Page 206 of The Demon Tide

My pulse quickens further.

Footsteps sound to my left and I turn my head a fraction as a rangy young Dryad strides into view. He radiates intensity, like hot oil crackling in a pan. He doesn’t look at me. His harsh, masculine face is set straight ahead with an expression of fervent purpose. His forest green skin is coated with a patina of deep-green glimmer, his pine-bough hair gathered behind his back, compact branch horns growing from his scalp. His bark-plate armor is fashioned from thick, pressed leaves that seem melted together. A crossbow hewn from irregular wood hangs from his back and a variety of branches are sheathed at his waist, each imbued with a deep-green glow. His severe demeanor and potent aura of elemental power sends a chill down my spine.

Vogel’s entrenched power digs deeper, gouging painfully into my lines, a rasping cough forced from my throat. The Shadow...it’s so strong. Coursing through me as if it were never driven out. As if Lukas, Yvan, and I had never fought back against him at all.

The memory of the triumphant look on Lukas’s face before he blew up the mountain and himself to save the realm grips hold of my mind, grief seizing my throat with choking force as the terrible thought breaks through—

Everyone’s sacrifices will be meaningless if Vogel regains hold of me.

Devastation crushes my chest, the nightmare of Vogel forcing me to impale Yvan’s wings accosting me. How I mercilessly pinioned him, the fire stripped from his eyes as he plummeted toward the Shadow tide, his shredded wings fanning out like ripped cloth.

Carved open by a gutting anguish, I slide further into Vogel’s abyss, realizing it’s only a matter of time before he regains full control. I know Lukas and Yvan would urge me to fight to the end, but I’m certain there’s only one way to prevail now.

My power must be destroyed.Imust be destroyed.

And I need these captors of mine to do it.

I look at the rangy young soldier as Vogel’s fierce hatred of him crackles through me like a jolt of lightning. Perhaps sensing my attention, the branch-horned Dryad turns and sets his furious gaze on me.

Black Witch, the trees pulse damningly, their condemnation echoed in his livid stare.

“Vogel’s about to control me,” I rasp out to him, and I’ve a sense, through the static rush through his power, of his blistering outrage at hearing me speak.

A hard blow to the back of my head sets stars flashing in my eyes. I cry out, a voice behind me growling something vicious in a language that’s dry and crackling, like autumn leaves scraping against each other. A language that could camouflage itself inside the sounds of the forest. I wrench my head to look over my shoulder, straining to see who leveled the blow.

Another Dryad soldier is glaring at me—a young woman with an athletic build and long green hair woven into buns, oak branches dotted with acorns emerging from them, a deep-brown wolverine stalking next to her. She bares her teeth and lifts a River Oak staff marked by a spiraling, green glow, looking like she’s getting ready to rain another blow upon my head. She barks something at the rangy young man, and he snaps back.

“Did you hear me?”I cry out at them both.

My outburst seems to startle them. They collectively slow to a stop, studying me with deep wariness as I hang suspended.

“The Gardnerian leader, Marcus Vogel, isinside me!” I warn. “He has a Shadow Wand and he’s taken control of my power. He wants to kill everyone who isn’t a Mage and take over all the Realms. So,don’t let me get near wood!”

The rangy soldier lunges toward me, grabs the net, and yanks my head up.“Be quiet,”he demands in heavily accented Common Tongue. “You will bequiet, Black Witch.”

I gape at him, startled by his use of my language. His other fist tightens around his crossbow’s strap, and I dizzily wonder if he plans to use the weapon on me.

He releases the net, and my head falls against the twine. Then he steps back, still glaring at me as thoughts of Ariel rise.

“The Icaral who was coming for me,” I demand of him, “what did you do to her?”

He glares at me, incensed. “She was freed.”

A trace of relief shivers through my breath, only to be rapidly overtaken by my hellish reality. “You need to kill me before Vogel comes,” I insist. “He’s tracking me again. He’ll track meright here—”

Another violent blow to my ribs silences me as the oak-branch-festooned soldier draws back her staff and barks out something in the Fae tongue.

Black Witch!A torrent of the Forest’s fury lashes out alongside her belligerant words and I realize that it was likely the trees that led these Dryads to me.

“Have done with it and destroy me!” I cry at the woods and the Dryads both as Vogel’s Shadow tightens around my power. “Vogel’s forces arecoming!”

The angry woman pummels my side again and yells something harsh.

I force my head toward her, not caring when the rough net scrapes at my face. “You think Iaskedfor this?” I yank my head back toward the fierce-eyed young man, unable to hold back my devastation. “You think I want to be thisevil power?!” I rage, spittle flying from my mouth as Shadow power spasms through me. “Idon’t! And I tried to fight them!”

Indecision flickers in the rangy soldier’s eyes, but then the gray glow to my vision intensifies as Vogel forces my mouth into a chilling snarl. The Dryad’s eyes widen with horror, his livid expression returning. He waves everyone forward and, once again, we move through the Forest.

“Where are you taking me?” I eventually ask him, my voice constricted by the descent of a terrified resignation.

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