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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
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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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Sitting at her desk Tuesday evening, Leesa flipped the cover of her history book closed. For the last half hour she had been studying the causes of the Civil War, but she didn’t think she was going to retain much of what she read. Every time she came across Abraham Lincoln’s name, her mind wandered to the popular book and movie about Lincoln being a vampire hunter. With all she had learned since arriving at Weston, she wondered if it could possibly have been true. She doubted that Lincoln had actually been a vampire hunter, of course, but she had once doubted her mom’s story about the one-fanged vampire, and look how that turned out.It was doubly hard to concentrate on her reading with Rave sitting patiently on her bed behind her. She could almost feel his beautiful brown eyes warming her back and neck. What she really wanted to be doing was sitting next to him and talking, or lying cuddled in his arms. They had shared a long, fun walk that afternoon, after
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Outside the dorm, Viktor watched from among the crowd of onlookers who had gathered at the arrival of the police and campus security. At least ten cruisers and three ambulances blocked the street now, their flashing rooftop lights painting the grass and the front of the building in dabs of blue and red. Yellow wooden sawhorses and crime scene tape kept the gawkers back.A few moments ago, a crowd of young women had dashed out of the dorm. They were immediately surrounded by the earliest arriving cops and medical personnel. Viktor had moved as close to the cluster of coeds as he dared and listened in. He overheard words like “horrible,” “scary,” and his favorite, “freakin’ dead people.” He’d had to work hard to keep from smiling when he heard that one.Near the dorm entrance, a squad of burly officers dressed in black flak jackets was preparing to enter the building. Whatever the final outcome had been inside, all the poli
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Rave lowered Leesa gently to the ground in front of a gray, one-story wooden house. After racing through the night in Rave’s arms, the cool, still air felt strange on her cheeks. With little ambient light from the volkaane settlement, the sky above was a black curtain pierced by what seemed to be thousands of stars. A three-quarter moon painted a soft glow on the world around her.She sighed. As always, it took her a moment to get over the disappointment of no longer being cradled in Rave’s arms. She took his hand in hers, to maintain the contact a bit longer.“So, this is where you live,” she said, taking in the house with a slow sweep of her eyes.The design was simple—a plain, flat front with a door in the middle and two square windows on either side of the door. Even in the moonlight, Leesa could see that the horizontal wood planks were old and weathered, but in good repair. An A-frame roof fashioned of dark wooden shingles was
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Balin’s cabin was just a short way back up the narrow roadway from Rave’s house. Holding hands, Leesa and Rave strolled unhurriedly through the beautiful night. It looked to Leesa as if there were even more stars twinkling in the sky than before. With her eyes fastened on the jeweled canopy above, she tripped on a ridge in the rutted road and would have fallen had not been for Rave’s strong grip on her hand.“Sorry,” she said when she regained her balance.“Don’t worry,” Rave replied, turning to her and smiling. “Lately, I find myself distracted by beauty all the time.”Leesa felt herself blushing. She hoped Rave wouldn’t see it in the darkness, but with those darn volkaane eyes of his, she was pretty sure he could.“Maybe so,” she said, “but you don’t stumble like some clumsy oaf because of it.”Rave draped his hands over Leesa’s shoulders and sta
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“Let’s sit down and you can tell me everything that’s happened,” Balin suggested. He had met Dominic once and knew about Leesa’s nascent magic and about the existence of the black waziri, but he had no idea what had occurred during the last few days. “Does anyone want a drink before we begin? Some mead, perhaps? Telling tales can be thirsty work.”With everything that had happened today, Leesa was definitely tempted by Balin’s offer. His homemade mead was even more delicious than his stew, but it was also very strong, especially for someone who rarely drank. She decided she had better pass.“No, thank you,” she said. “I think I should keep a clear head. I’ll just have water. Rave, you go ahead if you want.”Rave nodded to Balin, who quickly filled two big pewter mugs with golden liquid from a big glass jar. He filled a third mug with water for Leesa.They all sat down on chairs
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“Catch,” she said as the stick did exactly what she wanted.Rave reached out and caught it. “Now you’re just showing off,” he said, smiling as he examined the stick.“Yeah, a little,” Leesa replied with a smile of her own. “But I do have plans for that, so it’s not totally showing off. And the more magic I use, the better I’ll get, so why bend down when I can do it with magic?”“Just don’t get too carried away with yourself, or you are apt to be disappointed when you’re back at Weston and not surrounded by volkaane energy.”Leesa walked closer to Rave. “I know. But I think whatever I do here will carry over at least a little. Success breeds success, as Dominic likes to say.”Feeling very confident, she decided there was no reason to wait until they were inside to try the shield spell.“Wait just a moment, and then try to poke me with t
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