Page 94 of The Demon Tide

I force a deep breath as I struggle to stamp all the heartache down and Trystan retreats into quiet for a moment. He glances back out the window, at Vothe, my brother’s power straining toward the shifter. “What are you sensing in Vothe’s power?” he asks, tentative.

I look closely at Trystan. “He’s like a cyclone that wants to sweep you up.” I hesitate. “He’s in love with you, isn’t he?”

Trystan shakes his head and swallows. “I don’t know.”

We’re both quiet for a moment. “Are you in love with him?” I gently ask.

Trystan winces, as if his feelings are too difficult to acknowledge.

Tears are suddenly welling in my eyes, a pang forming, tight in my chest, over my brother’s obvious struggle, as my heart aches for all of us.

Valasca’s terrible words fill my mind, the heartache intensifying.

You will likely lose every last thing that’s precious to you. But you’ll lose those things so that others won’t have to.

“Trystan,” I say, my love for my brother making me bold. “Life is so short. And there’s so much danger coming for us all. If you and Vothendrile love each other...” I pause, smiling wryly at him through tear-glassed eyes. “I suggest you give in to it before you both erupt into a massive lightning storm and take down the whole city.”

Trystan’s eyes widen, his magic whipping around him in a chaotic mess. “There’s no way,” he says, a sharp hurt seeping into his voice. “Vothe’s family...they won’t even countenance a friendship. His brother... He visited him to warn him away from me. I can’t even enter Zhilaan, because I’m the grandson of the Black Witch. Their ruling conclave had me formallyshunnedfrom their lands.”

I narrow my gaze at him, undaunted. “Since when does love respect diplomatic pettiness? Someone wise once told me that.”

Trystan coughs out a laugh, his lip quirking. “A deeply wise brother, perhaps?”

“Asupremelywise brother.” I consider him closely, this brother who, in some ways, I feel like I’m just now getting to know. The brother who had to keep his true self hidden for so long. I lose my slight smile. “What happened, Trystan, when you came here?”

He exhales and gives me a look fraught with significance. “Oh, Ren. There’s a lot to tell.”

My brother fills me in on his journey East. His rocky entry into the Wyvernguard.

And he tells me about Vothendrile.

I can read in my brother’s words and his magery how intensely his feelings run for this shifter. And how, despite all the prejudice against Trystan, he’s finding a new life here—a place and culture and even a religion that he truly loves.

Conflicted tears well in my eyes, exhaustion fueling the rise of troubled angst.

Trystan stops speaking. “Ren, what’s the matter?”

“I’m not quite sure what I’m feeling. It’s just...in a way, you’ve found your place and you fit in here. You have Vothe, even though you think you don’t. And I feel like... I don’t belong anywhere.”

Trystan gives me a look of appraisal. “How do you think I felt for so many years? In a place I could never fit into? A place that hated me. With a religion that hated me. And then, at university, all alone while the rest of you paired up?”

“Maybe like this?” I grudgingly offer.

“Exactlylike this.”

“Iamglad you’ve found your place here, you know,” I tell him, heartfelt.

Trystan coughs out an incredulous laugh. “Ren, the Wyvernguard erupted intoprotestover my inclusion.”

“It’s clear, though, youhavefound your place.” I look him over. His kohl-rimmed eyes. The dragon tattoo snaking up his neck. His vivid blue hair and sapphire Wyvernguard uniform. And his circle of newfound family, so many of them possessing water magery just like him. “Whether you see it or not,” I say, “you seem like you truly belong in the Eastern Realm.”

Trystan tilts his head, as if acknowledging my point. “You do too, Ren. With me. With all of us.”

A bitter sound escapes me. “Even though I’m a complete and utter freak?”

Trystan’s mouth lifts. “Especiallybecause you’re a complete and utter freak. You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

I can’t help but spit out a beleaguered laugh. I peer at Trystan searchingly. “Vothendrile’s extremely handsome.”

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