Page 99 of The Dryad Storm

My heart hammering, I glance back up and take in the next wave of Shadow soldiers swarming toward us from the west. The feel of a Shadow storm rising in legions of wands overtakes my power-empath senses. I open my mouth to call out a warning just as potent roars split the sky to the east—the roars ofunbrokendragons.

My gaze whips east, and surprise explodes through me.

A horizontal tear in the distant sky has burst into being, its golden interior rimmed with the blue glow of Noi runes—a sky portal!—a dragon-borne army streaming through it.

Naga! Raz’zor!I mentally scream, frantically searching for their black and white winged forms, rooting around my diminished fireline connection to them for some sense of their hordefire as the incoming army soars into sharper view—noneof the incoming dragons moon white, most black, some sapphire...

Vu Trin!

My pulse leaps as I remember the warning in Raz’zor’s fire of Vu Trin forces coming to kill the Black Witch.

A smaller sky portal blips into being, connected to the side of the larger portal, a compact airborne force soaring in, not astride dragons... but riding giant eagles the color offire.

My dread slides into jagged panic, the multitude of forces all converging on us as I sense Vogel’s army releasing their power. I whip my head back as a band of churning gray bursts into being before the Shadow army and pummels toward us.

Yvan lashes out a long wall of violet fire, but the Shadow storm roars straight through it, blasting away Yvan’s flame before slamming into us. I cry out as Errilith and I are hit by a gust of wind, the two of us hurtled through the air, all sight cut out as we’re enveloped in the churning tempest.

I grab hold of Errilith’s feathers as the sky spins, my pulse exploding. Errilith lets out a greatCAW, my kindred’s wings flapping wildly against the storm in a desperate attempt to right us as we pinwheel through the storming gray, down toward the tops of the charred trees below.

A bolt of golden fire spears through the tempest and slams into my side, hot pain lancing through me as I’m hurled clear off Errilith and into a terrifying free fall, Errilith sending out another frantic cry before he’s swept from my vision. A split-second rush of confusion bolts through my terror as I plummet, because I’ve an intimate knowledge of the fire that hit me—it’s Yvan’s flame, only shifted back to its original golden hue.

But... why would Yvan attack me?

I hit the ground, pain exploding along my side, stars streaking across my vision as the bones in my left arm and leg snap.

Buffeted by fierce winds, I cast my pain-blurred gaze wildly about, all sight cut off by the churning gray save for the spectral forms of the closest dead trees rising from the Shadowed earth, no sign of Errilith. Gritting my teeth, I force myself up, the booms of magical warfare sounding above, blue and gray explosions cutting through the gray, dragons roaring and shrieking.

“Yvan, I’m here!” I cry, just as another bolt of his inexplicably gilded fire spears through the gray and hits my chest, my breath struck from my lungs as I’m skidded back across the smoking ground.

“Stop!” I shriek, frantic with alarm.

A blurred figure takes shape, advancing purposefully toward me through the whipping storm, a vengeful hatred rippling through their fire aura. A figure that isnotYvan.

My eyes widen as I realize who it is—Soleiya Guryev, Yvan’s mother, her eyes lit with a murderous golden glow.

“I’m not your enemy!” I cry, raising both palms in protest as Soleiya lets out ateeth-gritted snarl, thrusts her gold-glowing palms toward me and bolts out impressive columns of fire.

Her attack slams into my chest and punches me back against a dead tree, the breath struck from my lungs once more as I burst into flames, my broken arm and leg screaming with pain, but my Xishlon garb that Or’myr magicked to be fireproof holding together. All sight is briefly cut off again by the roaring gold as Soleiya’s inferno is quickly and intentionally absorbed into my Wyvernbond to YvanbyYvan, his snarling fury over the attack shuddering through our bond’s flame.

Violet light blasts into being above me, and Yvan is suddenly soaring down into the clearing like a vengeful falcon and landing between his mother and me.

“What in all of Erthia’s hells are you doing?”Yvan roars at his mother, alight with outrage as a portion of his invisible fire aura encompasses my injuries.

Soleiya gapes at him, wide-eyed, love and relief searing through her power. “My son!” She takes a lurching step toward him. “Yvan, I feared this witch wouldkillyou!”

“Elloren is mybonded mate!” Yvan lashes back, his wings snapping threateningly out.

Surprise. Shock. Outrage. All of it flashes through his mother’s expression and fire power as she levels an incendiary look my way. “You gave thisevil witchyourWyvernfire?”

“I did,” Yvan snarls, his fire aura whipping protectively around me with such intensity that an aching love for him streaks through my pain. “If you kill mymate,” Yvan hisses, glancing up at the light-flashing explosions of the battle raging above, “I’ll be temporarily stripped of all my power. Do youreallywant that happeningright now?”

“You underestimate her capacity forevil!” Soleiya hurls back.

Before Yvan can refute her, a swarm of multi-eyed Shadow scorpios leap through the mist and scuttle toward us from all sides, letting out bloodcurdling shrieks.

Chaos erupts. Yvan and his mother blast back the incoming swarm with repeated explosions of violet and golden fire. I clumsily dodge the swinging forelimb of one scorpio and the lashing poisonous tail of another, cursing my lack of a weapon as Yvan’s and Soleiya’s forms are repeatedly obscured then swallowed by the churning gray.

The primal will to live spiking, I grit my teeth against the pain, turn toward the tree behind me, reach up and break off a charred Shadow-smoking branch, thenlevel it at an incoming scorpio as I grind out the light-strike spell.

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