Page 204 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Lykor left his shadows and tore his attention from the slaughter. The soldiers he’d left across the platform had closed the distance while he held the rift, Essence burning in their hands.

A tightening circle. Jassyn at its center.

Roots burst through cracks around the closing ring, snaring limbs and necks before wrenching bodies flat. Vines cinched around them, crushing armor against flesh, snapping bones as screams collapsed into strangled sounds.

Blossom’s doing or Jassyn’s, Lykor had no way to know.

Beyond the frost-veiled shield, Jassyn remained locked in place, facing the dragon. Blood streamed from his nose as a tremor worked through the arm holding the Heart.

The blood held Lykor’s attention too long.

He didn’t notice the shadow blotting out the stars.

Rimeclaw swept overhead, close enough that the downdraft slammed Lykor flat against the platform. Frost tore from the Tidecrasher’s wings in jagged sheets, slicing through the air as he banked after Skylash.

Their storm descended on the platform.

Lykor warped, reappearing at the outer edge of Jassyn’s shield. Lykor forced the ward outward around them both, armoring the violet shell with ice.

Rimeclaw’s frost crashed against the shield and exploded into white shards. Another wave struck before the vibration faded, then another, each impact hammering through their skull. Their reinforced ward shuddered under Rimeclaw’s barrage but held.

Beyond it, Centarya’s channelers scattered. Not all raised a shield or moved fast enough. Rimeclaw’s sweeps tore through their defenses and bodies alike, ice pinning soldiers to the crystal in twitching rows.

Above them, Skylash twisted between Rimeclaw’s mass and Veyrix’s speed, lightning tearing wild from her jaws. One bolt struck the lake, detonating water upward in a column of steam.

Without warning, their leg buckled. Their knee slammed into the crystal beside Jassyn, and Aesar arrested the fall with one glaive, its blade biting into the platform as their weight dropped against the hilt.

Then pain arrived all at once—a hot split along their ribs, blood slicking under their armor, and a deeper gouge high in their thigh that left the muscle trembling. Somewhere amid the portals and warps, blows had gotten through. Rending. Steel. Neither Lykor nor Aesar could remember which.

As their body faltered, Lykor’s hold on the shield went with it. Violet light fractured around them and vanished, its armor of ice crashing to the ground in shards.

A vine slid across the crystal toward them, thin as a vein under skin. It climbed their boot, leaves unfurling along the stem. Warmth traveled as it wound up their calf, sinking into the gouge high in their thigh until the muscle steadied. Higher, torn flesh along their ribs drew shut, blood welling along the seam before the flow stopped.

Jassyn stood facing Blossom, eyes open and sightless. His brow tightened, deepening the crease Lykor had memorized without ever deciding to. Buried somewhere inside the dragon’s mind, Jassyn had still found him. Healed him.

The vine shriveled against their boot as its last warmth sank through the leather. What pain remained receded to a distant throb.

The platform shuddered.

Crystal exploded.

A root thick as a tree trunk rammed upward, forcing them back from Jassyn as smaller vines whipped free around it. One tendril punched through their shoulder. Aesar hacked it off with a glaive before a second vine cracked across their ribs and flung them across the platform.

New portals tore open, Centarya’s wielders pouring through and fanning wide. Blossom’s roots hammered through the crystal in a cascade of eruptions, remaking the ground faster than Lykor could read it. Every route back to Jassyn closed before they could take it.

Lykor warped anyway.

Darkness swallowed them. Aroot slammed into their gut before the platform had fully returned.

The collision ripped them sideways and hurled them across the crystal. Through a fleeting break in the thrashing roots, Jassyn flashed into view—still facing Blossom, blood streaking from his nose.

Another root stabbed for their spine. Aesar rolled them clear, and rose to one knee with both glaives ready.

Lykor threw a shield around Jassyn before Aesar had fully risen. Violet Essence locked around him, ice racing to harden over the ward. Rending caught them before Lykor could turn, ripping through armor and opening their side.

Behind them, Essence tightened the air with pressure. Aesar began to turn them clear.

But the bolstered shield hadn’t closed around Jassyn yet. So Lykor ripped control back, giving the next heartbeat to him.