Page 230 of The Dryad Storm

Further depleting mine.

My knees buckle, and I sink toward the ground, gasping.

Black Witch!the Zhilaan Forest growls to me, my kindred Forest’s warrior defiance so strong I can feel it pulsing out over the leagues and leagues of Void land between us, urging me to hold the line.

In a slash of brutal reckoning, I realize there’s only one way to fight back. Only one way to give the Zhilaan Forest another day to live. Only one way to give our incoming Dryad’khin army a chance to hold on to their Zhilaan-anchored power andfight back.

“I love you, Yvan!” I cry out as I bring my branch’s terminal point to my chest and draw on my last trace of magic as I prepare the vine strike.

“Elloren, NO!”Yvan roars out over the Shadowed expanse between us, my entire horde taking up the protest with spitting growls. Every spark Yvan can still wrest hold of crackles toward me, the ferocious love in it searing through me even as the bulk of his power is consumed by Vogel’s Shadow. Tears glassing my eyes, I begin to murmur the words to the spell that will impale my heart.

Dark wings flash into being in the back of my mind, and I freeze. A spark of unfamiliar, prismatic flame ignites low in my belly, its heatvolcanic.

My eyes widen, astonishment overtaking me for a split second as the dark wings pulse powerfully through my mind. Prismatic light sears through my vision, my firelines and bond to Yvan filling with multicolored flame, my body shuddering against it. And it’s not just flame...

It’s prismaticWyvernfire.

Black Witch, comes the Zhilaan Forest’s triumphant cry, its voice startlingly clear, the Zhilaan’s full elemental power suddenly flooding my lines and my branch via the prismatic flame in my center, as if I’m standing in the middle of the Great Nightwood Pine Forest instead of leagues away in a Shadowed wasteland.

Stunned exultation overtakes me, Erthia’s full, creative power of Life flooding my body, the fiery power of my bond to Yvan surging, the mating mark on my shoulder igniting with glorious potency.

As the miracle conceived in the Zhilaan Forest blazes to more intense life inside me.

Gainingfire.

The dark wings strobe against my mind once more, Vogel’s look of smug victory sliding into one of confusion, then shock as he takes in the gaze I have pinned on him, prismatic fire flashing through my sight as a tingle races over my skin, my deep-green, purple-branch-patterned hue returning in a rush.

Murmuring spells, I thrust my living branch forward at the same time Vogel levels the Shadow Wand at me, the full power of the Zhilaan Forest along with the surging prismatic Wyvern power in my core exploding through me.

A storm of elemental might blasts from my branch at the same time that Vogel sends out a countering stormwall of Void power. Our storms slam into each other, his curving lightning crackling against my riot of chromatic lightning.

Vogel’s wings beat against air, and he skids backward. The will to fight surging, I press forward and snarl out another series of spells the Zhilaan Forest is sending to me, while sensing Yvan drawing up a huge amount of fire power from our bond.

My gaze briefly flicks toward Yvan just as he springs to his feet and thrusts his palms outward.

The queen spider imprisoning him explodes in a huge ball of churning prismatic flame, his renewed fire blazing through our entire horde.

Naga’s roar splits the air as my horde mates blast the remaining spiders into churning balls of multihued Wyvernfire. Power roars through my bond to Yvan as I battle Vogel, the mating mark on my shoulder burning hotter as my wall of power gains potency. Yvan and the rest of the horde surge toward me as my storm blasts clear through Vogel’s in a spray of multicolored lightning, the air between Vogel and me rapidly clearing.

Vogel snarls at me, teeth elongated, a wild, silver-fire look in his eyes as he lifts the Shadow Wand and draws on the full force of his demonic power, and I murmur the spells the Zhilaan Forest is hurling out to me. We thrust our weapons forward, my spells clicking into place a split second before Vogel’s can engage.

Living purple branches spear from my wand and slam into Vogel, impaling him at multiple points. He’s punched backward, the Shadow Wand flying from his hand.

I lunge toward him and ready another spell, drawing from both the burgeoning chromatic fire in my core and the Zhilaan Forest’s power as Vogel lurches toward the Shadow Wand, gasping and clutching his chest, snatching the Wand from the Shadow-misted ground before I can reach him.

He levels the Wand at me, a cruel gleam in his pale eyes. “The Holy Magedom will rise against you,” he snarls.

“Then they’ll face our Dryad storm,” I snarl back as Yvan and our horde bolt out strikes of multicolored fire at Vogel, blasting the Shadow Wand far from his hand as I spear a large vine straight through his chest.

Vogel screams, his wings beating against the ground then stilling as his body begins to disintegrate, rapidly reduced to Shadow ash in the shape of a horned, winged figure singed into the ground.

I’m frozen in place, locked into stunned silence, the Prophecy finally come to pass. The Shadow fog closes in over Vogel’s charred remains, and I immediately cast my empathy out, picking up no sense of Vogel’s army advancing.

Yvan reaches me and throws his arms desperately around me, pulling me tight.

“Yvan,” I barely manage, trembling as I reach around to grip tight hold of him in turn. “Oh, my gods...Yvan.”

Emotion surging through us both, he draws slightly back to give me a searing look before his lips meet mine in an impassioned flash of fire that I eagerly return, clinging to him as our mating bond’s flame surges to new heights, black wings flashing through my mind again and again with heart-swelling vibrancy.

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