Page 78 of The Shadow Wand

He coughs out a contemptuous laugh as he throws me a sarcastic look. “No, Elloren, we are not. Are you with the Kelt?” His smile is gone, and something like jealousy flashes through his eyes. He looks away again, his jaw ticking.

Yes, Lukas, I want to cry at him as pain strafes through me.I’m with Yvan. But I also can never be fully with him.

Because I’m fasted toyou.

We’re both silent for a long moment. And when he brings his gaze back to mine, his brow is furrowed with both bitterness and something I’ve never seen in him before—profound hurt.

My anger caves in on itself.

His wretched mother is right—he could have fasted to practically any young woman in Gardneria. He didn’t want to be fasted any more than I did. But still, he did it.

For me.

I slump and exhale, looking to Lukas with a new, chastened understanding. “If you hadn’t stepped in, Damion would have forced me to fast to him,” I say, my voice rough with outrage as my heart aches for what Aislinn has likely endured. “Then he would have taken me back to his estate and raped me. And that would be my life. Every day.”

Lukas’s mouth tenses as he stares at me.

A stark realization takes hold. “That’s twice you’ve saved my life.”

Lukas cuts me a glare. “He wouldn’t have killed you, Elloren.”

“I’d be as good as dead.”

“No,” he says, shaking his head, serious. “You’d have found a way to fight him.”

“Maybe. But still, you were right. When you forced me to fast to you, you were being a friend to me.”

Lukas lets out a long breath and loses the last trace of his antagonistic demeanor. “What is it that you want?”

I’m the next Black Witch and I need protectioncomes close to escaping my lips.“I told you,” I say instead, “I’m ready to take my place with you.”

“No. Why are you here? Why are you back in Gardneria?”

It all crashes through me—my impossible task, my uncontrollable and therefore useless power, everyone I love in danger.

My life in serious danger.

“Because,” I say, my voice cracking, “I have nowhere else to go.”

Lukas studies me, his expression now searching. “I’ll help you,” he finally says, his voice low and adamant.

Tears burn in my eyes and I pull in a shaky breath, overcome with gratitude and wanting to find some way to express it. “Let’s go back in there,” I offer, gesturing in the direction of the Council’s Main Hall, “and I’ll dance with you. I’ll tell everyone in the room how happy I am to be fasted to you. I realize... I realize how much fasting to me, especially after how I fought you...the things I said... I realize how much I must have hurt your reputation.”

Lukas looks up at the ceiling and shakes his head before once again meeting my eyes, his expression going hard. “I don’t care what anyone thinks—” he motions between us “—aboutthis. Whatever it is.”

A familiar, heated tension lights between us, and I can sense, by the intent way he’s now looking at me, that he feels it too. My uncomfortable awareness of his magic rises as I remember how many times the two of us have kissed, and quite passionately, the pull of our matching affinity lines an enticing, palpable thing.

I step back a fraction, abashed by my reflexive attraction to Lukas and his power when I’ve given my heart completely to Yvan.

“I’m to meet with Marcus Vogel before he makes his address,” Lukas says, breaking what felt like a momentary spell cast between us.

“Why?”

“He wants to meet with all the commanders of our Guard. Although I don’t think Damion Bane will be attending.” There’s no humor in his voice when he says this, only a volatile hatred swimming in his eyes.

Fear of what Damion might now suspect about me spikes.

I’m going to have to tell you what I am, Lukas. But...where do you stand? Ihaveto know where you truly stand.

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