Page 118 of The Reckoning of Starlight

“I doubt they’d want to join,” Fenn mumbled. His claw lingered against her chest before sliding away.

Vesryn leveled a murderous look at him and moved through the water until half the pool lay between them. “They’re not invited.”

Fenn grinned. “Relax, princeling. I know you’ve hit your limit.” He leaned back and draped both arms along the stone lip, sprawling under Vesryn’s glare.

Across the water, Vesryn met Serenna’s eyes. His breathing remained uneven, but satisfaction warmed the bond as one corner of his mouth lifted.

She eased away from Fenn and sank lower into the pool, letting violet water and rising steam conceal the flush lingering across her skin.

CHAPTER 31

LYKOR

Lykor halted just inside the cavern. Mineral steam filmed his skin, heat sinking into the places where frost usually held the line. A dark pool spiraled through the chamber’s heart, its rim worn into shallow steps.

Vesryn leaned bare-chested against the stone lip, his neutrality held too carefully to be convincing. Serenna had sunk to her chin between him and Fenn, color high in her cheeks. Fenn sprawled beside her, wet hair slicked to his neck, his grin confirming Lykor’s suspicion that none of the three wore a stitch beneath the water.

Convenient. Kaedryn’s delay had bought the lot of them enough time to foul the pool.

Lykor scowled and scrubbed the moisture from his jaw, eyes flicking to Jassyn. “Why are we meeting here?”

Jassyn lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug. “I asked Blossom for the most secluded chamber. The undressing was their idea.”

“If you’d been flying all day,” Serenna said, the water lapping at the fresh fang marks on her neck, “you wouldn’t be complaining.”

“Any chamber could’ve been made private.” Lykor snapped his hand toward the entrance. Shadows surged from his fingertips, sealing the cavern off from the tunnel beyond. “Or we could’ve portaled anywhere that didn’t involve communal bathing.”

“In Blossom’s defense,” Vesryn said, his gaze sliding toward Fenn, “only your wraith would come somewhere like this.”

Fenn patted the water in invitation, ripples racing outward. “And apparently no other place would’ve annoyed you this efficiently.”

“I’m not getting in,” Lykor growled, stalking closer. His boot snagged on Fenn’s tunic where it lay crumpled on the ground, and he kicked it aside without breaking stride.

Warmth seeped through his armor and into joints held rigid since the rainforest. His shoulders loosened before he could stop them. The involuntary relief sharpened his irritation. The king’s forces were closing around them, yet the cavern coaxed his body to forget the danger. Lykor locked his spine, fingers flexing until the tension returned.

His gaze cut to Jassyn, who’d chosen the chamber. The rebuke reached his teeth and died there. Lykor turned his scowl on the pool instead.

“We already spent hours wringing every useful detail from our scouting reports in that stars-forsaken council.” He paced, each footfall cracking against the stone. “So tell me—what, exactly, couldn’t be said fully clothed?”

“There were more ears than I wanted there.” Jassyn crossed the cavern and settled on a ledge without so much as shedding his boots. Sensible. He’d reached the same verdict on the water. “You noticed Bhreena’s absence today. And her reaction after dinner last night.”

“Which part?” Lykor turned at the pool’s edge. “When she nearly combusted because Cinderax refused to extend his gift to Daeryn’s entire band, or when she realized she wasn’t among those he chose?”

Vesryn’s fingers drummed against the stone lip. “She took Cinderax’s judgment as a public humiliation.”

“Half of Daeryn’s people received no boon,” Jassyn said, loosening the ties at his throat. “None of the others stormed out.”

“Bhreena shouldn’t hear anything of tomorrow’s movements until we know what she intends to do with the insult she imagined,” Vesryn said.

Serenna sniffed. “She’d get along with Skylash.”

Fenn reached over and pinched the tip of her ear. “Just like you.”

Serenna scowled and swatted his fingers away.

Lykor rolled his shoulders. “Speaking of dragons.” Since their return, the tunnels had carried none of the deep tremors that marked the Bramblemaw’s passage. “Where’s Blossom?”

“She went to the surface to feed.” Jassyn traced one finger along a vein of quartz in the rock. “The rangers brought down a herd of elk. Or something close enough.”