Page 92 of The Shadow Wand

“Here’s what I think. I think you’re working for the Resistance and you’ve aligned yourself with the Vu Trin. But somehow they’ve sensed the growing power in your lines. Power that could easily be passed on to your children and lead to another Black Witch’s emergence. Perhaps they toyed with the idea of killing you.” He pauses, watching for a reaction. “But Chi Nam thought better of it, didn’t she? She’s letting you live because she wants something.” He seems to take my troubled, stubborn silence as an affirmation and sits back, looking satisfied. “In any case, at least one sorceress was deeply alarmed by the power in your bloodline. Alarmed enough to go against Chi Nam’s wishes.”

I thrum my fingers, my dueling thoughts waging war on each other. Not telling Lukas the truth leaves me more vulnerable to further attack.And Damion might suspect what I am.But telling Lukas the truth would be just as dangerous if he’s still aligned with the Gardnerians in any way. Part of me desperately wants to cling tight to him and not let go. Part of me wants to wrest the rune stone from his hand, leap from the carriage, and make a run for it.

“Will you go after her?” I ask. “The sorceress who escaped through the portal?”

Lukas shakes his head dismissively. “I have no idea where that portal led. And I suspect she’ll be disciplined by her own kind if she did, in fact, go against Chi Nam’s orders. Chi Nam’s decisions carry a fair bit of weight.” He rolls the stone to the tips of his fingers then raises it level with his eye, drawing my gaze to his. “Elloren, why did Chi Nam give this rune stone to you?”

Dance around the truth, Elloren. Let him believe his version of events.“Chi Nam gave it to me...in case there was trouble. To help me...”

“No,” he cuts in, shaking his head. “Chi Nam’s not one for charity. She’s ruthless in the defense of her people.” He slips the stone into his pocket and leans in, his expression taking on a harder edge. “What did she send you here to find out?”

I bite at the sides of my mouth, trying to hold the answer back, but it bursts from my lips before I can contain it.“What is it that killed the Lupines, Lukas? It’s that Wand, isn’t it? Vogel’s Shadow Wand.”

Silence.

The question hangs in the air between us, dark and terrible.

Lukas’s smug look has disappeared, his eyes turned to flint. And there’s something else in his gaze that sends trepidation straight through me—fear.

“That wand,” Lukas levels with me, “is the most powerful wand I’ve ever encountered. Yes, I think it was involved in the slaughter of the Lupines.”

A chill snakes down my back as I remember the immobilizing effect Vogel’s Wand has on me. The sudden destruction of Diana’s people, all in one night, sent shock waves through all the Realms. It’s monstrous, the power of that Wand—monstrous enough for even Lukas to fear it.

“You told me you’re not aligned with Vogel,” I say, leaning toward him as well, my voice hardening as I pin him with my stare. My gaze flicks over the silver Erthia orb on his chest. “Yet here you are, dressed in a Gardnerian military uniform after having overseen the annexation of Keltania. Lukas, I have to know. Are you still aligned with the Gardneriansin any way?”

Lukas withdraws, his mouth a tight line as if he’s now struggling to hold back the truth from me as much as I’ve been struggling to hold it back from him.

“What are you hiding from me?” I press.

We hit a bump in the road, the wall lamp swinging. For a moment, we both freeze, our eyes locked. Lukas pulls back the window’s curtain a fraction and glances out. Seeming satisfied that everything is fine, he lets the curtain fall shut and leans back in close.

“No, Elloren,” he says succinctly, “I am not aligned with Vogel or the Gardnerians. I’ve been trying to work out the complicated wards that Vogel has placed around himself for some time now. So I can kill him. And I’ve just begun recruiting high-level Mages to work for the Vu Trin for the eventual overthrow of the Gardnerian government.”

I stare at him, astonished and wildly relieved. Because I know what he says to be true since Lukas and I are unable to lie to each other.

“Your turn,” he challenges, his gaze weighted. “Tell meexactlywhat’s going on with your power.”

My throat goes dry and tight. “It’s grown,” I admit in a rasp, barely able to voice the overwhelming truth that strains to break free. “More than you know.”

“Then show me,” he says.

I draw back at this. “What do you mean?”

“Kiss me,” he says, his voice hard.

My eyes widen as an almost affronted confusion whips up inside me as well as an instant refusal to betray Yvan’s memory so egregiously.

But there’s nothing suggestive in Lukas’s tone.

It’s a challenge. A charge. And suddenly, I understand exactly what he’s asking for.

“I can read the full extent of your power in a kiss,” he says. “You know I can. Better than any other way. Kiss me once, Elloren. Show me what you’re holding inside you. Show meexactlywhat scared the sorceress.”

I can feel the blood rushing from my face as apprehension sweeps through me, my mind dazed by the power that the wood under my nails is drawing up through my lines.

Show him, Elloren. He’s not aligned with Vogel or the Gardnerians. And Yvan would want you to live and be protected. Let Lukas sense your power fully. It will take only one kiss for him to see.

“I have more power than my grandmother,” I caution, fully leveling with him as my throat constricts tight, my heart hammering as if I’m bracing myself for a lethal dive off a cliff.

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