Page 172 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Fenn’s eyes flared on the lightning crawling over the shamans’ fists and forearms. His mouth curved, fangs flashing before fire swelled around his claws.

He sent a line of flaming spheres skimming low across the shore, heat steaming the mud in their wake before they settled among the shamans.

Lightning hissed toward the fire. The two elements circled each other like predators forced to share a kill.

Saundyl raised his hand, and the nearest flame leapt into his palm. Fire climbed his arm as the others followed, Cinderax’s gift joining the lightning already sparking across their skin.

Fire and lightning turned the widened bridge into a killing ground. Galaeryn’s soldiers died faster than the ranks behind could climb over them.

Blossom loomed beyond the carnage. One command could turn that monstrous strength on Lykor’s little defense and bury the entire line in the earth. For now, the elf controlling her kept her power sunk into the road across the river.

Pressure warped the air behind Lykor.

A portal split open beside Skylash, inches from where Serenna stood with both hands pressed to the dragon’s limp wing. A sword punched through before the rift finished widening.

Lykor’s curse didn’t have time to fly from his teeth as Aesar seized their hands.

Rending struck through their fists, a tide of darkness crashing toward the rift.

The portal disintegrated in a burst of severed light. The rift snapped shut around the body still crossing, a scream breaking with it. An arm dropped into the mud beside Serenna’s feet, fingers still locked around the sword.

One portal behind the line would turn their shore into a cage. Steel at their backs. An army ahead. Skylash still grounded while Serenna fought to knit her wing.

Another rift opened.

Serenna thrust both palms toward the rift. Shadows cinched around its edges and yanked them together, crushing the opening into a knot of darkness before it vanished.

Skylash rose with a roar.

Her hind legs shook beneath her, clawed wings planted in the mud, talons digging for purchase. One wing held. The mended one shuddered with her weight, claws dragging a trench deep enough to fill with black water.

Lightning detonated.

A blinding shockwave burst from her body and punched across the river. The concussion rattled Lykor’s teeth and whipped his hair from his face, mud kicking up as the water reared against the banks.

The bridge disappeared inside the glare. Stone cracked. Bodies flew.

A whole swath of Galaeryn’s soldiers vanished into the charge. Thunder hammered the riverbed hard enough to jolt the dead already heaped along the shore.

When Lykor’s vision cleared, sections of the bridge smoked above water churning red.

Skylash swayed, but remained upright.

Then her head whipped sideways and her jaws snapped shut inches from Serenna’s face.

Serenna scowled, planted a hand against the dragon’s snout, and shoved her aside as she walked past.

Lykor decided they deserved each other.

Saundyl staggered at the front of the fighters. Lightning ripped from one hand into the crossing as fresh troops crowded in. Flame punched from the other, burning through the nearest breastplate. The double strike knocked him off balance, one knee nearly hitting the mud before he caught himself.

Serenna stopped.

Their eyes met, and Saundyl gave her a single nod.

Her mouth tightened. She returned it, then swept one arm toward the shaman line. Lightning streamed from her palm and forked across the fighters, striking the fading charges coiled around their wrists until violet arcs flared bright again.

Her boots sank into the muck as she reached Lykor’s side. “Why are we still here?”