Page 175 of The Demon Tide

A second rush of power surges up from my feet, through my lines, forcing a gasp from my throat, the power arrowing straight toward my wand arm. The surge passes like a wave, my elemental magic consolidating into a compressed force, and I watch, stunned, as my purple glamour fizzles away and my fastlines emerge, only a slim band of purple coloration around my wrist remaining. I flex my fist, a sense of destiny descending as my magic begins to stream toward my wand hand like a river’s unimpeded flow.

I’m the Black Witch, I realize in a sweep of reckoning as points of tickling energy spring to life on my wand hand. My gaze snaps to my palm, my attention seized by lines of gray splotching into being there and rapidly linking to form delicate lines encased in a circle.

Dread clenches my stomach.A rune...

I raise my other hand, ready to press my fingers to the summoning rune stone Or’myr gave me, only to find its purple rune dimmed to dull gray. Before my alarm-fettered mind can fully register what’s happening, a wave of power slams into me from the West.

The full body-blow of it shatters all thought. I grunt, driven back a step, a dark tree blasting to life in my mind, its Shadow energy spreading out from the rune to snake through my affinity power in an undulating rush.

I yank my wand hand back into view and all the blood drains from my head.

My fastlines are slithering across my hand, morphed from black to Shadow gray, save for a few stationary Sealing loops around my wrist, the gray lines twining around the dark rune.

“No,” I rasp as I frantically scrape at the rune, nails drawing blood.“No, no, no...”

The protest is torn from my throat as the dark tree punches into my vision once more. I stagger back, disorientated, ropes of gray smoke streaming from my wand hand. They begin to whip around and over me in a terrace-encompassing orb-net, the ropes looping into a swirling mimicry of my fastlines’ design. A battle-rage overtakes me, and I reach down and draw my Wand.

“Elloren!”

I whirl around, leveling the Wand, and shock explodes, the ground threatening to give way as pent-up emotion rushes through my chest in a hot tide.

Standing at the far end of the terrace, encased in the swirling orb emanating from both my hands and his, is Lukas, his form oddly translucent, his green eyes aglow with streaks of slivery-gray, his chest bare and covered in bloody lash marks, a wand gripped in his fist.

“Lukas!” I cry, lurching toward him, a wave of yearning overtaking me that’s so immense it feels like vertigo.

Lukas’s grayed eyes ignite with feeling as he steps toward me. But his movements...they’re all wrong, just that one step sliding him instantly close, the distance retracting like I’m in some warping dream. I reach out to grasp his arm, but my fingers close around nothing, his limb as insubstantial as smoke.

“Ancient One,”I rasp as I scrabble to take hold of him to no avail.

“Elloren,” Lukas cuts in, his gaze shot through with such intense longing it brings me right back to the Agolith. Right back into his passionate embrace. “Listen to me,” he insists, voice rough.

“Why can’t I touch you? Ancient One... I’m dreaming...”

“You’renotdreaming,” he says, emphatic, as our fastlines whirl around us both. “But I’m not really here.”

“Then where are you?” I cry. “I have a tracking rune.” I thrust my wrist toward him. “It says you’reright here.”

“Because of the fasting link.”

“Lukas...youreyes...”

A tortuous look overtakes him, his mouth twitching with what seems like barely contained agony. “Vogel’s turning me into one of his drones. And it’s a good thing you can’t touch me yet. But that’s going to change.”

My mind storms with desperation. “I don’t understand...”

“Listento me,” Lukas insists, his foggy image solidifying. “I think I’m somewhere near Amazakaraan. Vogel’s been coming and going from there. Amazakaraan has fallen.”

The devastating reality slams down, my thoughts whirling to Wynter.

“Vogel has been feeding Shadow power into our fasting,” he grits out, every muscle straining toward me, as if he’d hurl himself to me through our fasting link if he could. “The only thing holding him back from complete control over you was the Forest’s grip on your lines.” His mouth tightens with fury. “He’s seeking to take hold of us both.”

I shake my head emphatically, my resolve bursting into a firestorm. “I’m coming for you before he can.” I raise my Wand, my power churning through my lines. “I’m coming for youtonight,” I insist, fierce love for him breaking like a wave, “andnothingcan stop me. I’m going to fly to the Wyvernguard and take control of a portal...”

“There’s no time,” Lukas counters harshly. “Elloren,lookat my eyes. Vogel’s going to absorb me into his hive.”

“His hive?”

“I’ll try to show you. I can merge you to me through Vogel’s Shadow tether.”

---