Page 86 of The Dryad Storm

The excruciating burn through my rootlines swiftly reduces to a tingling scald, and my thoughts clear. Yvan draws his lips from mine, his eyes brighter than I’ve ever seen them, gold and red flames leaping through the violet, a small, glowing star newly emblazoned at the base of his neck.

“What just happened?” I barely manage to say, throat parched, mind whirling. “What’s on your neck?”

He hisses out a series of Wyvern words then catches himself, his face tensing as his teeth return to their regular shape, my heart racing in my chest.

“It’s a Western Wyvern horde mark,” he says in Dryadin, reaching up to brush his fingertip along the base of my neck, his touch trailing sparks. I glance down, catching the glow of the flaming star emblazoned on my skin, as well. “We’ve been connected to a large horde,” he explains. “Naga’s horde. Which means they can track us both. They’re winging infast.”

Panicked birdsong rises in the air, a whole sea of birds crashing through the Northern Forest canopy in agitated flight, their wings a beating storm as they flee northeast.

A vision of Vogel’s Void tree punches into my mind and I flinch, just as a band of dark gray appears on the southern horizon, rising over the Caledonian Mountains. It rapidly enlarges, dark lightning pulsing through its expanse, a wave of unnatural storm power emanating from it.

My alarm skyrockets. “It’s a Shadowed storm band,” I warn as a punishing breeze kicks up, my ravens and Yulan’s heron darting down through the branches beside us, my line of connection to Errilith suddenly urging medown.

“The fire in that lightning...” Yvan says, nostrils flaring. “It’s allwrong.”

The storm band begins to barrel down the mountains in a gray tide.

Alarm blasts through III’s elemental aura and radiates out toward the entire surrounding Forest, a wave of Dryad power flashing through me from below.

Yvan’s gaze swings to mine, our joint flame surging into a chaotic blaze.

“We need to get to the Dryads,now,” I urge as I take hold of the living branch sheathed at my side, a sense of its connection to my entire Forest surging through my rootlines and washing over me the moment I take it in hand.

Ferocity sweeping across his features, Yvan throws his arms around my waist and launches us both into the air. I cling to him as he angles down toward the canopy, my pulse tripping over itself.

Before we soar through the canopy’s upper reaches, two huge translucent green dome-shields burst to life above and around the entire Northern Forest, one inside the other, the inner shield marked with Dryad runes, the outer marked with Varg wards.

The image of Vogel’s Void tree punches into my mind once more, and I cry out as Shadow thunderboomsthrough the air and Vogel’s storm band races toward the domes’ southern edge in a roaring tidal wave of Forest-decimating power.

Chapter Six

Oo’na’s Roots

Gwynnifer Glass

Northern Forest Sublands

Eighteen days after Xishlon

“You two look like you ate a bunch of rainbows,” Valasca archly comments.

A flush warms Gwynn’s cheeks as she and Mavrik stare down the line of Dryad dome-shielding runes, the Verdyllion in Gwynn’s hands. The primordial Varg barrier rune hangs suspended, emerald bright, before the row of Dryad runes.

Mavrik’s muscular body is pressed to Gwynn’s back, his hands clasped around hers, her flush stoked hotter as she thrills to his power-amplifying proximity. Gwynn knows Valasca’s humor is kindly meant, the Amaz warrior prone to outrageous commentary to diffuse the near-constant tension. But still, she finds herself hyperaware of the color shimmering over her lips and body as well as Mavrik’s, the two of them lit up with a riot of glowing, swirling hues everywhere they touched when they so recently joined.

Even their hair is streaked with lingering color.

“Wedevouredall the rainbows,” Mavrik tosses back at Valasca, his hands tightening slightly around Gwynn’s in a private, affectionate squeeze. “And they weredelicious.”

Shocked amusement bubbles up in Gwynn as Valasca barks out a laugh. Gwynn returns Valasca’s smile, even quiet Sparrow’s and Rhys’s lips lifting as Yyzz’ra, Gavryyl, and Valkyr maintain their ever-present scowls. Cael and Mynx look on silently, their arms encircling each other, and Wynter a quiet presence beside them, the two Agolith Flame Hawks perched on her shoulders.

Gwynn chances a glance at Mavrik, and he winks at her. “Ready?” he asks.

Gwynn nods, her memory of the past few hours expanding. She and Mavrikpracticed the unlocking sequence of spells several times before returning here, the two of them near drunk with amplified light power after their coupling.

“Everyone will know what we’ve done,” Gwynn worried when they’d readied themselves to rejoin the others, feeling a bit like a criminal as the pleasurable tingle of light magic danced over her lips and body, their love bond a bright, unmistakable beacon.

Mavrik simply reached up to caress her cheek with exquisite gentleness before pulling her in for a deep kiss that set off another explosion of multihued light through Gwynn’s every line.

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