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’re not dreaming,” 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’re right here.”

“Because of the fasting link.”

“Lukas...your eyes...”

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...”

“Listen to 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.”