Page 177 of The Dryad Storm

Hot flame shuddering through our bond, Yvan looks away, clearly as flustered as I am by this inconvenient flare of attraction in the middle of a religious debate. He glances sidelong at me, then full on, before reaching out to take my hands in his, my pulse quickening as he strokes the sides of my thumbs.

“If anyone can bring me to religion, it’s you,” he says, giving me a sultry smile as his touch trails sparks.

I swallow, my breathing uneven as want scorches through our bond. “If anyone can make me doubt everything about religion, it’s you,” I return.

“Maybe those are both good things,” he offers as he reaches up to caress my shoulder, the tension shifting as our fire bond flares hotter, an almost pained look overtaking his expression. “Elloren, I have loved you forso long...”

We draw each other close, his lips finding mine, and I let out an emotional sound as we deepen the kiss almost instantaneously. Heat sears through us both, my body arching against his. Yvan lets out a rough groan, his hold on me firming as his Wyvernfire spirals through me, flickering around every rootline in a sensual caress.

I pull him closer as his tongue twines with mine so enticingly, every troubled thought singes to ash, Yvan’s power fixed on me with the directness of a sustained lightning bolt as we careen blazingly fast toward a place of pure, love-fueledwant, my fingers knotting in his hair, then gripping one of his horns, his hands sliding tomy hips, holding me relentlessly close as I luxuriate in his kiss, ready to fuse with both him and his obliterating heat...

Hordefire blasts through us both, rattling our magic, the energy of a cataclysmic threat in it.

We break our kiss, startled, alarm surging through our fire.

“Can you sense where that’s coming from?” I gasp, the reverberating blast of horde power so potent it seems like it’s coming from everywhere at once.

Breathing hard, he tenses his brow, his nostrils flaring. “I can sense its origin point in the Dyoi Forest,” he says. His gaze snaps back to mine.

Unspoken agreement flashing through our bond, we grab tight hold of each other, and Yvan thrusts his wings down, soaring us both into the air before he angles us down over the Dyoi Forest canopy. The fiery burn of threat rises, my sense of our full horde’s fire growing stronger and stronger as we descend through the canopy and fly into a large clearing.

Our entire horde is there, including Oaklyyn and Raz’zor, all of the Wyverns, save Naga, in dragon form.

In a semicircle around Ariel.

Ariel’s wings are held stiffly out, her black-clad body crouched low to the ground. Her form is coiled with tension, a feral look on her face that I haven’t seen in a very long time.

We land beside Naga. Her gold-blazing eyes are fixed on Ariel, her wings fanned out to their full breadth, the entire horde’s fire simmering, low and careful. Confusion tightens my gut as I take in how Ariel’s eyes are spitting fire at their edges. Off-kilter fire. Her teeth are bared in a threatening snarl, her mouth trembling around it.

My chest contracts with alarm as I register the grayed nilantyr plants spread around her, thick with dark berries.

And the multi-eyed raven perched on the branch just above her.

Outrage spasms through me as I realize this is Vogel’s doing. He led her to the Shadow-infused berries via this corrupted winged. To destroy her, like he and his forces tried to destroy her with nilantyr in the Valgard prison.

In an attempt to turn her into a Shadow weapon.

I’ve never felt such fury and terror and desperate all-consuming desire pounding through Ariel’s power as intensely as I do right now, her emotions so violent I’m almost blown back from them, the feel of her misery so acute, for a moment I canbarely pull in a breath, the dangerously addictive berries the worst possible weapon anyone could deploy against her.

It all comes roaring back—how we almost lost Ariel, more than once, to nilantyr’s powerful addiction. How it almostbrokeher...

“Ariel,no...” I rasp as both Yvan and I lurch toward her, ready to force her away from the cruel drug.

“Stay back,” Naga hisses, halting our steps. “She needs to stand her ground against it and againsthim.” She gestures toward Vogel’s multi-eyed raven, and I understand immediately why no one is throwing fire at the raven. If Ariel is spooked, she might eat the berries, and if she eats even one, she’s lost to us.

Ariel hisses viciously, a lethal growl erupting from her throat as she springs up and lunges threateningly toward Naga, who immediately shifts to dragon form, not retreating an inch.

And then it starts.

Yvan and Naga send a stream of invisible hordefire into Ariel, its flow powerfully embracing.

Ariel flinches back as if struck and falls into a teeth-snapping crouch.

But she doesn’t block their flame.

Opening up a gap in the tortured blaze of her power, Ariel accepts their fire’s flow, Naga’s and Yvan’s gold and violet power blazing around her out-of-control firestorm with encircling support. I join my fireline to theirs, gooseflesh prickling my skin as the heat of our entire horde rises and we send out our fire to her as one.

Ariel cries out, her neck craning back as she falls to her knees. Tears sting my eyes as she scrabbles to take hold of the berries surrounding her, a teeth-gritted sob choked from her throat. The sound guts me. In all the time I’ve known her, I have never once heard Ariel cry.

---