Page 112 of The Reckoning of Starlight

The air broke around them—currents converging, dividing, then veering across every path left open. Each pass peeled flesh, scraped scale, or split membrane, flinging blood into the wind.

Vesryn’s wing claws curled into fists. “Can we clear their range? I’m not turning back over needles.”

Serenna locked her scales tighter. The island’s sunlit crown remained far above, and already the sky was closing its teeth.

“Follow me.”

She climbed on the final word as the false wind tore through her wake. She tucked her wings through one narrowing gap, then flared into the next turn, driving the pattern through the bonds—drop, bank, climb—until Vesryn and Fenn matched the path she carved.

Serenna angled toward the peak, the needle gales hissing past and raking her wingtips. Winds had worn the stone sheer, leaving ribboned vines and silver fronds clinging to the rock, roots bared to drink the mist.

Shadows peeled from the island’s face.

One after another, creatures the size of eagles unfurled from the stone. Pale as pearls, their broad bodies swept outward on diamond-shaped wings. They glided into formation with the slow, rolling grace of rays undulating through deep water.

Serenna’s stomach lurched as all ten settled into a widening spiral, Starshards glinting at the crown of every head. She broke off the ascent and hovered below them.

“File my fangs,” Fenn swore, drawing alongside her. “Wind gliders?”

Vesryn pulled up to her other side. “You’ve seen something like this before?”

“Of course not. But they must be guarding the path to the dragon.”

Serenna tracked their slow approach. “We can’t face ten wardens with Starshards.”

“They haven’t struck yet,” Vesryn said, the shadows sliding over his face. “If we don’t use Essence they may let us pass to the top.”

“So your plan is to fly close enough to make them prove you wrong?”

Hundreds of feet above, the wind gliders drew their circle tighter, each rotation carrying them lower along the cliff.

“We should regroup with the rangers,” Serenna insisted before Vesryn could argue. “Then plan a way forward.”

“Upward, not forward,” Fenn corrected, pointing toward the island’s peak. “If Veyrix is anywhere, it’s chained at the highest perch.”

The gliders scattered. They plunged in unison, broad wings tipping into the dive. The leading edge of each creature split open into a single crescent mouth. Pale ridges contracted within, drawing the air inward.

The wind screamed past them and poured into ten widening throats.

Then it vanished.

Serenna’s wings struck emptiness. Her next breath didn’t come.

She dropped, membranes shuddering as gravity claimed her.

The mouths sealed, and the surrounding wind crashed back. Air struck her lungs as the returning lift caught her outstretched wings and drove the full weight of her fall through both shoulders.

The wind gliders’ paths curved in staggered arcs, their formation tightening into a noose. The nearest swept close enough to buffet Serenna sideways with its wingtip, its mouth splitting wide again.

The gliders scoured the wind away.

Her wings swept through absence, ribs cinching around a breath already gone.

The returning wind caught only one of Vesryn’s wings, whipping him into a violent roll before the next pull dropped him again.

Fenn fell, warped back higher, and threw his wings wide into the returning rush.

“They don’t need to strike us,” Serenna gasped, forcing the words through scraps of air. Lungs screaming, she clamped her mouth shut and sent the rest down the bonds. “They’re drowning us in the sky.”