Page 186 of The Reckoning of Starlight

She looked down at Sharyne, and her composure cracked. Her fingers tightened around the infant as fear broke plainly across her face. “You’re one of the few who sees an infant instead of a threat. I watched what the capital did to every child in this realm they decided was useful. I refuse to let that happen to mine.”

From the doorway, Lykor’s voice dropped low. “You’re asking her to protect a silver-eyed liability with Galaeryn’s blood running through it.”

“See?” Ayla hissed. “You’ve already got one who can’t look at her without seeing the king.”

Her words snagged on a cough. It shook through her ribs before she pressed her lips together and strangled the next one down.

When Ayla spoke again, her voice rasped. “I suggest you take advantage before I become considerably less useful. What I know is worth my daughter’s future.”

“We’re fighting a losing war,” Serenna said. “What makes you think she has one?”

Ayla’s expression didn’t change, but she drew Sharyne closer. “Because I can give you a chance to stop him.”

Hope stirred, sharp enough to hurt. Serenna refused to mistake an opening for a promise. “Then prove it.”

Ayla didn’t argue as she turned toward the window, where morning brightened the floating islands, indifferent to the shadow the king had cast over them the day before.

“Two nights from now, when the moons go dark, the Aelfyn homeworld will burn brighter than any star in the sky.” Her focus returned to Serenna. “That’s when he’ll open the portal.”

Two nights.

The blue spiral galaxy wheeled through Serenna’s memory, its stars circling the devouring dark she’d glimpsed when sunfire raged past her control. The whispers had called her closer, and some buried part of her still remembered wanting to listen.

“He can’t possibly have enough power for that,” Serenna said, hating how little disbelief remained in her voice.

“He does.” Ayla’s certainty left no room for comfort. “He’s pilfered enough Essence to bridge the distance.”

She adjusted against the wall and winced before she could hide it.

“But once it opens…” Serenna trailed off.

“He’ll call them here. Or go to them.”

A cough tore through Ayla again. She turned aside, covering her mouth with one hand. When the fit passed, blood slicked her fingers, and she wiped it onto the pallet.

Serenna watched the red seep into the fabric. “And the dragons?”

“He wasn’t in the habit of sharing revelations with the mother of his investment.” Ayla gave a humorless scoff. “I only know they’re elemental tributes. Now that he has one of each, there’s nothing left to delay him. He’ll be at the Drowned Spires.”

She drew a breath so rattling that Serenna’s attention snapped to Jassyn.

At her silent question, he shook his head.

“If that portal opens,” Ayla continued, “and he brings the Aelfyn here, everyone with Essence becomes an offering.”

Serenna’s pulse struck hard, each beat answering a distant, starlit threat too vast for her mind to hold. They had two days to stop a portal none of them understood, fueled by power none of them could rival, opening to a world none of them could reach.

Sharyne stirred in Ayla’s arms, one tiny hand flexing against her chin.

“And her?” The question escaped before Serenna could weigh it. “If she’s already—”

“She is not Aelfyn,” Ayla gritted out, the denial rising too quickly.

At the edge of Serenna’s vision, the iron eased from Lykor’s shoulders. His spine straightened, the scowl dissolving as violence relinquished its claim. She recognized the change before he spoke.

Aesar.

“Galaeryn’s eyes turned silver when he began siphoning Essence,” he said. “That was also when he started hearing the Aelfyn.” Crimson eyes landed on Serenna, but they burned softer now, where Lykor would’ve made it a challenge. “Vesryn told me you hear them when you channel sunfire. The whispers.”