Page 186 of The Dryad Storm

Hurt crackles through Trystan’s power—hurt that I know Vothe can sense. Vothe lets out a low growl, his power flashing embracingly around Trystan.

Rivyr’el lets out an incredulous huff from beside me, then reaches up to massage his porcelain-pale temple as he shoots me a tight look. “You Gardners certainly have a penchant for Realm-upending romance.”

I glance toward Rafe and Diana, then toward Wrenfir and Hazel, who are eyeing Vothe’s father and brother and Quoi Zhon with deathlike calm, their arms slung defiantly over each other’s shoulders along with Hazel’s misty, looping Darkness, a sharp headache starting to pound against my temples.

Vothe is unmoved, threads of his power now visibly crackling around Trystan as he stares his father down. “Elloren was ensorcelled by Marcus Vogel when sheattacked Voloi.Read her, Father. Do you sense a threat?”

Vothe’s father and brother glare at me, nostrils flaring. The energy of confusion forks through their power as they struggle to unearth some shred of treachery.

And find none.

Yulan steps forward with her heron, heartbreaking concern in the graceful Tree Fae’s eyes. “We Dryad’khin stand ready to fight for both the Forests and the people of the Eastern Realm.”

Quoi Zhon looks Yulan disdainfully up and down. “We don’t need you in our fight, Dryad. Noilaan is for theNoi. We’re reclaiming the East and walling off what the West has wrought with our own storm power!”

Shock blasts through my bond to Yvan, as well as through my entire horde’s fire and my allies’ magic, in response to Quoi Zhon’s xenophobic line in the sand, the ramifications dire.

“You can’t wall off what’s coming by yourselves!” Vang Troi insists.

Quoi Zhon shoots her a look of blistering disgust. “Don’t tell us what we can and can’t do,vill’duur.”

The koi’lon rune Valasca marked behind my ear translates the Noi word—traitor.

The whole world briefly pulses Dark.

“Nature doesn’t acknowledge your boundaries,” Hazel seethes, his subterranean voice shot through with a terrifying aura of warning, a hissing viper appearing around his shoulders. “Naturemocksthem. Deathmocksthem. You think your walls can keep me and my Deathkin out if you force aReckoning? You think you can wall out the Shadow Void when it comes for you? The only way to avoid a Reckoning and defeat the Shadow is by standing together.Right now.Aligned with theForest.”

Quoi Zhon flashes Hazel a rattled look before she turns to Yvan, her expression tilting toward hesitant. “Nor Yvan Guryev,” she says, “breakwith this witch and this madness. The Prophecy still speaks of your rise.”

Yvan’s invisible fire simply roars more passionately around me. “Elloren and I reject your Prophecy readings. We are united and bound by Wyvernfire as mates.”

Shocked sounds burst from Quoi Zhon, Hizar’drile, and Gethindrile.

“She isnotyour full mate,” Hizar’drile spears out. “I scent only a partial bond, not a consummated mating. Cast this witch aside! You are fated towarwith her!”

“Fallon Bane is the Black Witch poised at the East’s doorstep,” Yvan hisses. “She’s the witch we need to align against.”

“Nor Quoi Zhon,” Mavrik petitions from where he stands beside Gwynn, their golden-fastmarked hands joined in a tight clasp, “you know of my work for the Vu Trin. Our stated aim to forge a unified force with the East is atrue one.”

“Enough,”Quoi Zhon snaps with a venomous glare. “I suspected you were a traitor all along, Glass. A Crow never changes its feathers.”

“Well,Iam not a Crow.” Yvan’s mother’s voice rings out.

We all turn as Soleiya makes her way forward, eyes afire. Quoi Zhon, Vothe’s father and brother—their eyes all widen at the sight of her, their powerful auras rearing with shocked energy.

“Nor Soleiya Guryev,” Quoi Zhon murmurs, dipping her head in a reverential greeting.

Soleiya regally lifts her chin, her invisible fire whipping around Yvan and me with a passionate, embracing force. “Nor Quoi Zhon. Nors Hizar’drile and Gethindrile Xanthile,” she formally greets them. “You all know of my sacrifice at the end of the First Realm War.” Her face tenses with a look of grief, a slight tremor to her words when they come. “You know how my husband, Valentin Guryev, sacrificed his life to save the East from the Black Witch’s reign of fire. And how I have labored and fought with the Western Realm Resistance foryears.”

Both Yvan’s invisible fire and mine blaze around her, and Soleiya gives us both a poignant glance before turning back to Quoi Zhon, Hizar’drile, and Gethindrile. “At first,” she says, “I, too, wanted nothing more than to strike Elloren down. But then I listened to my son, and I listened to the trees. And finally, I listened to Elloren. She is truly not the Black Witch we need to fight. She is now Elloren Guryev. My ally and kin. As areallof these Dryad’khin.” She sweeps her hand toward both me and all our allies.

Quoi Zhon’s and the Wyverns’ reverential looks careen into sheer outrage, but Soleiya remains undaunted.“If you siphon up the elemental power of the Dyoi Forest and Zonor River with your storm band,” she warns, “you will bring such damage to Erthia’s Natural Matrix you will not only destroy our Dryad’khin power but bring about the destruction of your own, as well. Ibegof you, in the name of my husband, Valentin Guryev, the Great Icaral who died for the East—let us speak to the leaders of the East before you do this thing and tip Nature’s Balance toward the Shadow’s triumph.”

I hold my breath, my pulse tripping over itself as Quoi Zhon and the Wyverns exchange conflicted glances.

Quoi Zhon straightens, her gaze shifting to Gethindrile. “Send word to our aligned forces to hold back our storm band,” she orders. “We will escort Soleiya Guryev, the Great Icaral, and their allies to Noilaan’s Vo Conclave.Allof you will come, including the witch, who will travel there, unarmed, withme. Or we will release our storm band as planned.”

Yvan’s invisible flame turns incandescent as a protest rises in my throat over the thought of being brought to a hostile Wyvernguard, unarmed, but I squelch it. Given what transpired the last time I was in Voloi, this is my only way back. I sense the same line of thought warring through Yvan before settling into a low seethe.

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