Page 165 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Essence surged between Vesryn, Serenna, and Fenn again as their combined power bent toward a new target.

Sunfire screamed toward Galaeryn in a torrent bright enough to bleach the clouds.

The king raised one open palm and the magic vanished into him, his Well consuming the sunfire whole.

Then the devouring turned.

Even across the gulf of storm, Jassyn felt the reversal, a hard inward pull. Prismatic light guttered between Vesryn, Serenna, and Fenn as Galaeryn’s siphoning raced back through their own magic, targeting their Wells.

Fenn warped them out of range before the king could draw deeper, reappearing with Vesryn and Serenna in the open sky below the dragons.

Dozens of razorwings still crowded Jassyn’s awareness, panic rippling through them until the creature he was riding lurched with the swarm’s impulse to scatter. Jassyn crushed the urge in its mind first, then reached for the rest.

Fear multiplied faster than he could contain it. Fly. Climb. Turn. Bite. Flee. The instincts crowded through his skull until the borders of himself began to blur.

He couldn’t subdue them one mind at a time.

Jassyn seized the panic itself and forced a single command through every consciousness anchored to him.

“Hold.”

The razorwings convulsed back into shape.

Blood spilled from his nose before he swiped it away. Countless minds pressed against his own, every wingbeat driving the pressure deeper. A white fracture split behind his eyes, bright enough to spot his vision.

Still, the swarm stayed in formation.

Jassyn sent the remaining razorwings around Vesryn, Serenna, and Fenn, glass wings wheeling into a living screen while he braced for retaliation.

It never came.

They’d never been Galaeryn’s quarry.

Veyrix broke clear of Rimeclaw and seized the opening. Wind streamed toward him from across the sky, swelling with each beat of his wings. The storm coiled around the Zephyrfang, all of its violence aimed at the king.

Galaeryn raised one hand.

Essence gathered around a Heart of Stars in his palm. Bruised light pulsed within its blackened surface, leeching color from the sky.

Horror followed recognition in the same instant. Jassyn should’ve known the king would come prepared to claim the Zephyrfang.

Power erupted from Galaeryn’s palm toward Veyrix.

Jassyn reached for the dragon’s awareness and met a mind vast as weather, rage turning through it in violent fronts. He tried to wrestle a warning into the chaos, but Veyrix swept it aside before the meaning could take hold.

Jassyn flinched as darkness struck the Zephyrfang in the chest.

The dragon seized, wings locking wide, jaws wrenching open around a roar that died in his throat.

Veyrix’s resistance snapped, and the break struck through Jassyn’s skull with sickening familiarity. He was familiar with that violation. He’d practiced its smaller cruelty across a hundred minds.

Veyrix shuddered before his wingbeats smoothed into Rimeclaw’s rhythm.

Sunlight glinted in crystalline eyes gone distant and captive, the same dead sheen staring from the Tidecrasher’s gaze.

The wind failed with him.

Across the sky, wings staggered as the currents they’d been fighting vanished. Druids dropped hard before catching themselves on frantic downstrokes, wraith warping back into place. Jassyn’s razorwings pitched around Vesryn, Serenna, and Fenn, translucent membranes thrashing through the sudden loss of lift.