Page 73 of The Shadow Wand

Damion is staring at me as if he can read my mind, a slow grin forming on his coldly handsome face, and I’ve a stark remembrance of how he used to prey on the Urisk kitchen workers.

“You...you startled me,” I stammer, struggling to keep my tone light.

“Where’s Lukas?” he asks pleasantly, as if playing with me, as if he already knows the answer. I notice his hands and wrists are marked with sealed fastlines.

“He’ll be here shortly,” I lie, my heart pounding. “We...we’re supposed to meet here.” I sweep my hand out toward the ocean. “It’s so beautiful. He wanted to show me the view.”

“Funny,” Damion says as he slowly approaches me, rolling his wand idly in his palm. “I thought he wasn’t supposed to arrive until later.” He draws ever closer and I instinctively step back only to be halted by the stone railing of the balcony behind me. Hyperaware of his wand.

Everything in me wanting to grab hold of it.

You can’t use his wand, I desperately caution myself.

Damion comes to a stop in front of me, an evil glint in his eyes. I recoil as he reaches up to lightly stroke my hair.

“Lukas wouldn’t want you doing that,” I snap, outrage seeping through.

Damion makes no move to back away. “Oh, Iknow,” he says, as he continues to play with a long strand. “Your devotion to Lukas Grey issotouching.” He leans in closer. “Everyone knows your aunt found you in bed with a Kelt.” He reaches down to grab hold of my hand, eyeing the fasting marks with interest as I wrench my hand away from his. “Vyvian arrived in the nick of time, I’d say.” He laughs and leers at my too-tight, low-cut scarlet clothing. “I heard you were half-naked.” His eyes narrow. “No, Lukas is quite done with you.”

Panic rising, I move to sidestep away from him, but he reacts quickly, sidestepping as well, and grasps hold of my arm, his wand now pointed at my neck.

I freeze, the tip of his wand sharp on my skin.

“You were almost mine, did you know that?” he whispers, leaning in, his breath sickeningly warm on my face.

“What do you mean?” I gasp, the top of the stone railing jutting hard against my lower back.

“Your aunt gave consent for you to fast tome,” he says silkily. “I was there, ready to bind myself to you, whenheshowed up. It was quite the surprise. No one expected Lukas to be so doggedly persistent in his...affectionsfor you.” His grin fades and his brow furrows in consternation. “I really don’t understand what my sister sees in him. She’s quite upset, you know.”

I give a hoarse cry as he jabs the wand under my chin, forcing my head up. He shoves his body against me, pushing me against the banister, a viciously suggestive gleam in his eyes. “She thinks you should be punished.”

“You’re fasted,” I croak, defiance rising as I grit my teeth. “I’ll tell your fastmate and everyone in that hall if you don’t get off me.”

Damion lets out another contemptuous laugh and pushes the wand even harder into my throat. “You think your little friend Aislinn will defend you? That skinny little thing? All the fight’s beaten out of that pathetic fastmate of mine.”

Aislinn’s face lights in my mind as rage explodes inside me.“You bastard!”

I slam my whole weight against him and lunge for his wand, but he anticipates me, tightening his grip on the wand as my hand closes around his and my forefinger makes direct contact with the wood.

My affinity lines crackle into the shape of jagged tree limbs as power flashes up from the ground, through the stone, fire magic racing toward me, rushing through my affinity lines and suffusing them with pulsating, killing power.

Damion’s eyes go wide with surprise.

The words to the candle-lighting spell dance on my lips, my body trembling with a vengeance begging to be unleashed. But I battle against the fierce urge to let loose with the spell that would incinerate not just Damion, but possibly the whole city of Valgard.

Taking advantage of my hesitation, Damion narrows his eyes with wicked purpose. In the blink of an eye he sends out a spell.

I cry out as vine bindings fly from his wand and cinch tight around my body, the breath forced from my lungs, my limbs instantly trussed tight. Damion hurls me to the ground, and my head hits the stone with a heavy thud.

He’s on top of me in an instant, his eyes bright with excitement as he jabs his wand into my side, his other hand coming around my throat. I struggle for breath as his fingers tighten, his whole body pushed crushingly down on me.

“Oh, I’m going to enjoy breaking you,” he croons as spots flash before my eyes.

I’m beginning to black out as boot heels thud on the balcony floor.

Damion is suddenly lifted off me, and breath rushes back into my lungs in jagged heaves, my vision returning as the vines restraining me dissipate into black smoke.

Lukas is there, his face wild with anger, dragging a stumbling Damion across the stone floor as I pull in great gulps of air. Damion’s wand is now in Lukas’s hand, and is promptly hurled off the balcony. Lukas pushes Damion roughly against one of the stone trees.

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