Page 131 of The Demon Tide

The night before Xishlon

“Glamour yourself and throw this on,” Jules Kristian says to Yvan from the rune ship’s riverside walkway as he unfastens his woolen cloak and passes it over.

“You as well, Elloren,” Kam Vin stonily insists from where she and Ni Vin stand near the controls of the hovering rune skiff. She draws off her black cloak and tosses it to me. “It seems the entire Vu Trin force is now alerted to the presence of the Prophecy descended on the Eastern Realm. Luckily for you they saw you fly off to the north and have focused the search in that direction for the moment.”

“Hurry,” Ni Vin urges.

“Do you have the Zhilin Wand?” Kam Vin probes as I throw on her cloak.

“I do,” I assure her, its spiraling handle pressed against my calf.

She nods stiffly and levels a knifing glare at Yvan, gesturing toward the Noi runes marking his chest. “The Vu Trin will have you tracked through those iron-shielding runes within the hour if we don’t get you to a more powerfully warded location. They’ve sent out an elite tracking dragon.”

Yvan’s mouth lifts into a surprisingly feral snarl. We share a loaded glance, the gold in his eyes blazing hotter.

He closes his eyes and stiffens, every one of his corded muscles going taut as he draws his wings into a tattooed impression, his horns pulling into his head. He throws on the cloak and pulls in a hard breath, morphing his hair brown and rounding his pointed ears and pupils, the runes on his chest disappearing. His eyes meet mine and a rush of heat courses through us both as we hastily exit the cramped bedroom and board the skiff along with Lucretia and Jules, Mora’lee and Professor Hawkkyn remaining behind.

I take a seat on one of the two benches siding the skiff, Yvan and I keeping our cloaked heads lowered, his warm side pressed to mine.

Ni Vin pilots the skiff into motion as Kam Vin and Lucretia scan the skies, the city’s air traffic blessedly dense. I glance over my shoulder at Mora and Professor Hawkkyn, their figures already tiny as they watch us speed away.

“Do you think the Vu Trin will assume Yvan and I have fled the city?” I ask Kam Vin.

She nods. “But the tracking dragon is a serious danger. There’s word he’s picked up your scent from an alley you were both in. He’ll be difficult to evade.”

“We’re too exposed,” I note, the moonlit night too clear, only a smattering of clouds drifting low in the sky. My clutch of concern tightens as I spot four military rune skiffs suddenly converging on us, Yvan’s fire aura powering up as he tenses beside me.

“Any moment now...” Kam Vin murmurs to herself as she scans the river’s expanse, oddly unfocused on the threat bearing down.

A thick, patchy fog abruptly forms over the Vo’s surface, wicking up toward us with unnatural speed. Ni Vin angles our skiff sharply down, dimming our skiff’s rune lights as we soar into the gray then bank sharply right, my stomach lurching from the rapid change in direction as the incoming military skiffs are rendered to hazy streaks of blue light by the obscuring fog, rapidly disappearing in the distance.

Tension ripples through Yvan’s fire aura as we exchange a wary look, the fog thickening as it consumes the world in a patchwork of moonlit clouds.

“Do you have a Zhilon’ile ally?” Yvan asks Kam Vin in a tone of amazement as we tunnel through the gray.

“Vothendrile Xanthile’s work,” Jules supplies, casting a shrewd look toward me. My thoughts fly to Trystan’s love with no small amount of gratitude.

“Where are you taking us?” Yvan asks Jules, our dim space partly illuminated by his fiery eyes.

“To a strongly warded location in the sublands,” Lucretia answers from Jules’s side. “Where we can free up Elloren’s magic.” Her gaze sharpens on Yvan. “And buy you time so we can all plan the best way to negotiate an alliance between Elloren and the Vu Trin.”

“Since there’s a rather large Prophecy standing in the way of that,” Jules archly notes.

Magic burns a rebellious path through the space between Yvan and me, its rush of heat sweeping through my body, and for a moment, I’m lost to it, pained memories surfacing of everything Yvan and I have been through together and what we were starting to be to each other in the West. Yvan’s face colors, his fire shivering more intently around me as the fog thickens.

I look away, acutely aware of Yvan’s warmth radiating through his clothes with the force of a smith’s furnace, our power whipping around each other in seeking flares. A remembrance of Lukas’s similarly embracing magic overtakes me and remorse unfurls, raw in my chest.

Kam Vin takes a seat by Lucretia as Ni Vin pilots us through the shifting clouds of fog, all of us silent and tense, a sliver of Lucretia’s water power slipping loose to flow around Jules. I’ve the sense of our collective breath suspended as I fight off the powerful urge to grasp hold of Yvan’s hand, the side of my finger touching the heated side of his as I’m overcome, anew, by the shock of having him so abruptly back in my life.Alive.

I catch Yvan’s glance and know he’s sensing my emotional whorl of fire.

He slides his warm hand over mine in what I can tell is an attempt at chaste support, but there’s nothing restrained about the way his fire spirals up through our hands and over my skin, his heat so impassioned a flush sears through my cheeks, my pulse quickening.

He draws his hand from mine and we both look sharply away.

“Elloren,” he breathes, a marked strain to his voice as his molten eyes find mine, his aura intensifying as it varnishes my skin with wanton flame. “I’m sorry,” he murmurs. “I’m finding it difficult to contain the Wyvern draw. Since we’re bonded—”

“Keep silent,” Kam Vin whispers. “That search dragon could be within hearing range.”

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