Page 191 of The Demon Tide

Anger lights, swiftly whipping into fury as I glance at his hand, the gray in my vision intensifying while Vogel’s power slithers over my lines. “Take your hand off me, Or’myr.”

“Elloren.” His tone is low and measured, and he doesn’t loosen his grip. “Your eyes are glowing gray. That isnota good sign, my cousin.”

“I knowexactlywhere Vogel is.” I jab my finger toward the center of the desecrated mountain range. “I have this one small chance to destroy him, and I’m going to take it.”

Explosions rock the city as my cousin’s face hardens. “I’m coming with you.”

“It’stoo dangerous—”

“Which is why youneedhelp,” he counters with some asperity. “You haven’t the foggiest idea how to shield a dragon properly. You’ll be struck down before you’re even halfway across the river. And...even if you are about to become the most evil Black Witch the world has ever known...you’refamily.And family sticks together.”

I blink at him, stunned and touched by his bizarre, overreaching sense of family loyalty. “I’m going to level the entire mountain with Mage-and Wyvernfire,” I caution.

Or’myr’s eyes flick toward the wands. He draws in another breath, then nods, as if coming to full acceptance. “I’ll shield myself, if it comes to that. Or maybe I’ll get blown up too. But, regardless, I’m coming with you.”

“On one condition,” I insist, the wrathful power inside me burgeoning. “If Vogel fully turns me...you and Raz’zor need to kill me.”

His expression conveys fresh horror, but then he gives me another quick, curt nod. Then he looks to Raz’zor, who nods once then flattens to ease Or’myr’s leap onto his back. My cousin’s arms come around my waist and he takes hold of one of Raz’zor’s ivory shoulder horns, his purple hand closing around it above mine. The fingers of his free wand hand slide over the crystals affixed to his wand as he sounds a spell.

An aqueous violet sheath flows from his wand and courses around us, sending a prickling tingle over my skin. Or’myr flicks his wand, and tendriling violet vines fly from its tip to curl around our legs, securing us to Raz’zor’s back.

“I’m going to try to hold back my power until I get near Vogel,” I tell him as Vogel’s barely repelled Shadow claws around my power. “I don’t want to destroy Voloi or the tent city beyond the border. But if I touch you, I’ll likely amplify your magic.”

“Take hold of me then, cousin,” Or’myr rejoins, defiance in his tone. “We’ll evade that demon tide and light it up a nice shade of purple.”

Raz’zor flexes his powerful wings in an emphatic snap, and I grab the hand Or’myr has wrapped around Raz’zor’s shoulder horn. I’ve a sense of both Raz’zor’s red, purple-sparking Wyvernfire and Yvan’s passion-imbued golden flame ramping up inside us all.

“All right, Black Witch,” Or’myr says against my cheek as the multicolored fire churns volcano-hot. “Let’s go to war.”

PART SIX

Demon Tide

TheGardnerian Prophecy

(Divined from Ironwood cleromancy

by the Priest Seers of the First Children)

A Great Winged One will soon arise and cast

his fearsome shadow upon the land.

And just as Night slays Day

and Day slays Night,

so also shall another Black Witch

rise to meet him,

her powers vast beyond imagining.

And as their powers clash upon the field of

battle, the heavens shall open, the mountains

tremble, and the waters run crimson.

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