And there’s another thing, I breathlessly consider as I silently escort Trystan back to his room, scenting his flare of emotion. He’s attracted to me, and it’s strong.

“Thank you,” Trystan says, his tone stilted as he pauses in his doorway, his power volatile at the edges as it strains toward me. “For letting me see them.”

My own power kicks up into a turbulent mess in response to the level of gratitude in his eyes. I give him a tight nod, unable to formulate a response. Because there’s something undeniable building here that’s confusing and difficult to beat back.

So, for a brief moment, I give in. I hold Trystan’s gaze and breathe in his power as the door shuts between us.

CHAPTER FOUR

RIVER BOND RISING

Tierney Calix

The Wyvernguard
South Wyvernguard Island, Noilaan
Eastern Realm
Sixth Month

The next evening, Tierney is once more down by the Vo, leaning against the stone railing, the moon gleaming bright, her thoughts on Trystan and the fight to come. Waves splash over the terrace’s edge, lapping playfully at her feet, her boots and socks kicked off to allow the longed-for, rejuvenating connection.

The river’s smooth water feeds into her Asrai veins, and she breathes in deep, reading the Vo’s vast network of tributaries as easily as she can read her own Water Fae form. She stiffens, sensing a subtle trace of another power at the edge of that network, hovering to the west—an unnerving hint of Shadow near one of the distant streams. Poised, yet not infiltrating.

Not yet.

A flare of concern bubbles through Tierney, prompting a vow as her eyes fix on the West.

Make one move into my river’s waters, Vogel, and you’ll feel the full wrath of my storm.

But then, along with her bravado, the concern continues to swell.

Vulnerable. My river is vulnerable.

The yearning rises to have Viger Maul here, his Death Fae stillness surrounding her as she tells him of these fears, as she’s increasingly wont to do, his words always few, but his thrall often leaving her with a feeling of deep understanding. She’s gotten in the habit of seeking him out, late at night, at the island’s base after the evening’s last call.

Her gaze slides over Noilaan’s translucent protective dome and the line of storms that top the Vo Mountains, the Wyvern-fabricated storm band spitting silvery lightning and roiling with violent clouds. The storm-barrier was recently fortified, and a huge Vu Trin military force has already deployed to the easternmost edge of the continent’s Central Desert. Another deadly barrier for Vogel to get through.

But what barrier is there to protect my river from invasion?

Troubled, she considers how the Vo will lie wholly unprotected when she and thousands of other soldiers deploy west to meet Vogel’s forces in the desert lands.