Page 138 of The Demon Tide

I immediately regret asking, not able to imagine the trauma Aislinn endured with sadistic Damion Bane. A flash of red-hot anger scythes through my lines at the idea of my gentle friend fasted to such a monster.

Diana’s laugh sounds at something Tierney is saying from a few paces away, and the unexpected sound of her throaty laughter is like a bright balm, immediately lifting my spirits as a sudden question lights my mind.

“Who’s the alpha?” I ask Jarod.

Jarod’s lip quirks as he glances toward Rafe and Diana. “They both are.”

My eyes widen. “What? Both of them?”

He nods, an amused glint entering his amber eyes. “They couldn’t best each other. They fought for almost an entire day. He’s stronger than her, but she’s faster and...trickier. Eventually, after many,manyhours of them genuinely trying to dominate each other, it devolved into laughter and they went off to the woods to mate. It’s...unprecedented.”

“Two alphas,” I marvel, astonished.

I catch Andras’s eye, his tall form looming over us. “You didn’t make a play for alpha?”

He laughs, deep in his broad chest, glancing toward Rafe and Diana. “Against either ofthem?” He raises one purple brow. “I saw them fight. I’m seriously outmatched.”

“I’m so glad to see you, Andras,” I tell him as we pull each other into a warm hug.

“Is your son well?” I remember the last time I saw Andras’s son, Konnor. A sharp pain rises over the remembrance of the trauma in the small child’s face that nightmarish morning. How little Konnor was found, the night before, lying under his dead adoptive parents.

“He’s doing well,” Andras assures me, his rune-tattooed brow tightening. “My mother cares for him much of the time. She’s living with our pack.”

Surprise wells. His mother, Professor Volya, had railed against the Lupines and their ways. Railed against Andras joining them and railed against him embracing his son.

“I don’t think she expected to find any commonalities with Lupine culture,” he tells me. “But she has. More than she ever thought possible. And she and Konnor have become strongly bonded to one another.”

My heart lifts to hear this, an ember of hope lighting over what that could mean for the world at large. If Professor Volya could learn to cross cultural lines and love a grandson and embrace a culture she was taught to thoroughly despise, perhaps others might be able to embrace unity, as well.

Sage and Tierney sidle up beside me, and I can’t help but notice how Tierney studiously avoids greeting Andras or even looking at him, even though I can sense her water affinity tempestuously eddying around his broad form. Andras is watching Tierney sidelong with what looks like uncomfortable concern, and I wonder what transpired between them.

Sage touches my arm, breaking into my thoughts. I let her check my rune-marked palm, a brighter green glow emanating from it. “Come,” she says and motions toward another rune-lit passageway, her look of vast import sending a shiver down my spine. “That rune is almost charged.”

CHAPTER NINE

AURAKISS

Elloren Grey

Smaragdalfar Sublands

Eastern Realm

The night before Xishlon

I stare at the rainbow-streaked hair of the Elf down on one knee before me, Rivyr’el’s rune stylus pressed to the center of my palm. Opal stalactites hang low from the circular cavern’s ceiling, glittering in the lantern light, most of our group encircling us, Or’myr’s and Wrenfir’s backs to the glistening walls.

Yvan stands a bit removed from me, his wings fanned out against the stone to his back.

Rivyr’el’s rainbow-glitter-painted eyes meet Sage’s. “Well, the trees have bound her up quite tightly.” His mouth twists into an irreverent sneer. “Clever Forest.”

“What’s the structure of it?” Ra’Ven asks from beside Sage.

Rivyr’el lightly traces his stylus’s tip along my palm in a slow oval, a prickle rushing over my skin. “The trees basically sent barrier magic over her lines,” he answers, “then worked a chaos spell into it that’s tangling her power inward.” He lifts the stylus’s tip and sweeps it toward my abdomen. “Thus, orienting her magic toward her center.” He looks to Sage once more. “The Forest is using her lack of Dryad balance to pull her off-kilter. She has dominant fire and earth magic, but weaker water and air, and almost nonexistent light. We’ll need to strengthen her weaker elementals before we can drive off the Forest’s bindings.”

Sage nods. “Then we’ll feed warding power into her to shield her from another magical attack before anchoring a straightening spell to reconnect her magic to her wand hand.”

“There is one issue,” Rivyr’el cautions. Sage cocks a purple brow. “We’ll need to veil what we’re doing from the Forest until the last moment, or it could stage a counter siege. It’s hooked into her power enough to do it.”

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