Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 13
A massive bear rears up and threatens Mayah and Zevayr. Zevayr steps in front of Mayah with his sword drawn, but before either of them can act, a young boy named Georg charges out of the bushes to confront the bear himself. The bear slashes Georg across the abdomen before Zevayr kills the animal.
Mayah rushes to Georg’s side and heals him despite Zevayr’s warning. Georg’s mother, Georgaina, appears mid-healing and watches everything unfold. Mayah and Zevayr carry Georg back to Georgaina’s cottage, where she insists on feeding them.
Over the meal, Mayah and Zevayr learn that Georg’s father was killed in the war, that soldiers recently drained their well, and that the Rebellion passes through occasionally without causing trouble. Then Georgaina mentions that Prince Zevayr and a Tundrayni princess were reportedly attacked and have gone missing. Georgaina clearly suspects who she’s speaking to.
Zevayr reaches for his sword, but instead of acting on it, he responds calmly. He says the prince sees the princess as someone worth protecting. Mayah and Zevayr leave shortly after, with Zevayr asking Georgaina to keep their visit to herself. Outside, rain starts to fall, and the two press on.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 14
Mayah and Zevayr are still making their way through rebel territory, roughly two weeks out from the army base in Arbinj. When they stop to camp for the night, a natural thunderstorm moves in, and Mayah is visibly frightened. She asks Zevayr to stop it, but he explains he can only control storms he summons himself. Zevayr rigs up some shelter, and they wait it out side by side.
The storm gets bad enough that Mayah breaks down, and Zevayr pulls her close, staying with her through the worst of it. Mayah ends up telling him about something that happened when she was six. Her mother Meerah hid her in a closet during a violent storm and never came back. Later, her father told her a stormwielder from Arbinj was responsible, and he never truly recovered from losing her.
Zevayr listens, then opens up in return. The woman who raised him was a nonwielder named Tairna who actually cared for him, but she vanished when he was around fifteen. Zevayr never got a straight answer from his father and suspects his father ordered her death. Mayah and Zevayr eventually drift off together, each carrying a version of the same grief.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 15
Mayah wakes up alone, surprised that Zevayr didn’t stay the night. He returns not long after and tells her she has ten minutes before they need to move.
That afternoon, Zevayr shoves Mayah against a tree and covers her mouth without warning. He’s heard something. Zevayr tells her to stay put, then disappears into the underbrush.
Six armed rebels pass through the clearing, and it almost looks like they’ll move on without noticing anything. Then a whistle cuts through the air from somewhere above, and the rebels stop.
Zevayr comes out swinging. He fights the rebels with his sword rather than his lightning, cutting through them methodically. While Zevayr holds his own, Mayah scans the trees and spots a rebel perched in the branches with a crossbow aimed at him. She runs toward Zevayr, shouting his name. He looks up. The arrow finds Mayah instead.
With Mayah down, Zevayr snaps. He tears through the last few rebels, and then something strange happens. Rather than calling down lightning, Zevayr kills the remaining men silently. The rebels seize up and collapse one by one, including the sharpshooter in the tree. Mayah blacks out after the last man hits the ground.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 16
Mayah regains consciousness while Zevayr carries her, an arrow still lodged in her side. He stops in a clearing and removes the arrow, breaking the shaft first before pulling it free. Once the arrow is out, Mayah tries to heal herself, but her power won’t respond at all.
Zevayr immediately recognizes the problem. The arrow was coated in iron, which has seeped into Mayah’s bloodstream and is blocking her abilities. He cleans and treats the wound with herbal resin, then settles her to rest, reassuring her that the iron should work its way out by morning.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 17
Mayah is still suffering from iron poisoning. Zevayr has carried her through the forest all day, but her condition continues to deteriorate. By the time they stop for the night, her wound has become seriously infected, angry and swollen, with visible signs of spreading.
Zevayr urges Mayah to try healing herself, but her power is still blocked. Even if she could use it, the infection has drained her too much to manage. Desperate, Zevayr suggests power sharing, a practice forbidden for two reasons. It floods too much power into one person, and more immediately relevant to their situation, it produces a strong arousal effect in whoever receives it. Zevayr is upfront with Mayah about both risks.
Mayah agrees. She trusts Zevayr, even though that trust frightens her.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 18
Zevayr transfers some of his power to Mayah by pressing his hands against her neck, giving her enough strength to heal the infected wound. She heals him too while she’s at it. Almost immediately, the borrowed power starts affecting her, making her overwhelmingly attracted to him.
Without much resistance, Mayah crosses the camp and climbs into Zevayr’s lap. He pushes her away and tells her to return to her side. She keeps drifting toward him, and he keeps backing away, trying to hold the line for both of them. Eventually, Mayah gives up and bolts into the woods.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 19
Mayah runs from Zevayr through the forest and hides in the underbrush, but he finds her anyway. Zevayr pulls her out and silences her before she can make noise. She tells him she’d rather find rebels to satisfy the craving she’s feeling. That’s enough to make him relent. Zevayr promises to help her himself, and Mayah lets him carry her back to camp.
Back at camp, Mayah lies down and waits, expecting Zevayr to follow through. Instead, Zevayr ties her ankles with rope and fashions a gag from a torn strip of blanket so that she can’t keep tempting him. He covers Mayah with his cloak and sits a few feet away, and she cries herself to sleep.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 20
Mayah wakes from an erotic dream about Zevayr to find herself tied up. Her memory of the previous night floods back, and embarrassment overwhelms her, leaving her unable to look at him. Zevayr unties her, and she eats breakfast without a word.
Zevayr breaks the silence by telling Mayah about a soldier he once shared his power with. That soldier became so overwhelmed by the effects that several men had to physically restrain him. The story makes Mayah laugh, and the tension between them eases. She asks whether power sharing is sometimes used between couples for intimate reasons, and Zevayr confirms it is, though he’s never done it himself because it takes a degree of trust he hasn’t found in any of his relationships.
Mayah thanks Zevayr for saving her life, for keeping his hands to himself during the night, and for being kind about the whole thing afterward. Before they pack up camp, he mentions offhandedly that she called him Zev the night before. Mayah starts to apologize, but he stops her and says he liked it, telling her she can use it whenever she wants.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 21
Mayah and Zev are about a week into their journey and nearly at the Arbinji army base, where she is to be married. One evening by the campfire, Mayah asks him what the wedding will involve, and he mentions there will be a ballroom dance at the reception. She has no idea how to do it, so Zev offers to teach her.
With no music and only moonlight around them, Zev takes Mayah’s hand and guides her through the steps. She keeps stumbling, so he lifts her onto his feet so they can move together. The moment grows quiet and charged between them. He leans in close, his eyes dropping to her lips, and Mayah reaches up to touch his face.
Then Zev notices Mayah’s black diamond ring and pulls away. He tells her she’s ready for the dance and retreats to the far side of the blanket to sleep, saying it’s warm enough now that they don’t need to be close.
Lying awake in the dark, Mayah asks whether Zev’s brother is a good man. Zev says no, then adds that neither is he.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 22
Mayah and Zev are almost at the Arbinji base, but the mood between them has been strained ever since the moonlit dance they shared. She finally calls him out on his silence and tries to smooth things over, suggesting they could at least stay friends since she’s going to marry his brother anyway.
That’s when Zev tells Mayah he has something to confess, something he’s sure will make her hate him. He admits he killed her friends Sura and Tumaas. After losing someone he loved in battle, Zev hunted down their camp alone and destroyed it. Mayah asks whether they suffered. He tells her he used lightning and that he still has nightmares about it.
Mayah walks away to grieve, and Zev follows at a quiet distance. They spend the day without speaking. She wants to rage at him, but every time the anger tries to take hold, it falls apart because she understands his grief too well to hold onto it.
By the fire that night, Mayah tells Zev she can’t hate him, even though she wants to. What she hates is the war and what it has cost everyone. She tells him again that marrying his brother is something she has to do. Zev nods. They sleep on opposite ends of the blanket.
Between Tides & Thunder Part 2: The Palace
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 23
Mayah and Zev arrive at the Arbinji army camp. To announce his return, Zev calls down a storm and sends a lightning bolt into the camp’s central spire, putting the soldiers on high alert. They walk into camp together, and a soldier named Sulon quickly briefs Zev on the political fallout. Mayah’s father is blaming Arbinj for the carriage attack, and the ceasefire between the two sides is barely holding. Zev decides they need to leave for the capital without delay.
When it comes time to mount up, Sulon volunteers to let Mayah ride with him. Zev refuses and says she rides with him. Sulon insists, and Zev responds by seizing Sulon’s face and ordering him to kneel before Mayah as his future queen. Zev rides out of camp while Sulon stays on the ground.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 24
Mayah and Zev arrive at the Arbinji capital after a grueling ride with his soldiers. Before they reach the city, she confronts him about humiliating Sulon earlier, and he apologizes quickly enough to defuse her anger.
During a rest break with the soldiers, the men mention rumors that the Volcans may be sending an emissary to Arbinj, which unsettles Mayah. As the group rides into the city, a man in the crowd looks ready to hurl fruit at her, but a withering look from Zev is enough to make the man back down.
At the palace, Mayah and Zev stand before King Varad and Faramir. Faramir wastes no time insulting her, and Zev sharply tells him to show her respect. Then Varad delivers the real shock. He has restructured the succession. Faramir is now set to marry a Volcan princess as part of a new alliance, which means Mayah will be marrying Zev.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 25
Mayah is told she’ll be marrying Zev instead of Faramir. Before she can respond, Zev pulls her out of the throne room and into a private room, where she confronts him about whether he knew. Zev swears he didn’t.
As she talks through the political consequences, Mayah realizes that refusing means either being killed or imprisoned by Varad, and that war between their kingdoms becomes almost certain either way.
Zev tells Mayah she doesn’t have to go through with it, but she insists it’s her choice. Then she turns it around and asks him directly if he’ll marry her. Zevayr says yes and kisses her.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 26
Zev kisses Mayah and pulls the ring off her finger, telling her he’ll replace it. He then takes her back to the throne room, where she announces she’s chosen to marry him. King Varad resists and suggests she could simply go home, but Mayah holds firm, citing the growing Rebellion as reason enough for the two kingdoms to unite.
Varad reluctantly agrees and sets the wedding for a fortnight away, but Zev overrules him and demands it happen the next day. Varad concedes, then brings up the purity test, which Zev immediately shuts down by claiming he already inspected Mayah’s purity himself during their journey. The room goes silent, and Mayah is mortified, but Varad lets it go and sends them out.
Before leaving Mayah in her rooms, Zev pulls six guards aside and threatens them with graphic consequences if anything happens to her. He promises Mayah she’ll be safe and then heads back to the throne room.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 27
Mayah arrives at her guest chambers, where three handmaids bathe her. When she comes out of the bathroom, she finds Zev already waiting in her room. She’s alarmed at first, but he quickly makes clear he isn’t there with any expectations. He’s worried Faramir will try to visit her during the night and knows the guards won’t be enough to stop him, so Zev plans to stay. He offers to sleep on the floor, though Mayah eventually tells him to just take the other side of the bed.
Zev’s instinct turns out to be right. Faramir shows up during the night, and Zev meets him at the door and sends him away. Zev comes back to Mayah, pulls her close, and tells her Faramir won’t return and that she’ll be moving into his chambers the next day, where she’ll be safer. Mayah falls back asleep in his arms, thinking about the fact that tomorrow she’s getting married.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 28
Mayah wakes up on her wedding day alone. Eleven handmaids spend the morning preparing her, and she’s then escorted to a garden ceremony where she walks down the aisle by herself to meet Zev at the altar.
During the ceremony, Mayah and Zev are asked to demonstrate their powers for the assembled guests. He cuts his own palm, she heals the wound, and then he summons a storm. Mayah is terrified of storms, but Zev grabs her hand and holds her gaze until the moment passes. The crowd cheers for him loudly while Faramir sits in the front row, watching without clapping.
The officiant declares Mayah and Zev married, and Zev kisses her. Mayah pulls away from him, unsettled by how much she’s starting to want him.