Page 19 of The Demon Tide

He’s truly on our side.

It’s been clear from the first night he arrived, even as I fought to deny it, my Wyvern senses and power-empath abilities forcing me to confront the outrageously unexpected.

I struggle to beat back my doubts. The controversy surrounding the Gardnerian’s inclusion here is explosive. How could it not be? I fought against it as well—a Crow wanting to fight for the Eastern Realm, the grandson of the Black Witch no less.

How could that be right on any level?

Impossible to accept, just as it’s impossible to accept the scattering of other Mages here, the majority of the Wyvernguard wondering if High Commander Vang Troi’s formidable powers of reason have come unstrung.

My thoughts fly back to before I met Trystan, when I spearheaded a petition to keep him out.Thousandsof soldiers and apprentices signed it. And when Vang Troi refused to budge, I organized a protest that both I and my circle of friends were harshly disciplined for. Even though we had the full support of the majority of the Noi Conclave and my people’s Zhilon’ile Conclave, including my entire family, as well as Commander Ung Li.

But here Trystan Gardner is, and increasingly, it cannot be denied...

He’s on our side.

I can smell it on him—his fearless desire to fight with the East. And his honesty surrounding all of it.

His cursed honesty.

I’ve struggled to scent a lie on him, just a hint of one. Sought to detect that slight sheen of sweat that almost always accompanies untruths, to hear it in the near imperceptible increase in heartbeat. But...nothing.

My uneasy awareness has persisted throughout the past weeks as I trailed him everywhere. To weapons training, wand sparring, rune-ship navigation, meals. Never once have I sensed a lie on him, even though I searched with an intensity bordering on obsession. To justify the way he’s being treated here.

The wayI’mtreating him.

Unease twists my gut, my jaw ticking with tension as I watch Trystan’s green eyes go hard, watch him murmuring Roach spells to fill his wand with lethal Mage power. The same power that killed so many Noi’khin.

My family is right,I silently rage.None of the Crows should be here. Not a one.

Yes, some of the completely justifiable protests have devolved into abuse, but how could High Commander Vang Troi honestly believe Trystan couldeverassimilate here, or anywhere in the East?

Still, my unease is like a ceaseless, growing tide.

Every day I’ve watched Trystan Gardner descend into a protective silence, and it’s begun to prick at my conscience. To add to the confusion, he’s increasingly shadowed by the equally silent Death Fae, who seem hells-bent on drawing him into their outcast circle.

“Vu Trin, ready your magic,” Commander Ung Li calls from the sidelines, her spiked black hair gleaming in the sun, arms crossed in front of her.

Trystan focuses on the soldiers facing him, his eyes narrowing as he raises his wand a fraction higher. An invisible charge sizzles to life around him and spills into my power. Stinging threads of lightning flare over my skin.

“Fire!” Ung Li orders.

Trystan lashes his wand forward.

A blast of storming water shot through with vivid blue lightning bursts from his wand, and the incredible aura of oceanic energy coursing from it hits me like a typhoon.

The water collides with the sorceresses and throws the weapons from their hands as they’re driven back, feet skidding across the terrace to its farthest railing, their weapons’ runes troublingly shot through with blue lightning. The apprentices surrounding me retreat with cries of alarm as we’re hit with stray forks of the Mage’s stinging lightning and cyclonic side winds.

I can’t help myself. I step forward, the draw of the glorious maelstrom of power impossible to resist. My horns spiral up as I inhale deeply and draw in his energy before it can dissipate. Trystan turns and meets my gaze, an invisible spark passing between us as our power connects, just as multiple bolts of sapphire light suddenly slam into the center of his chest, punching him to the ground.

I whip my head toward the soldiers as every one of them, save Commander Ung Li, throws bolt after bolt of runic power from newly drawn weapons, their expressions turned vicious. The collective emotional energy on the air becomes volatile and murderous, my shifter senses able to pick up every last shred of the rising cloud of fury.

“Die, Crow!” one of the soldiers snarls as she draws back her arm and hurls a silver rune star at Trystan.

I move to throw lightning at the star just as Trystan flicks his wand and his own blue lightning shoots from its tip, deflecting the star into the Vo River.

“Halt!” Commander Ung Li orders as she tosses a rune stone between Trystan and the soldiers. A wall of translucent blue energy blasts from the stone. Two last bolts of runic sorcery slam into the wall and ray out in compact explosions of sparking sapphire light.

Ung Li steps in front of the wall to face the soldiers. She glares at them, her battle-hardened gaze sweeping over everyone assembled. “If youkillhim,” she bites out, “we cannot learn how to subdue Level Five Mage power.”

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