Page 129 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Serenna’s wings snapped wide as the three of them spread apart, wrenching her fall into a hover as Vesryn and Fenn leveled beside her.

The island loomed above them, a colossal wall of shadow and stone blotting out the sun. The rangers rose along its face, dracovae wings laboring against the thinning currents. Druids and wraith kept pace beside them, ascending toward a summit lost in haze.

And above them all, the gliders dove.

The swarm converged on a ranger flying beyond the formation. Pearl-pale bodies swept across the sky like rays gliding through water, broad wings tipping in eerie unison as they drew a tightening ring around dracovae and rider.

Every ranger flew dark—they knew not to ignite Essence as Vesryn had ordered. But even that offered no protection from the horde of mouths that drank the air itself.

Vesryn’s voice cut through the wind. “Ready?”

Serenna locked her scales tight and reached through her Starshard, then outward to the gems at both males’ throats. Prismatic light surged from crystal to crystal, circling them in a living constellation—impossible to miss.

The gliders answered in a chorus, their shrieks raking across the sky.

They banked as one, mouths unfurling along their leading edges as they abandoned the dracovae entirely and wheeled toward the blazing current.

“Now would be a splendid time for the rest of the plan,” Fenn said, sweeping into an arc around them.

“Keep their attention,” Vesryn said.

“We have their attention!” Serenna shot back. “What happens when they strip the sky from us again?”

“Speaking for myself,” Fenn called, “I’d prefer a plan that didn’t include that part.”

The gems embedded in the gliders’ skulls glinted in the prismatic glare as they flew.

The Starshards dragged every horror back through Serenna. A druid tree guarding a Heart of Stars. In the Wastes, a snow golem siphoning each strike of Essence and hurling stolen power back at them. In the Maelstrom, a leviathan of the sea destroying entire ships.

The gliders were already close enough to plunder the air that held Serenna aloft. Her lift faltered.

She seized the current racing through her shard and crushed it inward until pain cinched her chest. Then she flung her arms wide.

Illumination erupted in a soundless burst, striking the island’s underside in strobing light. The gliders shrieked and scattered from the sudden brilliance, afterimages searing across Serenna’s sight.

They regrouped, circling at the edge of striking distance.

Above, the rangers surged upward on the dracovae, racing for the island’s peak.

Serenna’s breath came ragged, Essence still pounding through her chest.

“Your turn,” she called over the wind, shoving control to Vesryn.

The absence jolted through her like a missed step. Vesryn seized the current at once, prismatic light whirling between his palms.

The gliders coiled downward in a tightening spiral, the Starshards in their skulls beginning to glow. Faint at first, like embers catching. Then brighter, pulsing in rhythm.

“Hold,” Vesryn said. “Let them come closer.”

Serenna’s pulse skidded. “Closer?”

“Every Starshard we claim arms another wielder.” Vesryn’s gaze found hers, his wing claws flexing. “One more chance to stand against the king.”

“By killing every glider?” Serenna’s voice sharpened, her wings beating harder to hold her level.

A muscle jumped in Vesryn’s jaw. “They’re trying to kill us.”

“Because we made ourselves a beacon and called them here!”