Page 185 of The Demon Tide

Sparrow’s eyes sheen with tears in response to Thierren’s heartfelt stream of words—words made so much more powerful by his use of her own language.

“Il’nyylia ar’gyn zu’lia, fhir’lion nur...” she returns, voice hitching as she finishes the quote from the famous Uriskal love poem, a poem reserved for one’s great love.My shining gem. My forever love...

My whole heart.

An explosion rocks the world.

Sparrow flinches against Thierren, the lovely moment shattering as the floor beneath them shudders, Sparrow’s meager kitchenware clinking in the cupboards. They draw back from each other, eyes wide, as the rhythm of the music cuts out and muffled shouts go up, Vu Trin alarm horns beginning to bray.

Thierren grabs his wand from Sparrow’s bedside table and rushes to the balcony’s doors, Sparrow following close behind. He pushes the doors open and steps out, and Sparrow slips out after him, her gut clenching as they find the city enveloped in chaos. Panic-stricken revelers are streaming away from the docks in a purple tide, children crying and trailing strings of purple runic orbs as they’re swiftly dragged away.

Sparrow lifts her gaze toward the Vo Mountains and her heart seizes.

A waterfall of dark gray smoke is billowing down from a huge crater near the range’s top, a lighter curtain of mist rising skyward as Vu Trin soldiers yell orders and race down the street below against the flow of the crowd. It’s clear, from the line of huge gray runes topping the crater, that this was no natural occurrence.

“Thierren,” Sparrow manages as the purple moonlight grays, “do you think the Mages are invading?” Her eyes swing to meet his, the feel of a shared nightmare clear in that one, rattled look. “Effrey and Mii Vun,” she rasps, wild desperation singeing to life. “They’re in the Voling Gardens.”

Distant shrieks split the air, and Sparrow watches in sick astonishment as black specks launch themselves from the mountains’ Shadow-spewing gash.

Broken dragons.

And just like that, she’s thrust back onto the Fae Islands, hell-bent on getting Effrey to safety, no matter what she has to fight through to do it. She draws her rune blade, a reckless, trauma-forged courage rising.

Thierren takes hold of her arm, his expression gone raptor-hard. “Sparrow, listen to me. We’ll find Effreytogether, but you need to stay close to me. If Vogel cuts out the runic dome—” his eyes flick to her blade “—that rune blade will be useless. And the city will turn into a weapon against itself when every runic support gives way.”

A deeper desperation unfolds in the pit of Sparrow’s stomach as the Xishlon moon’s loving purple light vanishes. Bordering on full-blown panic, she vaults over the balcony’s railing onto the fire escape’s black metal ladder, her heart galloping in her chest as she scrambles down the rickety structure.

Thierren drops to the street behind her and catches her as she’s nearly knocked over by a fleeing Noi woman covered in purple glitter.

“Stay close,” he insists. “Every rune is about to lose power, but my wandwon’t. Stayright by my side.”

Sparrow nods, and they set off at a sprint toward the pier, Thierren’s hand tight around hers, running against the crowd’s flow as broken dragons screech in overhead and screams rise, the dragons’ hue a bizarre steely gray. Sparrow and Thierren skid to a halt as one of the dragons sets course directly for them, rears back its serpentine head then whips it forward.

A blaze of dark fire erupts from the dragon’s mouth just as Thierren yanks Sparrow against his chest and growls out a spell, a translucent blue shield flowing over them before the fire slams into a building behind them. The ground beneath them shakes, debris pummeling their shield before they turn to find Sparrow’s apartment building exploding into silvery black flames.

Thierren’s heart clenches as he pulls Sparrow back into a run, her hard-won home, gone in the blink of an eye. And any people inside...

Another dragon zooms in, dark fire streaking from its shrieking jaws to slam into the building across the street. Thierren hurls both himself and Sparrow sideways as another huge explosion sounds, debris colliding with their shield in a repelling punch that comes close to knocking them both off their feet.

His heart pounding against Sparrow’s back, Thierren holds tight to her as the smoke partially clears, people screaming all around. Horror sears through him as he spots an entire family ablaze just across the street. A toddler with hair on fire, shrieking with pain and terror as her mother frantically pats her hair to put out the flames. A screaming little boy wails nearby, his string of runic orbs aflame, his father struggling to pry it from his fists.

Before Thierren can react, the street heaves and buckles as the unnaturally burrowing fire streaks through the very ground and the surrounding buildings begin to collapse.

Thierren growls out a spell, pulls back his arm and slashes a wide arc of water over the flaming people, dousing the steely fire before he and Sparrow launch back into a run and the panic of the crowds devolves into chaotic terror. Thierren meets Sparrow’s horrified gaze once before they swerve right, breaking into a faster run as they launch themselves onto a path through the Voling Gardens.

They burst onto the Voling Plaza just as the Icaral and Black Witch statue in its center explodes into a ball of dark flame. Sparrow flinches, dragons shrieking and soaring across the sky while battles break out between the Vu Trin and the Mages on the ground and in the air, sapphire and silver-black explosions detonating.

“Sparrow!” a child’s familiar voice cries out.

Relief blazes into being as Sparrow spots Effrey by the plaza’s edge. He’s huddled with Mii Vun under a translucent violet shield he’s clearly conjured, a glowing amethyst shard in Effrey’s raised hand, the base of the shield cleverly tethered to amethyst Xishlon jewelry that Effrey must have requisitioned from a nearby upended jewelry cart.

Mii Vun is embracing three terrified-looking children under the luminous shield, all of them pressed against the stone fencing at the garden’s edge.

“Effrey! Stay there!” Thierren calls out. “Hold your shield!”

A gray dragon zooms in low, skimming the tops of the purple Wisteria trees. Thierren yanks Sparrow against his chest and raises his wand at the same time the gray-eyed Mage on the dragon’s back lifts his wand, horror leaping in Sparrow as she takes in the incoming dragon’s four eyes.

Thierren throws out his arm, and a blast of air whooshes from his wand, spearing toward the Mage and dragon and punching them back in a spray of silver sparks. The dragon rights itself, and Shadow Mage and dragon surge forward once more as the Mage flicks out his wand and a bolt of dark fire streaks toward them.

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