Page 198 of The Demon Tide

The stormwall surges skyward, the magic at play so powerful I can feel its bright-energy tang from clear across the river, as well as a distinctive Mage energy suffusing it.

Trystan’s.

Fear strikes with the force of a hammer to anvil. Because I know, beyond any doubt, that this power building inside me dwarfs any stormwall my brother and his allies can conjure.

Vogel’s brutal delight surges. Sending a command through his Shadow tether, he forces both me and his Shadow horde to slow until we’re hovering in midair as one.

Yvan launches himself toward me with renewed force, everything about the scene taking on a horrifying vividness as he blasts his way forward. Vogel lifts my wand arm ever so slightly and begins to murmur a spell through my mind, his focus sharpening on Yvan’s wings.

Get back, Yvan!I yearn to scream.He’sluringyou!

And then Vogel thrusts my wand arm violently forward.

A gale-force blast jets through my arm, billowing painfully just under my skin. It blasts through and out of my wand toward Yvan in a dark, churning stream, my gut heaving as this small portion of my magic slams into his chest and he’s blown backward, his wings forced into furious backbeats, shock crackling through his fire aura.

He rapidly rights himself, and even though our bond has been broken I can sense his passionate determination redoubling in the flow of his fire. Gold-glowing hands slashing, he rapidly takes out three more Shadow dragons with bright, sonic booms, then renews his surge toward me.

Vogel’s seismic hate detonates.Winged demon!

The horde parts before me as I’m flown toward Yvan, Vogel once more drawing up only a fraction of the power I’m capable of, even as he patiently gathers an annihilating ball of magic in my center. The rancid certainty swells in my breast—Yvan’s love for me will be his undoing.

Because Vogel will have me strike at him again and again, whereas Yvan won’t strike at me even once.

My heart sheared through, Vogel forces my wand arm toward Yvan.

A huge bolt of blade-sharp vine streaks from my wand’s tip, but Yvan dodges it in a fiery blur, slashing out flame to singe the bolt to ash. He arcs around, his scorching eyes meeting mine, and a feral panic overtakes me as Vogel gathers my fuller power, my body trembling.

“Elloren!” Yvan snarls as he blasts a path forward, eyeing my shielded form. “Can you speak through his hold?”

Slowed to a hover, I level my wand at his chest.

Yvan fans out his wings, halting his momentum as his eyes lock on to mine with burning intensity. Snarling, he throws his palms out to the sides.

Fire blasts from his hands, my dragon bucking beneath me as Yvan’s flame lashes around us to form a great, shielding orb, the advancing Mages and Shadow world cut from sight.

“Drop the wand, Elloren,” he commands, teeth gritted. “Hook into my fire power, force Vogel back, anddrop the wand.”

My mouth is forced into a cruel, mocking sneer as the Void presence inside me burgeons.“Beast,”Vogel wrenches from my lips, everything within me violently rebelling against the word.“Filthy. Winged. Beast!”

Yvan’s look of shock lasts for one unbearable second, swiftly replaced by one of lethally intent purpose, his eyes narrowing to two furious embers.

He lunges for me, and it all happens at once.

Vogel thrusts my wand hand upward, and power erupts from my wand in a silvery, bolting torrent. A roar explodes through my ears, the magic rushing out of my body in a shock wave of pain. Both Yvan and the fire-sphere surrounding us are blasted back by the burst of magic, my stomach heaving as he’s hurled across the sky along with the scattering of Vu Trin forces on this side of Trystan’s stormwall, Vogel’s Mage horde now positioned disturbingly low just over the rippling Shadow tide.

My bolt of power hits Noilaan’s shadowed dome and fans out over its expanse.

The dome breaks apart in a crackle of thunder, its Shadow rolling into silvery orbs of Shadowfire suspended all over the gray sky. The orbs solidify and luminesce, like hundreds upon hundreds of explosive moons.

Vogel’s surge of righteousness ripples through me as I read the zealous punishment he’s about to rain down upon this land. To punish the Noi for their Vo Goddess love festival. To make a deadly mockery of their adoration of Xishlon’s purple moon.

Yvan begins to wing his way back toward me from across the sky, eyes scorching, and I can feel Vogel’s smile as he pulls on my Shadow-corrupted earth power.

My stomach quails as Vogel hisses a spell and forces my arm down, pointing my wand toward the river below.

Power explodes through me with seismic force, my silent scream ripping through my lines with the brutal wave of magic, a dark branch spearing from my wand to violently impale the river below.

The branch slams down through the water and triggers the manifestation of a great column of Shadow. It surges upward through the Shadow tide, straight toward me, large as a Wyvernguard Island, colossal branches bursting from it as it rises.

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