“Could it be the Verdyllion?” Flora asks Sylvan, her lilting voice shot through with astonishment. Surprise ripples through the Dryads’ collective power at her voicing of the Wand’s true name and I draw in a reflexive breath, the word like a balm to my soul.

The Forest’s Heart.

Hazel shoots Oaklyyn a poignant look. “Do you accept her now, Oaklyyn?”

Oaklyyn’s features twist with vitriol. “Never, Sylvan. I accept her never.”

Her words cut, but there’s no time to be thrown by her hostility. “What is the Wand, truly?” I press Sylvan, sensing an opening with him.

“That Wand,” he replies, “is a central line accessing all the power of the Forest.”

“Well, it sounds like we need to find that Wand,” Tierney announces, casting everyone a significant look. “And get ready for Vogel’s Shadow. Together.”

“There are a few things Vogel’s power can’t break through,” Yvan says to Sylvan, suddenly confiding in him like they’re longtime compatriots, his steady energy sparking a pained admiration in me. “Smaragdalfar varg runes, Wyvernfire, and your magic can beat back the Shadow,” he says.

“And since Vogel will come after his Black Witch,” Tierney adds, challenge in her tone, “we’d best link Elloren to the things that defend against Shadow, and fast. Along with everyone else.”

Yvan turns to me, eyes suddenly burning. “I know of one way,” he says, arcing his wings around us, a line of tension running through his fire. “Elloren,” he says, voice low, “our Wyvernfire bond—I think we should restore it.”

My own fire rears hot in response to the passion firing in his eyes and his flame. Conflict shudders through me. I shake my head. “Your fire bond...it’s not just some defensive ward. I know what it means to you—”

“It means I love you,” he insists, voice rough with feeling, his grip on my hand firming. “I’ve never stopped loving you. And I’m allied with you. Forever.”

Tears sheen my vision, grief rising as fierce love for both Yvan and Lukas blazes through my rootlines, shattering my heart and reforging it at the same time.

I can barely make sense of the turmoil storming through me. But I’m heart-wrenchingly certain of one thing that I know Lukas was certain of too—there’s no more time for anything but this fight and the fierce, unbreakable love in all our hearts.

I give Yvan a small kindred smile as our fires whip around each other with the full force of our emotions, the two of us having been through hell and back, over and over. And yet, here he still is, this Icaral I’m only just starting to know and understand, his love and friendship as blazingly fixed as a guiding star.

“Ariel told me we should subvert the Prophecy,” I confide, voice ragged.