Page 127 of The Demon Tide

“Grab tight hold of me!” he urges, and I thrill to the sound of Yvan’s beloved voice resonating low in his chest, an ache of want scorching through me as flames leap in my vision.

He’s going to fly us out, I realize through his overwhelming thrall.

I remember how hesitant I was the last time I needed him to carry me, unnerved by the scandalous, forbidden intimacy of wrapping my arms and legs around a young man I wasn’t fasted to.

I show no such hesitation now.

I throw my arms around Yvan’s shoulders as he slides his hot palms under my thighs, lifting me at the same time that I wrap my legs around his hips. Then he throws his wings powerfully down.

Launching us into the air.

We shoot upward with such velocity it steals my breath, the Sixth Tier falling away as the world tilts and Yvan blasts us north out of the city and over the river. We blaze through the air, his heartbeat pounding strong against mine, my cheek pressed to the hot skin of his neck, that smell of him, like a midnight fire, shearing through my heart. Tears sting my eyes as I hug him close, merging into his heat and remembering that he can scent my overwhelmed emotions.

He soars faster than a falcon’s dive over the river, the mountains edging the Vo a blurred streak, the city’s lights behind us now as hulking, moonlit mountains race past on either side.

Angling toward the peaks of the Voloi Mountain Range, he darts into a rocky depression, wings pivoting up. We rapidly slow, then land, his form bathed in silvery moonlight. He loosens his grip on me and my body slides down against his heated form.

Yvan’s eyes flash a brighter gold as my feet touch down on stone and we stare at each other for a heated second, the air between us going taut with invisible, grasping flame.

“Elloren,” he says, my name wrung from low in his throat as love for him breaks through me like a tide. He pulls me into a fervid embrace, my back connecting with the mountain’s hard stone as we clutch each other close and he brings his mouth decidedly down onto mine.

Everything in me turns molten as our fires collide, the whole world alight with gold as his all-consuming Wyvernbond spirals through me, so fervently I can’t think around it, his body rife with power.

I gasp and cling to him as the pure emotion in his flame sears through us both and we kiss like we’ll merge straight into each other, my fingers knotting in his hair, my fire straining relentlessly toward his, the enormity of everything breaking free as we hold each other fiercely, kiss each other desperately.

A cry loosens from me as all the grief for him I’ve been suppressing ruptures free in one violent tide, my heart breaking clear open. Sobbing as he breaks the kiss, I grip his muscular arms, stunned anew to find him so staggeringly solid and real against me. He tucks his head against my shoulder, breathing hard, his neck hot against my cheek as I breathe in his Wyvern male scent and disbelievingly run my hands over his warm back, his taut arms and shoulders, the edges of his wings.

Alive.

I’ve the sense of being swept into an impossible dream, wave upon wave of grief eddying through me along with the overpowering blaze of his heightened fire.

“Elloren.”His voice breaks as he breathes the word against the nape of my neck. His beautiful, deep voice. The voice I thought I’d never hear again.“My love,”he murmurs in ardent Lasair, breath hot on my skin. When he draws back, there are moonlight-glazed tears streaking his angular face, his fiery eyes full of emotion. He presses his full lips to my temple as he pulls in a wavering breath.“My love,”he says again in Lasair. “Elloren, mylove.”

“I thought you weredead,” I choke out as I cling to him. “They told me you weredead.”

“Vogel almost killed me.” His voice is ragged as he tenderly strokes my hair with a look of sheer wonderment, as if he can’t quite believe I’m real. “He sent out an assassin who was secretly working with the Vu Trin. We let Mavrik...the assassin...attack me to the point where death seemed assured. To fool Vogel as well as both Realms. To buy me time to survive and train.” He brings his forehead to mine, breathing hard, our arms looping more tightly around each other. “I healed myself,” he manages. “My healing powers have grown along with my fire.”

He draws back a fraction, his hands cupping the sides of my face, the enormity of this moment mirrored in the fervent blaze in his eyes.

A sob shuddering through my chest, I reach up to thread my fingers through his night-darkened scarlet hair, run my thumbs along the edges of his pointed ears. His defined cheekbones. The sides of his beloved angular face.

Yvan’s voice is low and husky when it comes, his brow tightening with concern. “Elloren...what happened to your fire? It’saltered.I can feel it when we kiss, but I can’t grasp full hold of it.”

I blink at him from inside our fiery daze, the world around starting to flow back in. “The trees attacked me,” I manage, swallowing back the tears. “They bound up my power.”

Yvan’s eyes widen, the fire in them flaring. He angles his head down and presses his forehead to mine once more, the words pouring out of him. “Vang Troi told me you were likely dead. I knew it wasn’t true—I would have sensed it. But... I didn’t tell them.” His fire surges to a whipping, torrid blaze as fury sparks in his eyes. “I could sense they’d come to see you as their enemy. And then... I started to feel your fire coming closer, but I wasn’t able tofindyou. Even though I could sense you were in danger.” The words continue to tumble out, torment and passion infused in them. “I sent fire out to youconstantly. Trying to find you. And then, finally... Ifeltyou.”

“I have more power than the Vu Trin thought,” I say as we cling to each other. “More than my grandmother had. The Vu Trin turned against me, and I had to escape.”

And then... Lukas.

A hard ache rises in my throat as my feelings for Lukas crash through Yvan’s fiery thrall, along with memories of everything I had to do to get here. To stay alive. To keep from being enslaved by Vogel. How Lukas gave up everything to save me.

How I bound myself to him in every way.

How I’m about to break Yvan’s heart.

I’m suddenly lost in an abyss of emotion. Furious anger at the Vu Trin for lying about Yvan’s death. Terrible remorse that I was with another man. Desperate, overwhelming relief to find Yvan alive. Fear of what’s coming for the Eastern Realm. And the desperate yearning to find Lukas and save him.

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