Page 101 of The Dryad Storm

“We’ve got to go,now,” Rafe urges, and he and Yvan lock gazes. “Our forces are holding back both Western and Eastern Realm forces,all of themtrying to fight their way toward Elloren.”

“This shield won’t hold for long,” Vothe adds as the gray and sapphire explosions blasting against the fiery barrier gain potency, streaks of gray beginning to appear through it.

“Elloren, can you stand?” Yvan asks, his searing violet gaze triggering another rush of heat through our bond.

“I think so,” I shakily affirm.

He throws an arm around me and helps me to my feet, the pain in my arm and leg a fraction of what it was, the bones feeling more solid as I desperately look past the shield for some sight of Errilith or the rest of my flock. I close my eyes and search through my depleted lines for a trace of their aura and find it, all of them above us, encircled by our horde’s fire, hopefully with my Dryad’kin still tethered to their backs.

“My ravens and Dryad’kin,” I say to everyone, “they’re with Naga’s horde. Along with two Mages joined with Issani magic, all of them carried on the backs of my flock of giant Deathkin ravens. Our horde is shielding them.”

“Raz’zor,”Yvan calls, “I need you to carry Elloren and my mother out. I’ll cover you.”

An answering flash of affirming red blazes through our horde bond, and Yvan helps me climb onto Raz’zor’s broad back while Raz’zor continues to blast vermillion fire into our shielding.

“Kill the witch while you still can!” Soleiya snarls at Yvan.

Yvan casts his mother an incensed look before turning to Trystan. “You’ll need to bind my mother’s palms and gag her when you tether her to Raz’zor so she can’t attack Elloren with Lasair spells.”

Trystan nods once and sets about the task, both he and Yvan dragging Soleiya’s bound form toward Raz’zor as she calls for my immediate death and Trystan secures her palms against her sides.

“I’m evacuating you with mymate,” Yvan sharply informs his mother as he hoists her bound form onto Raz’zor’s back in front of me.

“She’s ensorcelled you!” Soleiya hurls back at him as Trystan lifts his wand to bind her to Raz’zor. “Look at what the witch has done to the color of your eyes and your fire!” Soleiya cries.

“I brought that aboutmyself,” Yvan shoots back, livid, as Trystan conjures a gag around Soleiya’s mouth. She growls against it, rhythmically slamming against me as best she can, as if striving to knock me clear off Errilith’s back.

Vothe fans out his wings. “We’ll need to draw in our shielding around us as we ascend!” he calls out to everyone just as a slight motion in the charred tree branch above me catches my eye.

I look up... and fear sizzles straight down my spine.

There’s a multi-eyed raven perched amidst the burned-up branches, a pale green eye in the center of its head.

Set right on me.

Vogel’s dark tree punches into my mind.

“Vogel’s found me!” I cry.

Ariel throws a bolt of fire toward the raven, and the multi-eyed creature lets out an unnaturally deepcawas it explodes into a ball of golden flame.

“Vogel will be bearing down on us in a matter of seconds,” Yvan warns.

Rafe gives him a grim look. “We got here by hijacking some of the magic of the Vu Trin sky portal. A Death Fae ally webbed two portals together and remained in the East to keep them bound. They’ve got a lag that’s only a few hours in length.We’re going to have to fight our way back to the portals, get through them, then destroy them before Vogel can follow us.”

“We’ve got to get my Dryad’kin to living Forest,” I stress, “before their rootlines completely wither. Or they’lldie.”

With a determined light in his amber eyes, Rafe turns toward the others. “Let’sgo,” he calls out as the explosions slamming against our shield turn seismic.

I lean forward over Soleiya’s bound, struggling form and grip Raz’zor’s pale shoulder horns as Vothe shifts to dragon form and Trystan leaps astride him, others pulling themselves onto the backs of eagles.

We take to the air, my allies drawing our fiery shield in close as everyone who can flows power into it and it takes on the appearance of a colorful glass bubble, the sound of explosions reverberating above us growing louder and louder as we rise through the Shadow storm.

We break through the storm’s uppermost reaches, and alarm skitters through everyone’s power as we take in how hemmed in my allies are.

Naga and our horde are positioned around us in a wide circle, blasting flames into an encircling wall of Wyvernfire, their powerful wings beating down on the air. Repeated blasts of Shadow power detonate against our horde’s shield from the south and the west while a section of the Vu Trin forces strike sapphire power at their shield from the east. I can just make out a larger section of Vu Trin in the far distance, the Eastern Realm soldiers engaged in fierce aerial battles with Vogel’s Shadow legions.

Relief stutters through me to find Hazel on ravenback, still in his terrifying Deathkin form, Oaklyyn before him. He’s sending visible lashings of his dark power into the Wyvernfire shield from the tips of the giant insectile limbs still sprouted from his back, my Errilor flock hovering near him, an unconscious-looking Sylvan and Yulan still secured to my ravens’ backs along with Mavrik and Gwynn, my Dryad’kin’s elemental auras drained to alarmingly wispy traces, Yulan’s heron kindred nowhere in sight.

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