning striking out in response to the palpable storm power that lives inside the young man before him.

That’s in hisgaze.

And...Vothendrile’s pupils are vertically slitted. Dragon-shifter slitted.

He must be a Zhilon’ileWyvern, Trystan dazedly realizes, having read about them. A Storm Wyvern of the Eastern Realm, his people’s domain to the far northeast of here. The Wyvern shifters who, along with some scattered Fae, control the weather in these lands. Who used to control the weather inalllands.

Before the Black Witch drove them out of the Western Realm.

Vothendrile’s lips lift in a slight, hostile sneer as lightning flashes between them and Trystan snaps fully back to the situation he’s in.

One of the reviled.

Trystan urgently presses down his completely unnerving attraction to Vothendrile Xanthile and holds the Wyvern’s overpowering stare, the shifter’s lightning now spitting through Trystan’s lines in what feels like a purposefully stinging rush.

The ache that rises simply galvanizes Trystan’s resolve.

Go ahead and try to drive me out.Trystan glowers at Vothe.So I’m reviled here. So be it. I was reviled there too. But I’m staying. And I’m going to fight the Gardnerians alongside all of you, whether you like it or not.

“Vothendrile will show you to your barracks,” Ung Li informs Trystan, cutting into their staring contest.

Trystan staunchly salutes Ung Li, slamming his fist against his heart, as is their way here, as he meets the commander’s withering stare. “Hoiyon, Nor Ung Li.” There’s renewed challenge in Trystan’s emphatic falling in with their protocol and in his pointed use of their language.

Ung Li is unmoved. She knifes another glare at Trystan, then sets her fierce gaze on Vothendrile and flicks her finger toward the door, as if wanting, more than anything, to be completely rid of Trystan Gardner.

Vothendrile Xanthile keeps smart pace with Trystan Gardner, their boot heels echoing over the stone floor of the hallway that bores straight through the Wyvernguard’s North Twin Island mountain, circular dragon emblems marked on its surface. Black dragon carvings mark the ceiling above them, carved into the obsidian stone in bas-relief, their huge reptilian forms washed in guttering blue light that emanates from rune torches affixed to the walls.

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