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Chapter 337
Leesa glanced at Rave and then turned back to Balin. “Only that they’re taken from their mothers and raised communally. I hope no one expects me to go along with that.”
“No, of course not.”
“Good.” Leesa leaned back until she was resting against the wall behind her. So far, she hadn’t learned anything overly worrisome. If their child’s fire was weak, she and Rave would protect him, especially when another Destiratu arose. “So, what do I need to know about volkaane babies?”
“First, volkaane pregnancies always last exactly six cycles of the moon,” Balin replied. “Again, I don’t know what effect your human and wizard natures will have on that, but you should be prepared for a shorter pregnancy, just in case. Volkaanes grow fast.”
Leesa wasn’t at all worried about that. Being pregnant for six months instead of nine didn’t sound like a bad thing at all.
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 338
After defeating the necromancer and his minions — and losing Dominic in the process — Leesa had seen no reason to return to Weston College for the fall semester. The only book she was interested in now was the book of magic Dominic had given her. It contained all the lessons she needed, and she spent at least several hours with it every day, learning and practicing spells and magic. She was the last of the waziri now, and she was determined to become the very best wizard she could.Progress was slow without Dominic here to guide her, but she had vowed that she was going to make him proud, even if he wasn’t around to see it. Jenna came by now and then to help, but witch magic and wizard magic were very different, so the amount of assistance she could provide was limited. Rave usually watched Leesa practice, lending encouragement and support. For the most part, though, she was having to learn it all on her own.Just because she hadn’t enrolled at Weston didn’t mean she never visited the
Leesa's Advent Chapter 339
Leesa never practiced her magic in the vicinity of the volkaane settlement. To do so risked awakening the fell power that slumbered beneath the earth there, a magic so powerful Dominic said it dwarfed anything he had ever experienced. “Let sleeping magic lie” was a fitting switch on a familiar old saying.While inconvenient, the need to travel to work on her magic had its benefits. Pretty much every day, Leesa got to enjoy a ten or fifteen mile ride in Rave’s arms, cradled snug against his muscular chest and feeling his inner warmth soaking into her body. Being carried by Rave as he raced swiftly through the trees was still far and away her favorite way to travel.She had a few favorite places to practice, most of them spots where she had trained with Dominic. She varied them so she wouldn’t become too accustomed to wielding her powers in any one place. For the same reason, she and Rave occasionally tried a new spot. Almost all of them were deep in the woods somewhere, hidden from sig
Leesa's Advent Chapter 340
Jenna smiled at Leesa. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”Leesa moved forward and gave Jenna a hug.“Nothing successful,” she said, allowing a bit of frustration to leak out in her voice. “It’s good to see you, Jenna.”“I was flying nearby and sensed your magic, so I thought I’d drop by to see if I could be of any help.” Jenna turned to Rave and nodded. “Hi, Rave.”“Hello, Jenna. It’s nice to see you again.”It definitely was nice to see her, Leesa thought. She was always glad to have Jenna around when she practiced. With Dominic gone, the witch was the closest thing she had to a magical mentor. Even though wizard and witch magic were very different, some general tenets of magic held for both. Leesa hoped Jenna might have some ideas about why she was struggling with this growth spell thing.“Your timing is actually very good,” Leesa said to Jenna.Jenna glanced toward the boulder in the center of the stream.“I see by the fresh holes that you’ve been blasting away at that thing.”
Leesa's Advent Chapter 341
Several weeks passed. The child inside Leesa continued to grow. Now when she focused her concentration inward, she could clearly sense the boy’s aura. The energy pulsed in a light, almost yellowish green hue, telling her for certain now that he would possess at least some of Rave’s volkaane magic as well as her own. The yellow tinge to the color made her think the waziri magic was probably the stronger of the two, but only time would tell. How the two magics would interact was an even bigger mystery.She had not yet visited a doctor—in fact, she wasn’t sure if she ever would. She had no idea what kind of readings the magical child in her belly might trigger during any physical exam, but she was pretty sure they would not be normal. And anything abnormal would cause the medical people to worry, which would probably result in more tests and still more abnormal readings. It could be a vicious cycle with no real end unless she admitted to the magic, which she was not about to do. She knew
Leesa's Advent Chapter 342
That very same night, Leesa dreamed.Blackness enveloped her. No, not blackness—more of a purple. A purple so deep and rich and dark as to be almost black. She held her hand up in front of her face and she could see it clearly, but when she extended her arm, her hand nearly disappeared into the void. Farther out, she thought she could see faint, floating white lights surrounding her, but whenever she tried to focus on any particular one of them it somehow became lost to her sight.Almost as frightening as the eerie darkness was the complete and utter silence of the place. It was so deathly quiet she thought she could hear her own heartbeat, but maybe that was because it was pounding so hard inside her chest.She had no idea where she was, no memory of how she had come to this place of cold, eerie darkness.She tried to take a careful step forward, but discovered she could not. Not because her legs didn’t work, but because she wasn’t standing on anything solid. She seemed to be floatin
Leesa's Advent Chapter 343
The next week flew by. Leesa worked hard on the growth spell every day. The stone continued to grow a little more at each session, except on the fourth day, when she had a small hiccup in her progress. The day before, the rock had finally reached the size it had been in Jenna’s illusion. The next day it stubbornly refused to grow any more, despite more than a dozen attempts from Leesa. The difficulty had not been unexpected, and Leesa simply shook it off. She was fairly confident now she would be able to break through that barrier and was determined to do it on her own, without another assist from Jenna. The next day, that’s exactly what happened—the stone finally grew bigger than Jenna’s image.The stone had become too big and heavy for Leesa to levitate—it was now thigh high—so for the last two days she and Rave had simply left it where it sat and returned to the same place the next day to work on it.That spot was in the middle of a stand of pine trees not too far from the bank of
Leesa's Advent Chapter 344
The next day, a major storm front swept across the area. Gone were the pleasant temperatures and bright blue skies of the past week; in their place had come chill winds and leaden gray clouds filled with moisture. The forecast called for two or three days of intermittent rain, heavy at times.Leesa didn’t care. She was still going to work on her magic. Indeed, she felt that using her powers to keep herself dry while performing other spells would be a useful challenge. The foul weather was of no concern to Rave, either. His inner heat kept him warm and dry no matter what the weather. The heavier the rain, the more he simply turned up the fire inside him to evaporate the moisture as soon as it struck him. Leesa had been with him in one storm so fierce she could hear the water hissing as his heat evaporated it.They stood with their arms around each other near the highway at the edge of the volkaane settlement, waiting for Cali. The dark stone Leesa was going to try again to make grow sa
Leesa's Advent Chapter 345
THE RIDE TO THE PRACTICE SPOT eight or nine miles north of the volkaane settlement took nearly twenty minutes. During the drive, the weather changed three times—from heavy rain to light showers and back to heavy rain. It was during the period of lighter rain that Leesa spotted something along the side of the road that she wanted.“Pull over,” she told Cali. “Right here.”Cali slowed down carefully on the slippery pavement and eased the car over to the shoulder.“What is it?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”“Nothing’s wrong. There’s something back there I want. Back up a bit, please.”Cali backed up slowly, thankful the rain had lightened, making visibility much clearer.“That’s good,” Leesa said after they had backed up a hundred feet or so. “Stop here.”Cali took her foot off the gas. She tried to look out Leesa’s window to see what it was that interested her friend, but all she could see was a piece of discarded furniture. It looked like an old, round wooden end table.“Don’t tell me we
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