Page 250 of The Dryad Storm

“Hello, Damion,” Aislinn says.

Her tone catches him off guard. It’s so lacking in inflection. Devoid of the tremor it used to hold when she was under his control.But she’ll be under my control in a moment, he considers as binding power fills his wand. Because Lupines might be immune to Mage magic, but they aren’t immune toShadowmagic. And she’s soveryalone.

Damion’s blood heats.

Oh, he’s going to savor breaking her once more.

“My fastmate,” he croons before subtly flicking his wand, Shadow vines lashing toward her...

... to flick against nothing as she’s gone in a blur, his wand suddenly wrested from his hand and his vines colliding with the tree Aislinn is no longer in front of, binding tight to its trunk.

Every nerve sparking, Damion spins as a blur races around him and Aislinn appears, once more, where she previously stood, his wand now in her hand. Those wild amber eyes pinned unblinkingly on him.

A sudden creeping tingle coils through Damion’s spine, and his skin bristles with a sense of the situation shifting...

But then he remembers how weak she is. How pathetic. How easily browbeaten.

“You can’t wield it,” he chides as he stares her down, gesturing with a flick of his fingers toward the wand. He grins at her, the sheer force of his domineering aura always enough to gain the upper hand. “Which means you’ll have tofightme.”

But that stare of hers. That unnerving, amberstare.

“I promised myself that I would never touch you nor be touched by you again,” Aislinn states, calm and cold as deep winter.

Some of Damion’s fear uncoils. “Good, good,” he says, his throat thick, relief loosening his lungs as he plans his attack...

“Buttheymade no such promise,” Aislinn says as several black dragons slide into view from every side, moving as silently as Aislinn did through the Void Forest’s dense fog.

Damion’s breath catches in his chest.

Because the nearest dragon... heremembersthis one. The giant black one that he couldn’t break. Even after he smashed her wing and leg. Even after he tore off her ear and ate it in front of her.

The huge dragon snarls, the sound rumbling straight down Damion’s spine as his eyes snag on the piercing green gaze of a leaf-hued Amaz carried on the back ofanother incoming dragon. Damion’s alarm intensifies.

Alder Xanthos... the Dryad Amaz.

A purple eagle with a charred wing perched on her shoulder.

“Do you remember me?” Alder asks, tone harsh. A flock of giant eagles with saffron feathers emerge from the dense Forest, their golden eyes all pinned on him with looks of keen, predatory interest. “Do you remember Azion, my eagle kindred, whom you murdered?” Alder inquires.

Damion takes a step back. “Aislinn,” he says, cursing the tremor that’s entered his voice, his throat tightening against it as something new blurs in from the fog.

Diana Ulrich appears before him, standing beside Aislinn. Diana’s stance is casually powerful as she surveys his entire form, head to toe, with merciless Lupine eyes.

Like she’s sizing up a meal.

“So,” Diana says as she raises her hand and flexes it. “I was told you hurt my sister.” She flicks her claws out with audiblesnicksas she gives Damion a smile that’s so chilling, his insides turn to liquid.

“Aislinn,” he pleads, taking another step back, “you can’t let them do this...”

Aislinn turns and walks away as Diana’s growl tears through the Forest, Naga’s roars shake the world, a ripping, slashing noise sounds... and Damion Bane begins to scream.

Chapter Eleven

Geomancer Dryad

Or’myr Syll’vir

Northern Vo River

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