Page 180 of The Demon Tide

The side of the Vo Mountains has exploded outward, leaving a huge, linear gash, a line of impossibly huge, gray-glowing runes marking its top, the mountain’s peak still intact. A flood of black smoke is pouring from the gash like a demonic tide, foggy gray mist rising from its maw toward the purple-mooned sky.

They grip tighter hold of each other as cries rise from the city and the shadowy tide rapidly inks down the mountain range, rushing toward the Vo River. Vu Trin alarm horns blare and dragons launch from the distant Wyvernguard, rune ships fleeing toward Voloi as the moon’s edge tints a dull, ashen gray.

Vothe exchanges a horror-filled glance with Trystan.

“He’s here,” Trystan says, his voice full of a terrible certainty. “Vogel ishere.”

Vothe throws off his tunic, lightning flashing in his vision and over his skin as he sends his horns spiraling up from his head and his wings spring free from his back. He meets Trystan’s gaze, his power crackling with controlled ferocity. “I’m Changing,” he says, his Wyvern tail lashing behind him.

“Good,” Trystan replies as he unsheathes his wand. “Because we’re going to fly to our battalion, link our power to the Vu Trin and drive the godsforsaken Mages from our lands.”

CHAPTER TWO

IMPENDINGDEATH

Tierney Calix

Xishlon night, twenty-second hour

An earsplitting explosion blasts from the mountains above. Tierney ducks toward the forest stream’s bank as Viger launches his dark form at her.

His hard body collides with hers, forcing her sideways to the forest floor just as a huge piece of the mountain crashes through the trees and lands with a concussive thud where she was standing, smaller pieces of mountain raining down.

Viger’s smooth forehead presses against Tierney’s, his strong hands holding tight to her arms, his chest rising and falling against hers as she clutches him, as well. She can feel his sharp claws biting through her tunic’s fabric.

Get hold of yourself, Tierney urges herself, her flash of panic reverberating. Wresting the fear aside, she forces herself up as Viger rolls off, alarm horns blaring from the direction of the runic border. Cautiously, they both rise to their feet.

“How did you know where we’d be safe?” Tierney asks, stunned and breathless as she eyes the huge pieces of stone cratered into the forest floor.

Viger’s black eyes glint in the debris-ashed light. “I can sense impending death.”

A strange hissing sound rises from above and they peer up through the canopy’s boulder-smashed breaks. A line of huge gray runes glows just above a gash near the range’s peaks and Tierney watches, horror-struck, as a tide of dark mist bubbles from the gash and waterfalls downward, barreling straight toward them.

They step backward, their hands finding each other while a thinner, gauzy fog rises from the gash toward the heavens.

And then the Xishlon moon’s purple light cuts out.

A fuller darkness descends, and Tierney moves closer to Viger at the same time that he pulls her into a half embrace. Pulse racing, she yanks a rune light from her pocket and flicks it on.

The Noi rune inside the glass vial casts the stark planes of Viger’s face in an otherworldly sapphire glow as a tide of undulating, thigh-deep fog advances through the trees. Tierney’s throat tightens as they take another step backward, the Shadow twining around trunks and brush, streaming relentlessly in.

Viger snarls as they’re engulfed in it, both Tierney’s blue hue and the vial of sapphire rune light tinting to shades of gray. Fright rearing, Tierney holds up the grayed vial and her alarmingly color-stripped hand.

Demonic Shadow, Viger says into her mind, his deep voice vibrating through her. His fully blackened gaze intensifies. “Vogel is in the mountains.”

Tierney’s internal power bursts into storming chaos. Her thoughts fly to the combined magic she and Viger sent toward the Vo and Zonor Rivers to ward-protect them.

“Do you think our warding of the waters will hold?” she asks.

Viger’s beat of hesitation ratchets up Tierney’s protective fright as a helix of Shadow curls around her rune light. The light blinks out of existence, thrusting them into complete darkness.

Tierney swallows, gripping her now useless light. “It’s just like Elloren warned,” she rasps. “Vogel’s Shadow destroys runes.”

She can feel Viger’s gaze sharpen on her.Elloren Grey is here?

Tierney freezes, realizing she’s just revealed Elloren’s presence to a Death Fae whose true allegiance is unknown. “Viger, you don’t understand this,” she forces out. “You’ve only read my fears...”

Viger’s hand clamps around her arm. “The Black Witch is in the Eastern Realm?”

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