Page 123 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Lykor held his words for a long moment. “Then we make him regret looking.”

“How?” Jassyn’s exhale hissed between his teeth. “Stars know how many Essence and earth wielders we lost to Bhreena. Blossom is gone. We have no Heart of Stars. No way to free any dragon.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “We aren’t fighting a war we can win. We’re just bleeding a slow death.”

Wind cut across his cheeks. At the corner of his vision, Lykor’s eyes burned through the dark. The silence between them felt worse than agreement.

“The alternative is letting him win without trying.” Lykor’s voice came rough as snow began falling around him. “I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees. Vengeance used to be enough.” A muscle flexed in his jaw. “It isn’t anymore.”

“Then what is?” Jassyn turned to him. “What are you fighting for?”

Lykor met his gaze, the answer coming without even the shelter of hesitation. “A world where loving you doesn’t feel like building something I know will collapse.”

Jassyn went still. They’d never named what lived between them, yet Lykor had spoken of loving him as though it were a truth long settled, the confession folded into an impossible future and left all the more exposed for it.

Lykor closed his hand around Jassyn’s, warmth enduring under the frost that silvered his knuckles. “I fight for the chance to live instead of merely survive.”

Jassyn swallowed around the ache in his throat. Daeryn lay cold behind him, and Lykor was asking him to imagine their lives extending beyond this night. No matter how fiercely they resisted, the world never exhausted its ways of taking.

Still, Jassyn returned the pressure of Lykor’s grip and held on.

“I don’t know if we’ll get that world.” His voice came hoarse. “But I want it. With you. Even if it kills us getting there.”

The future Lykor had named began with freeing three dragons in chains. But to do that, they needed to find more Hearts of Stars. One path remained.

Jassyn’s fingers tightened around Lykor’s. “The Falling Star Crater is our only lead. If we mean to free them… It gives us somewhere to go besides deeper into hiding.”

Every instinct told him descending into the crater would be suicide. It lay too close to the Drowned Spires, too near the king’s forces, where discovery would be an inevitability rather than a risk.

But it was still a direction.

The only one left.

Lykor nodded. “We secure the Aetherveil, neutralize the Starshards, and move everyone first. Regroup. Then we go.”

Jassyn exhaled slowly and lifted his gaze to the stars. Somewhere beyond the mountains, Blossom was caged and alone, her wildness returned to chains. He’d promised her freedom, and the broken vow had become another thing he couldn’t repair.

They were running out of time. Out of reasons to believe any of this would work.

But Lykor’s hand was still in his, and the crater was waiting.

He hoped that would be enough.

CHAPTER 33

SERENNA

Serenna’s boots struck stone, the landing driving a dull shock through knees already stiff from the sleepless evacuation.

Noon burned white over the Aetherveil, the wind slipping through her leathers and stripping the warmth from her skin. She dismissed her wings, flexed feeling back into her hands, and faced the tower piercing the island’s heart.

Moss veined the pale spiral, faint green light pulsing against the stone. Narrow windows open to the sky staggered toward the clouds, their edges worn down by centuries of wind. Beyond the tower, a bridge of twisted vines swayed toward the next isle, binding the two across open air.

Two wraith guarded the entrance, one on either side. Both inclined their heads as Serenna approached.

“She’s on the second level.”

Serenna nodded, though her legs didn’t carry her farther. She’d chosen this lower island to keep Ayla away from the main camp, where thousands of refugees were still claiming space among the scattered towers. Their scouts had uncovered Starshards only in the upper tiers, near the immense island patrolled by the wind gliders.

The bonds brightened with Vesryn’s and Fenn’s proximity, each presence shining like light beneath a closed door.