Page 102 of The Reckoning of Starlight

“We did not go back to Centarya,” Vesryn repeated.

“That’s not even a good lie!” Serenna whirled on him, planting a finger against his chest. “I can sense you two are hiding something.”

She gave both bonds an accusing tug. To prove what, she wasn’t sure. Only that she could.

She squinted at the rising sun, barely cresting the ridge. “When did you even sneak off to do that?”

Fenn rubbed the back of his neck, talons snagging through his braids. “Before you woke up.”

“You…what?”

He smirked, bumping her shoulder. “You rouse late.”

The memory of the golden collar tightened Serenna’s throat. Her eyes snapped to Vesryn, certain the entire scheme had been his idea. “You could’ve been captured. What if they tortured this location out of you? What if they hurt—”

“We weren’t seen,” Vesryn interrupted, his calm scraping against the panic climbing her throat. “Nothing happened.”

Fenn nodded. “I cloaked us. It was quick. In and out.”

Serenna folded her arms across her leathers. “Don’t the wraith have extra jewelry you could’ve acquired?”

Fenn thumbed the obsidian scale at the point of his ear. “These are mine.”

“But—”

“Leave it,” Vesryn clipped. “Enough was already taken from him.”

Serenna opened her mouth, then shut it again, the grief in Vesryn’s words killing that protest before she could give it voice. She’d spent so long wishing the tension between him and Fenn would ease that she’d never considered peace might forge something worse—a reckless alliance she’d have to rein in.

“So if you broke into the Spire,” Serenna said, “tell me you at least found something useful about Centarya, because I don’t believe that you slipped into Taryn’s chambers, stole back a few piercings, and simply left.”

Vesryn glanced at Fenn, who gave the barest shrug.

“We searched the grounds. The hatchlings aren’t on campus,” Vesryn said. “A magus we…questioned indicated they were taken to the Drowned Spires.”

The Drowned Spires. Where Galaeryn would consolidate his power on this side of the world.

Wind howled low between the crags, hissing across Serenna’s scales. “And their Essence-wielders?”

Fenn nudged a loose shard of ice over the cliff with his boot. “They lost a quarter of the force they brought to Asharyn.”

Serenna shook her head. They were still outnumbered. No matter how many fell, the king would always have more bodies to conscript. More bloodlines to bleed dry.

Vesryn angled toward the cliff before she could pry another detail loose. “Are you two ready to fly? Zaeryn already has a head start, leading the western sweep on Trella. I’d rather return tonight with more to show for it than the rangers.”

Naturally Vesryn had turned the search for Veyrix into a contest. But if covering more sky were truly his concern, he wouldn’t have lent Naru to another rider.

Above the peaks, the sky stretched wide enough to promise freedom. But every shadow along the ridgeline could conceal a razorwing already tracking them, waiting to strike.

Fenn flashed his fangs. “We’ll see who gets to the Aetherveil first.”

He winked, then warped, vanishing from the cliff and reappearing as a dark fleck in the pale sky.

Vesryn muttered something about “wraith theatrics” as he tore open a portal. He dove through before the edges finished forming, chasing Fenn into the sky.

Serenna rolled her eyes. She backed up five paces across the stone, breath clouding before her, then sprinted. Her armor creaked with every stride as the cliff’s edge hurtled closer. She hit the rim and launched—legs driving off stone, wings tearing wide as wind slammed beneath her membranes and the mountain fell away.

As she climbed, Serenna left her Starshard cold against her throat. The memory of all three crystals igniting still shivered through her nerves—a prismatic current none of them quite knew how to control. Instead, she plunged through the bonds into their shared Well and seized portaling.