Page 236 of The Dryad Storm

“You needsevento balance your magic and fully connect it to Oo’na’s Shard!” Yyzz’ra insists.

The Zhilaan Forest tugs on my lines, pulling my attention inward as dark wings flash through my mind, a bud of prismatic color pulsing in my center.

“We have seven!” I cry, lifting my free hand to cradle my abdomen. “I’m pregnant with a light sorcerer!”

Everyone’s eyes widen, surprise crackling through their remaining traces of power. Wasting no time, Wynter reaches for my free hand and I give it to her, her pale fingers closing in around mine as she reads both me and my spark of a child.

The silver Wyvernfire in Wynter’s eyes flashes brighter as she releases my hand and reverentially holds the Verdyllion out to me. “Your child is strongly anchored in both Forest power and every hue of light,” she says. “The Verdyllion wants to return to you, Elloren.”

A vortex of urgency balling in my throat, I take hold of the Verdyllion’s spiraling, multicolored form, feeling the arc of my whole destiny cycling down, the arc ofallour destinies cycling down, the Verdyllion’s prismatic tree expanding inmy mind, holding firm against the Void.

Wynter holds out her hand. “Elloren,” she says, the flame in her eyes blazing, “give me the Shadow Wand.”

I make no move to give it to her, suddenly overtaken by the realization that the Shadow Wand has ceased its attacks on my mind. It’s gone strangely silent and is now light in my hand, the sensation of a sly, siphoning line connecting its gray, spiraling form to the Void moons above taking hold.

My pulse skyrockets, and I yank the Shadow Wand farther away from Wynter to keep her from making contact with the evil tool as the Varg barriers flash a darker, all-encompassing gray. “Don’t touch it!” I cry. “It wants to tether your magic to the Void moons and turn you into a creature of Shadow!”

“I have to touch it, Elloren,” Wynter insists. “I need to link the Shadow Wand’s tethering Void tree with my empathy so we can take control of it.”

My mind races for some way to block the Shadow Wand’s siphoning power...

... and lights on a time that seems like a million years ago.

Tierney and I, in the Verpax University lab. Blocking magic with a distillate of concentrated Ironflower oil and vivid blue color.

My thoughts careen toward the stories inThe Book of the Ancients—how the prophetess Galliana used Ironflowers to fight demonic power, the myths all converging inthismoment...

My eyes swing toward Yulan. “We need Ironflowers. Can you latch hold of whatever remaining power you have to cover Wynter with them?”

A light sparks in Yulan’s eyes and she nods, the petite Dryad’s face tensing with an expression of great effort. She points her branch toward Wynter and wrests hold of the thread of power still under her control.

A flash of deep-blue light detonates around Wynter. Woven strands of glowing blue Ironflowers twine around her legs, torso, and arms, casting her in a penumbra of blue light.

Without further pause, Wynter holds out her hand for the Shadow Wand.

Pulse galloping, I hand it to her and she takes hold of the evil thing. Unwinding its leaf-cloth wrapping, she takes it directly in hand.

Wynter gasps and falls to her knees, her eyelids fluttering as the glow of the Ironflowers flash defensively bright, and I’m filled with the sense of her empathy touching down on the Shadow’s huge, branching Void tree.

Invisible Void branches knife toward Wynter’s core of silver fire but are stoppedup short by the Ironflowers’ blue aura, which is weaving protection around her magic. A whirling gray mist briefly slashes around Wynter’s form with surging might, but it’s unable to penetrate the blue.

Her delicate jaw set tight, Wynter rises with what appears to be great effort, the Shadow Wand held doggedly tight in her fist.

“The Seven need to make contact with the Verdyllion,” Wynter rasps out.

My allies huddle close, my heart pounding as I keep tight hold of the Verdyllion, and Marina, Sage, Gwynn, Mavrik, and Rivyr’el reach out to loop fingers around its spiraling form.

“Touch the Verdyllion to the Shadow Wand!” Wynter vehemently prods as she joins us in looping a finger around the Verdyllion, completing the seven points of power.

The full prism of color explodes across my vision, brighter than ever before, the Verdyllion’s power coursing around us all in a rainbow spray of sparks.

Wynter drags the Shadow Wand’s tip toward the Verdyllion, and the Wandscreams, its Void tree exploding into being inside me, impaling my mind with brutal force.

A cry escapes my lips, my legs buckling as Jules and Yulan grab hold of me and keep me upright, every color in the world around us pulsing to iron gray.

Heart hammering, I grit my teeth and fight through the pain as, together, we force the Verdyllion’s tip to the Shadow Wand’s.

The Wands make contact, and the V’yexwraith’s ratcheting shriek tears through both the air and my mind, the sound world-cleaving as I’m flooded with an empathic awareness of the Void tree’s entire branching network of control.

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