Page 237 of The Dryad Storm

Monumentally strengthened.

“I can sense the Shadow’s linkage to every fasted Mage and Zalyn’or-controlled Alfsigr!” Wynter cries.

“Connect themallto our Forest,” Yulan urges as she and Jules keep hold of me, Yulan’s melodic voice shot through with the Forest’s own steel. “Connect them to the livingtrees.”

“More than that,” Jules Kristian insists, his hand closing in around ours, around the Verdyllion, “connect them to the power of Erthia’sentire history.”

“And the power the Watchers have woven through it,” Wynter rasps as the Watcher on her shoulder bursts into bright light that swirls around our hands.

Our lines and cores of power contract toward the Verdyllion, my lungs seizingas the Verdyllion pulls on our seven conduits of light power, Jules’s link to Erthia’s history, and the Watchers’ ethereal might, the Verdyllion’s power amplifying with the full force of III.

Light explodes through my vision once more as the Verdyllion’s amplified power whorls around the Shadow’s Void tree, coming close to breaking into its network of control before being stopped up short.

My urgency sliding toward desperation, I search for the weak link in our connection and quickly locate it.

The Verdyllion is unable to fully connect with the Zhilaan-anchored light power growing inside me.

The Verdyllion Wand flashes an image of Yvan through my mind at the same moment that every Varg barrier falls, and a cacophony of shrieks and roars rise, the Shadow army and its pyrr-demons launching into an attack of our frontline forces once more.

Alarm spikes as Yvan and the rest of my horde close in around us in a blur, facing outward, claws extended, the few sparks of Yvan’s power that remain under his control burning hot around our bond with the furious urge to protect.

Our eyes meet over my shoulder, his gaze a lethal green, alarmingly stripped of violet fire.

“Touch me!” I urge Yvan. “The Verdyllion needs to connect with both of us to fully engage with our child!”

Without hesitation, Yvan embraces me from behind, his arms wrapping around my waist, his hot form pressed tight against my back. As if on instinct, he presses his heated lips to the half-moon mating mark on my shoulder’s upper edge, sparks igniting through my lines.

Wings strobe against my vision, the contact with him instantly amplifying our threefold link to Zhilaan power, the magic streaming out into the Verdyllion, like water through a burst dam.

A dazzling flash of prismatic light momentarily cuts out my vision as the Verdyllion draws on all seven lines of power along with a line of Zhilaan might and overtakes the giant Void tree, clamping down on gray limbs with renewed force, the Shadow branches withering beneath the onslaught of chromatic might. I shudder against Yvan as the Verdyllion wrests hold of the branching Void network, sending a prismatic link through every fastline and Zalyn’or necklace, forming a connection with every fasted Mage and every Zalyn’or-imprintedAlfsigr, flooding them all with the Forest’s message and history, the Watchers’ light swirling around it all...

... gifting everyone with an invitation to abandon the Shadow and join with the surviving Natural World.

As one, united Dryad’khin.

The sea of Mage and Marfoir soldiers still and fall to their knees, those on multilimbed Shadow dragons slumping down.

My vision clearing, I spot a Mage in the distance who resembles Damion Bane, but it’s difficult to know for certain, my attention drawn skyward as the airborne Shadow dragons and wraith bats are pulled to the ground and bound there by prismatic lines of power, along with scorpios, other Shadowed beasts, and the pyrr-demons, their screaming chorus of snarls a transient disturbance as chromatic energy wraps around their mouths, the roar of battle vanishing.

“Stand down!” Vang Troi booms out to our forces, her voice echoing out across the Shadowed land’s expanse.

A weighted silence descends, my heart drumming against my chest.

The V’yexwraith’s screeching laugh bursts forth, echoing across the smoking wasteland and up to the sea of moons.

My gaze snaps skyward as the moons abruptly burgeon then blink to midnight gray, darkness swallowing the world, even the glow of Wynter’s Ironflowers dimming as the moons surge with power.

A swoop of light-headed horror threatens to overwhelm me.

The moons... they’re about to kill us all. And then, the V’yexwraith will rise and retake the Shadow Wand, wielding it to siphon every remaining speck of Life from Erthia.

My horror careens into defiant, white-hot fury.

“NO!”I scream as I force the Verdyllion toward the heavens, pulling everyone’s grips on it with my motion, as I blast what’s left of our merged power toward the moons.

A sky-flashing bolt of our prismatic light power detonates, spearing upward to glance harmlessly off the orbs before the moons’ gray darkness overtakes the world once more, our remaining magic siphoned out of our grasp to flow up toward the moons.

“Holy gods,” Gwynn stammers as my allies release their hold on the Verdyllion and panic threatens to choke me.

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