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Chapter 171
Dominic reached into his back pocket and pulled out his old leather wallet. Holding it in front of him, it looked much too large to have fit in his pocket, but Leesa knew the wallet was magic. Not only did it fit in places it shouldn’t, but it somehow held more stuff inside than a good-sized suitcase. She had seen Dominic pull stacks of cash and handfuls of jewels out of it. She wondered what he was going to take out now.
Dominic unclipped the brass fastener that held the walled closed and reached inside. His hand disappeared halfway up to his elbow as he rummaged around inside the magic container. When he drew his hand out, he was holding a thick, leather-bound book the size of a small dictionary. The book was much larger than the wallet that had just contained it. Leesa wondered if things shrank when they went inside, or if there was just more space in there than the normal laws of physics would allow. She guessed it didn’t really matter—magic was magic. T
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 172
“It means that I will have to keep on the move—buses and trains again, I’m afraid—trying to stay a few steps ahead of my foes. I will be going everywhere, but staying nowhere.”“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Leesa asked.“I hope so. I eluded my black brethren a hundred years ago—I do not see why I cannot do it again. This time, I am actually glad they will be able to track me so easily, for it will allow me to draw them away from here without actually seeming to. They will expect me to flee after using my magic. They will think I am running from them, rather than leading them away from you.”Dominic put his hands on Leesa’s shoulder and looked into her eyes.“If you sense any danger at all to you, Leesa, leave immediately. It doesn’t matter where you go—go anywhere, but go quickly. As long as you wear my ring, I will be able to find you when the time is right.&r
Leesa's Advent Chapter 173
Thousands of miles away from where Leesa and Rave said their goodbyes to Dominic, five shadowy figures sat in a large, dimly lit room, gathered around a dark, round table at least ten feet in diameter. The table’s smooth surface was fashioned out of a special, highly polished material that looked almost like black glass. Candles flickered in brass sconces on the chamber’s stone walls, but strangely, none of the light reflected off the top of the table. The dark surface seemed to swallow any illumination that struck it. In addition to the five occupied chairs, four more sat vacant.One of the seated men was significantly larger than his fellows, in girth more so than height. His high-backed chair—more of a throne, really—was larger and more ornate than the others as well. Intricate carved runes covered much of the chair’s dark wood surface. The special chair left little doubt that this man was the leader of the group.His body seemed almost
Leesa's Advent Chapter 174
Leesa breathed out a soft sigh as she and Rave neared the edge of the trees. She wasn’t ready for her wonderful ride in his strong arms to end. The ride had been all too short—Rave had covered almost a mile in little more than two minutes, and she knew he could have done it faster had he needed to. Once they reached the road where they could be seen, he would put her down and they would walk the rest of the way like normal people. And that was not nearly as much fun. She thought about asking him to circle back to make the ride last longer, but she didn’t think it very wise to return the vicinity of the battle. It was best to put as much distance from that place as possible. She would just have to be satisfied with the ride she had gotten.So she was totally surprised when Rave slowed his pace at the wood’s edge but did not stop to put her down. Instead, he kept her cradled in his arms and began walking east along the road.Leesa pulled her cheek
Leesa's Advent Chapter 175
Finally, Leesa’s classes were over for the day. She had thought English with The Great Gatsby had been slow, but that was before she had to slog through equation after complex equation in Chemistry. Somehow she survived, though, and now she was heading back to her dorm with Rave and his volkaane friends.The first thing she noticed when they neared the dorm was that the damaged Blazer was gone. She had been planning to call about it when she got home, but Security must have decided the wreck wasn’t going anywhere unless they towed it themselves. Leesa was pleased—it was one less thing she had to worry about, and she hadn’t needed to involve herself at all in its removal. Whatever happened to the car now was between Security and the guy she and Dominic had bought it from. And if the black waziri could sense any magic remaining on the Blazer from Dominic’s shield spell, at least the car wasn’t sitting right in front of her dorm like a big sig
Leesa's Advent Chapter 176
The wizard said he had ordered the spells in the book by ease of learning and usefulness. The air shield thing definitely failed the easy test, but she guessed Dominic had placed it second because she had already tried it. She decided she would give it another try or two today, but first she wanted to try something new and easier, so the flipped the page to the third spell.This one was an illumination spell, used primarily for lighting one’s way in the dark, but with a notation that used at full power, it could be employed to distract and even repel light sensitive creatures such as vampires. Leesa read the page carefully several times, making sure to miss no detail. When she was certain she understood the spell and its incantation completely, she closed the book.“So, what’s next?” Rave asked.“An illumination spell. I need a visual first, though. Could you grab that candle from my desk, please?” She pointed to a thick red c
Leesa's Advent Chapter 177
Kristi Brolen’s eyelids fluttered open. As her vision slowly came into focus, she found herself looking up into the bare, tangled branches of tall trees. Through the leafless branches, she could see pieces of blue sky. It took her a moment to realize she was lying on her back on the ground. She had no memory of how she had gotten here. As a matter of fact, she suddenly realized, she had no memory of anything, not even her name.She tried to turn her head, but found she could not. Her arms and legs seemed paralyzed as well. She was able to move her eyes from side to side, but that was it. Even her mouth was frozen shut. There would be no calling out for help, or even screaming in fear or frustration. Strangely, none of this bothered her.Her clothes were wet, but she did not feel the cold, even though she could see small patches of snow on the ground around her out of the corner of her eyes and knew it must be winter. This did not bother her either.Kristi
Leesa's Advent Chapter 178
Tuesday, Leesa had only two classes, and despite each being half an hour longer than her Monday classes, they seemed to go by faster. Leesa thought it was a combination of the subjects being more interesting—psychology was really fun and sociology was pretty good, too—and her not being quite so eager to get to work with Dominic’s book as she had been the day before. Yesterday, she couldn’t wait to use the book for the first time. Now that she’d worked a little with the spell book—and successfully, too!—she was not quite as anxious to get to it.That wasn’t to say her eagerness was gone, just that it wasn’t quite so keen. When Professor Moody—Leesa thought Moody was a wonderful name for a psychology professor—brought class to a close, Leesa was the first one out the door.A cold front had moved in overnight, bringing with it clear blue skies but biting cold. If it wasn’t below freezing out here, Lee
Leesa's Advent Chapter 179
The three black waziri moved slowly through the trees, observing every detail like forensic experts examining a crime scene. The remnants of magical vibrations were everywhere—the wizards would have found this place easily even without the trail left by Dominic’s passage that they had followed out here from the college. The battle between Dominic and their brother Josef had clearly been a mighty one.They still found it hard to accept that Dominic had defeated Josef, but the evidence could not be denied. Nothing at all remained of Josef’s essence. Only the vibrations of his expended magic showed that he had ever been here. Dominic had obviously destroyed all traces of Josef’s being—making sure there was no chance his essence could ever be reanimated.Nor was there anything here to tell them exactly how Dominic had managed to defeat Josef. They knew Dominic was a mighty wizard—he had been more powerful than any of them until they gave
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