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Chapter 190
Back up in her room, Leesa was both anxious to get started practicing her magic and nervous about how it would go, now that she was away from the magical energy in the volkaane settlement that had seemingly enhanced her abilities. She sat on her bed with Dominic’s book unopened on her lap, unable to decide whether to open the book and see what was next or to jump right into practicing something like the illumination spell. The pros and cons of trying the spell were the same thing—she would know immediately how much being back home was affecting her magic. She was afraid of the disappointment that might bring.
Finally, she decided to just bite the bullet and try. Delaying wasn’t going to change anything, so she might as well get started. She pushed the book off her lap onto the bed and held her right hand out in front of her, palm up.
“Illuminati verdus,” she said softly but forcefully.
The familiar glowing sphere appeared immediatel
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 191
It was nearly midnight when Leesa finally closed her magic book. She had read the section on dreams several times and discovered that the dream power was among the most complex and least understood of all waziri powers. Complete control over dreams was beyond even the most skillful of wizards—which she certainly was not.Still, she had shown ability in this area even before she realized she possessed magic, having had four dreams that seemed to have come at least partially true. Those visions had arisen on their own and had been completely beyond her control or understanding at the time, but they certainly demonstrated she possessed some power in the dream realm. Now if she could just learn to harness it a bit.There were lots of details in the book—more than she could possibly digest in just one evening of reading—but she thought she had gotten a good start on the basics.It seemed there were two basic parts to controlling dreams. The first wa
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She was standing in the sprawling parking lot of a large suburban mall. She didn’t recognize the place, but it was not unlike other malls she had visited. The sun hung high in a cloudless blue sky and the breeze blowing against her cheeks was cool, but not really cold. From the leafless trees in the distance, she knew it was winter. Glancing down at her arms, she saw she was wearing a dark red sweatshirt.The parking area was jammed with cars. A steady stream of shoppers snaked toward the mall’s entrance. Most wore winter coats—maybe it was colder out than she realized. Some of the men sported heavy, bright red Ohio State sweatshirts. She didn’t know why, but the sight of the sweatshirts gave her a feeling of satisfaction. She was unsure what day of the week it was, but from the number of cars and people, it had to be either a weekend or a holiday. For some reason she did
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Forty some miles to the south and east of where Leesa finally closed her book of magic, Kristi Brolen could not believe how different everything had suddenly become. Just a little while ago, she had been lying on her back, for who knows how long, unable to move anything more than her eyes and eyelids. All she could see were branches and the sky directly above her. The only thing she could remember hearing during all that time was the silver-haired woman’s voice. And her sense of smell had been even more useless.Now here she was, racing through the trees at impossible speeds with seemingly no effort at all. She ran half a step behind Marcio, with Dara and Genevieve following behind. Her senses, so limited for so long, had heightened to a degree that was unimaginable. She knew it was night—she had never seen so many stars in the sky—but she could see details that previously would have been invisible to her on even the brightest of days. Her hearing had also b
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“I have an idea,” he said at last. “You only have to feed on human blood but once. It must be soon, though. Do you think you could feed upon someone who wasn’t so nice?”Kristi thought for a moment. “You mean, like a gangbanger or something?”“Yes. Someone evil. Could you do it then?”Kristi nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I could do that.”Marcio smiled. “Then let’s go find one.” He glanced toward Dara and Genevieve. “Or a couple of them,” he added.The four vampires turned away from the park and headed south, where a soft yellow glow over the horizon told them they would find a town. Any place with more than a few hundred humans in it would certainly contain at least a couple of bad ones, of that they were certain.They didn’t even need to go all the way to town, however, stopping instead outside a rundown roadside bar. The gray brick
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The ride in Rave’s arms was much different this time. The speed was still thrilling and the strength in his arms kept Leesa feeling loved and secure. What was missing was his heat. Without his amazing warmth, she was forced to keep her face buried against his chest and her hands balled up in the sleeves of her windbreaker for protection against the cold air that whipped against her skin. Despite the cold, she couldn’t think of any other way she’d rather travel, especially with the feel of his heart beating strongly against her cheek, giving her a feeling of reassurance she sorely needed right now. She pressed her face more tightly against his breast.She was less disappointed than usual when he finally put her down on the path outside Balin’s cabin. For the first time, the ride had felt just long enough, rather than way too short. She didn’t like the feeling at all. She hoped they got to the bottom of all this quickly.The door to Balin&rs
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