Dragonheart Core

I was listening to Nicau's conversation with Kriya, the healer still bleary but starting to sharpen her awareness as this new page of her story turned over, when something else dragged my attention away. Something rather important. Googlᴇ search novel-fire.net

Because in the center of the Hungering Reefs, the Ancestral Tree was shuddering.

I had been focusing, but I would say this took precedence.

My points of awareness spiraled, circling over the island in the middle of the lagoon—the vampiric mangrove's branches shook, thorns rooting in and out as it reacted to something, stirring like a predator in search of prey. Was it sick? Was something wrong?

Then the bark at its core split, crimson red and weeping sap, a presence building and doubling and snarling at the bit–

And Svythe stepped out.

She shook out her head, crown of thorns rustling as though in the wind. Her pure white eyes were eerily sharp, focused—she clenched the claws on her remaining arm, armour bristling. Wariness. Readiness.

Her voice was a garbled mess, unadapted to her throat, but it came regardless. "Threat. Danger," Svythe said, growling over the words.She tilted her head to the side, testing an unfamiliar phrase. "Marquesa de Wolf."

What. What?