Page 109 of The Reckoning of Starlight

“Lykor—”

Needle-like forelegs scythed through the canopy before the name finished leaving him, close enough for the displaced air to rake across Jassyn’s face.

He tore open a portal and seized Lykor’s arm, wrenching him through as the razorwing’s second strike shredded the branch beneath them.

The portal snapped shut on splintering wood and the shriek of wings.

CHAPTER 29

SERENNA

Lightning devoured the sky.

The charge cracked across the horizon in jagged veins, flashing against the drifting islands. Skylash tore through the upper thermals like a descending storm, each wingbeat a crack of thunder.

Serenna wheeled hard beside Vesryn and Fenn to meet the dragon head-on.

“Let me handle this,” she said, sensing Skylash’s fury prickle along her spine. “This is between the two of us.”

She surged ahead, leaving Vesryn and Fenn behind.

Skylash flung her wings wide and released a roar that echoed between the islands. Sparks forked across her scales, racing from wingtip to wingtip before gathering between her fangs.

Her jaws snapped open and lightning ripped toward Serenna, a white-blue wall that erased the clouds.

The blast came in layers, each surge driving the next until the air ignited. Serenna thrust both hands forward. The charge screamed across her palms as she tore the branching light apart.

The lightning ruptured, its concussion driving into Serenna’s chest like a battering ram.

Her wings buckled. She hurtled backward through open air, muscles seizing as her vision strobed at the edges. Gasping, she caught a draft, her pulse hammering at the base of her throat.

Skylash circled overhead, then folded into a vertical dive, her descent bending the sky around her silhouette.

Serenna held position. Every muscle strained to flee. But her beastblood surged, daring her closer to the threat.

She reached for Skylash’s spark. The gift raced through her in a violent rush, lightning bleeding from her wing talons and fingertips.

Another bolt speared from Skylash’s jaws. This time, Serenna met the charge with her own.

She hurled her lightning into the heart of the blast, and the sky cleaved open between them. Two storms collided in a blinding detonation, sparks ricocheting between the drifting islands like falling stars.

Static skittered over Serenna’s arms, heat rippling through the ruptured air. Thunder rolled outward through the Aetherveil, leaving her ears ringing.

Vesryn and Fenn remained several wingbeats behind her. Essence seethed around the prince, his hand poised to tear open a portal. Fenn held beside him, every line of his body aimed at Serenna, waiting to warp her clear.

Skylash steadied into a hover, wings beating slow and even. Violet eyes narrowing, she swept close, heat from her scales rolling across Serenna’s face.

“Where is Veyrix?” Her voice cracked through Serenna’s skull. “I sent you here to free the tempest.”

Serenna wrestled the air for breath, each word scraping past her teeth. “We only just arrived.”

Sparks snapped from Skylash’s nostrils. “Then why do I find you wasting wind and sky while my mate remains in chains?”

“Do you know where he is?” Serenna’s voice sharpened, lightning still tingling through her veins. “Because if so, please, lead the way.”

Skylash hissed, the sound tearing sideways through the clouds. “Fangless whelp. You reek of fear and dare spit defiance?”

Lightning drew tight between her fangs, every current folding inward. The bolt tore free on a single course for Serenna’s heart.