Lukas watches through his cell’s dark wavering bars as his captors take their leave, Vogel idly flicking his Shadow Wand toward him.

Lukas’s Shadow bindings abruptly vanish, and he grits his teeth against the slash of pain as they rip from his skin, leaving painful welts of reddened flesh in their wake. He forces himself up and massages his aching jaw, the wheels of his furious mind turning.

He moves closer to the cell’s bars, watching soldiers as they pass by, others emerging from the insectile cells affixed to the huge cavern’s dark walls. His gaze sweeps toward the vast swarm of wraith bats hanging throughout the cave’s vaulted upper reaches, then down toward the Shadow scorpios massed along the walls, still as statues.

Lukas focuses on the Shadow magic streaming against the tight shield he’s set around his lines. The same magic that’s edging up against his mind and graying his vision.

You didn’t count on my superior shielding abilities, did you, Marcus? Lukas stealthily considers.

You’re not the only clever one, you zealot bastard.

Forcibly slowing his breathing, Lukas closes his eyes and concentrates as he extends his shielding power out over the gray line of power Vogel has tethered to his lines.

Seconds bleed into minutes and minutes into hours.

He concentrates harder as his vision grays and his sense of time running out intensifies, sending his shielding power out further and further along Vogel’s Shadow leash. A mental map of the magic Vogel has branched out over the entire hive begins to emerge, the network of power too huge and entrenched for Lukas to take down, even with a wand.

But he doesn’t need the whole hive.

Drawing his shielding power back, he sends a slim thread of it out over one of Vogel’s branching tethers, weaving around it silently.

To the nearest scorpio.

Lukas slinks his magic through the scorpio’s head and thorax, then into its powerful forelimb. Sweat cloaking his back, his teeth gritted so hard his molars sting, Lukas exhales, rough and hard, as he forces his will into the scorpio.

Slowly, the scorpio turns its head toward Lukas, the creature’s forelimb twitching, before the shield-connection snaps off and the beast goes stone-still once more.

A vengeful satisfaction rises in Lukas as he pants from the effort.

Two can wield this Shadow.

Let down your guard once, Marcus. Just once, he seethes as he readies himself to send out his shielded earth magic once more.

And I’ll be waiting for you.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

XISHLON THRALL

Elloren Grey

Voloi, Noilaan
Eastern Realm
Xishlon