Page 201 of The Demon Tide

Pivoting upward, we burst through the surface of the Shadow, and I catch a glimpse of the battle raging, Naga’s Wyverns and surviving Vu Trin slashing through Vogel’s forces throughout the Shadow-riddled sky.

A harsh, scuffing wind blasts over the battle scene, clearing the air. Breathless and grief-dazed, I spot Trystan on the back of a lightning-covered dragon, wand raised, the two of them taking out Mage after Mage with bolts of blue and silver lightning. A white streak speeds past him from the direction of the decimated mountains, and I pray that it’s Raz’zor with Or’myr and Sparrow on his back.

And then Naga sweeps into view, flying up from the Shadow tide, a young, red-haired Icaral male gripped in her talons, his body hanging limp, his wings shredded to dark ribbons.

Yvan!

My mind reels, fright blasting to life as I’m sped away from the chaos. Away from Yvan.

Because if that’s Yvan...then who’s holding me?

I twist in the stranger’s muscular grip, straining to see.

“Hold still, Black Witch!” a startlingly familiar voice snarls. The grip around me tightens, a small raven closing in beside us as I force my head around as far as I can.

Shock explodes. “Ariel!” I rasp out.

Ariel Haven.

Her glossy black wings beating down on the air.

Ariel.

Not dead at all.

But powerfully alive.

CHAPTER FIVE

WYVERNWINGS

Elloren Vogel

Vo Forest

“Ariel!” I choke out as she zooms away from the chaos, the raging war behind us rapidly reduced to muffled booms and puffs of bright light. Gray slashes across my vision as the images of Lukas blasting into gold and Yvan falling away from me replay in my mind, carving my heart open even as I realize, with mounting devastation, that Vogel’s hold on me is once more gaining ground.

Ariel soars over the grayed runic border, toward the night-darkened forest beyond, my panic cresting as Vogel’s power digs into me. Cast into internal war, I painfully contract my lines, desperate to flee from him and barely able to register Ariel angling us toward a clearing and descending. The trees’ dark canopy rises to meet us, the Forest’s hatred bearing down with suffocating weight as we land in a clearing and Ariel releases me.

I stagger, thrown off-balance, then wheel around to face her in the dark as tendrils of Shadow ripple back over my lines. The gut-wrenching reckoning strikes home—the only one who can drive Vogel from me with his Wyvernfire kiss has been decimated by my own hand—Yvan, lost to me, possibly slain.

And Lukas...

I can barely finish the thought, barely wrap my mind around the finality of it.

Gone forever.

Brutal, eviscerating despair grips hold and it’s hard to breathe around it, my emotions gutted as I struggle not to come unmoored.

A sudden burst of silvery-gold light illuminates the clearing and I flinch, a churning ball of flame hovering just above Ariel’s upturned palm, her raven kindred perched on her shoulder.

A dart of shock punctures my agony and for a split second, all I can do is gape at her.

She’s a marvel—strong, glistening wings fanning out from her back, her eyes burning gold with Wyvernfire. She’s filled out and more muscular now, her jaw seeming squarer, her black hair spiked, her fingers tipped with black talons. She has the same defiant gaze, but her eyes are no longer manic. Solid and strong, she positively radiates power, and I can sense the flame that’s coursing through her unimpeded.

A fire that burns with incredible heat.

Her fiery eyes give me the once-over, fierce concern in them. “You don’t look so good, Black Witch.”

---