Page 23 of The Demon Tide

“Choose, Vothe,” Heelyn seethes. “Choose carefully. You align with a Crow and our friendship isover.Align with a Crow, and every last one of us will want you gone. Even Ung Li wants him gone. And I don’t think she’d shed any tears if we blast the Roach to smither—”

“Really, that’s enough,” I snarl as my horns spiral up.

A look of pain crosses Heelyn’s features, and it cuts me to the core. “Have you forgotten that my parents were killed by Gardnerian Roaches?”

Her words are like a blow to my gut, my voice splintering when it comes. “I know they were, Heelyn.”

“Then renounce him!” she growls. “Get back on the right side of things!”

“And what side would that be?” I wish I could take back the dangerously honest words as soon as they leave my mouth.

Heelyn is gaping at me now. “What’s happening to you, Vothe?” She shakes her head as tears sheen her eyes. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” And then she turns and strides away, leaving me alone to wrestle with the violent tempest growing inside me.

Sylla Vuul’s spidery legs click against the stone floor as she rounds the hallway’s corner.

I don’t even turn. “Leave me be, Sylla,” I snap, before making my way down the spiral stairs and out into the night.

CHAPTER TWO

ASRAIWAR

Tierney Calix

The Wyvernguard

South Wyvernguard Island, Noilaan

Eastern Realm

Sixth Month

Where in all the hells are you, Elloren?

Tierney stares out over the Vo River, leaning on the stone railing that edges the terrace encircling the base of the Wyvernguard’s South Island, a twin to the dragon encircling the North Island. The late-afternoon sky, overcast with low-slung clouds, mirrors Tierney’s brooding mood.

The Vo’s water-power aura encircles Tierney, beckoning to her with joyful abandon. But her kindred river’s loving embrace isn’t enough to fight off the unease rippling through her. Because, even though Tierney has been assured by the Vu Trin that her powerless friend Elloren is being ushered east by a Noi military contingent, well over a month has passed since she last saw her and still...no Elloren in sight.

Tierney has sent her kelpies on covert missions to look for Elloren, but they’ve turned up nothing, just as they’ve been unable to find that trace of Shadow power Tierney so clearly sensed touching down on the Vo.

Something iswrong.

Tierney knows it, deep in her gut.

She fears the worst, especially after hearing the horrifying news of her friend Yvan Guriel’s death—and that he was not Yvan Guriel at all, but Yvan Guryev, his true identity unknown even to those closest to him.

Tierney blinks rapidly, suppressing the tears threatening to mist her eyes.

Did you know who Yvan truly was, Elloren? And do you know that he’s been slain by Vogel’s forces?

Are you even alive?

A water aura whips against Tierney in a powerful lash, seizing her attention. She can sense the irritation running through the magic. Irritation that triggers her own.

“Are we interrupting your reverie, Soldier-Apprentice Calix?” A domineering male voice sounds from across the large, curving terrace.

Tierney grits her teeth and turns, sighting her young, deep-blue hued division commander, the vastly infuriating and unforgivably spectacular-looking Fyordin Lir, glowering at her from a distance away. The rest of her Wyvernguard Asrai Fae Division peers questioningly at her from where they stand spread out in a line on the terrace’s broad expanse, clearly waiting for her to join the military exercises. Asra’leen Filor’ian, Tierney’s rainbow-flecked, white-foam-haired lodging mate, glances from Tierney to Fyordin and back, a cautioning expression on her gentle face, which Tierney flagrantly ignores.Diplomacy be damned.

Tierney glares at Fyordin and blows her own invisible rush of magic into the power he’s lashing at her, blasting it back, but she’s unable to push it clear through him and into the Vo River. Because, to Tierney’s immense frustration, the Vo has claimed both her and Fyordin as its guardians. As a result, their formidable water powers are damnably equal in strength.

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