Page 84 of The Demon Tide

“Trystan,” the Mage says, his tone one of immense relief as his vast water power encircles my brother with protective force. “Lucretia just brought word of the kraken attack. They said you didn’t report to Vothe, so...” His dazzling gaze slides toward me and catches hold. “Who’s this...” His eyes flick to the runic blade in my hand, then toward the outside terrace and the incoming military skiffs, then back to me as if rapidly piecing it all together.

Another wave of his ocean aura slams into me.

I gasp and recoil back, his magic inundating my lines with titanic force.

His eyes widen, and then, just like that, his power aura vanishes. I double over, catching my breath, realizing, with vast surprise, that he must be a power empath, like me.

The Mage turns toward Trystan and smiles, catlike. “Sheathe your wand, Trys,” he directs as my brother’s aura spits out a discordant array of invisible lightning. “You’re going to go out there and report to them,” he directs, smooth as satin. “I’ll come with you.”

“Who are you?” I rasp while Trystan slowly and carefully resheathes his wand, my brother’s gaze pinned on the outside.

“Fain Quillen, my dear,” the Mage says with that same exaggerated calm. “And I suggest that you stay right where you are. Or war will break out on this very terrace. And we’ll all be killed. Do you understand me, love?”

I nod jerkily as Fain and Trystan exchange one piercing look, my brother’s throat bobbing as he swallows before his expression goes carefully blank. Fain nods, opens the door, and they stride onto the terrace together.

I wait, feeling suspended in time, as muffled voices sound in the Noi language, dampened by the stone walls and thick windows—a woman’s authoritative tone, stern and staccato; Fain’s convivial response followed by Trystan’s matter-of-fact one and Vothe’s emphatic deep bass; Fain’s amused laugh. The woman’s reply, edged in sarcasm, then amusement as Fain laughs again, and then the motion of the blue rune light arcing and leaping on the walls turns even more frenetic as the roar of magically consolidated wind blasts through the stone and glass. The frenzied sapphire light shifts and slants...then rapidly fades to nothing.

Fain strides back into the foyer, and in one graceful movement eases to one knee before me with a look of piercing concern.

“Where’s Trystan?” I anxiously ask.

He cuts me off by patting the air, as if attempting to assuage my worries. “Reporting in with Vothe. He’s fine. It’s a formality.” His gaze turns a bit liquid as he peers more closely at me. “Ancient One... Elloren, you look just like your father.”

The door across the foyer swings open, and Lucretia Quillen bursts into the room along with a swooshing rush of her Level Four water aura. “I saw the rune light,” she says to Fain, tone shot through with urgency. “Is Trystan all right...”

Her gaze slides to me and holds there, her water power stilling as she scrutinizes my grayed features and I gape at her change in appearance. It’s almost as extreme as Trystan’s in how wildly she’s veered away from Gardnerian. Her conservative Styvian Mage sect blacks are gone, replaced by an emerald Noi tunic over dark green pants. A large indigo dragon is embroidered down her garb’s side, a wand fashioned from purple wood sheathed at her hip. A series of sapphire metallic hoops edge her ears and her long black hair is pulled back into a more Noi style of coiled braids. Her gold-rimmed spectacles the only thing left unchanged.

Her water power eddies toward me. “Elloren?” she breathes out.

“Vogel can break down runes,” I blurt out to them both with no preamble. “Allrunes. He has the Shadow Wand of Myth. And its power...it’sdevastating. He knows where I am and what I am and I think he’s tracking me through my fastlines. He’s coming for me. He’s coming for the entire Eastern Realm.” My bone-deep exhaustion suddenly breaks over me and I wrestle against it. “I have what I think is the Zhilin...the Wand of Myth. And it’s given me true aim. But my power...it’s been bound up by the forest.” My voice splinters with a wrathful frustration. “I need my magic unbound, andquickly.So I can fight Vogel and rescue my fastmate. He’s been taken prisoner by the Mages.”

Fain and Lucretia exchange a look as the remembrance of Lukas bound and beaten opens up the ground beneath me, no solid purchase anywhere.

“When did you last eat or sleep?” Fain asks.

“There’s no time for it,” I insist, fisting my blade’s hilt, every muscle battered and bruised. “Vogelis coming—”

“Let him try.” Fain cuts me off, voice harsh. He sweeps his hand around. “This whole lair is warded and so is the airspace around it. And we have enough Mages of power here to give him a run for his money.” He gestures toward the Voloi Range’s peaks. “There’s also a small Vish’nile dragon horde at the top of this mountain that I’m onexcellentterms with. Vogel, on the other hand, has forces that are currently massing on the western edge of a vast desert. They’re a problem, to be sure, and perhaps a bigger one than we thought, but not an immediate one.” Fain rocks back on his heels, a calculating glint in his eyes. “Vogel’s army needs at least a month to cross that distance, my dear. Assuming he can strike down every last storm band with nothing but a wave of his fancy wand.”

I huff out a desperate sound. “Counton it.”

“I am,” Fain says, another wave of his oceanic power rippling around me.

“Are you in the military?” I ask.

Fain smiles, as if this should be obvious. “The Vu Trin navy. With your friend Gareth Keeler.” A fond look crosses his features. “I’ve known Gareth since he was a babe.”

There’s no time to wonder at how Fain Quillen knows my childhood friend, the urgency in me running too hot and chaotic. “There’s notime to waste.”I insist, growing desperate. “I don’t know where Vogel has my fastmate. I have tofindhim...”

Fain reaches out to grip my shoulder and I let out a wavering exhale as his water power rushes through my tangled lines with steady, soothing force. “We’re going to help you, and we’ll locate your fastmate.” He gently places his other hand on mine. “You’re with family now, love.”

I hold his steady gaze as tears glaze my eyes and a dizzying upswell of emotion overtakes me.

Fain smiles, great kindness in his expression. “Welcome home, Elloren.”

CHAPTER SIX

KIN

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