Page 215 of The Reckoning of Starlight

But hearing the words now, shaped like farewell, cracked something in her chest.

“Say it later,” she whispered.

A faint smile touched his mouth, familiar enough to hurt. There he was. Her impossible prince, facing death as though it were only one more obstacle he intended to conquer.

“I should’ve said it a hundred times before now.” His thumb swept over her skin, catching the trail of falling tears. “If I have to cross the darkness between the stars, I’ll find my way back to you.”

“No.” Serenna seized his wrist, the rest of the plea strangled in her throat.

Essence brightened around him, silver flooding his eyes. She gripped him with both hands as if she could hold him together, fingers digging into flesh already too fragile to contain the magic shuddering through him.

“Vesryn—”

His gaze lifted past her, toward the king continuing his slow ascent to the portal. Then back to her.

“Anchor the stars behind me.”

A sob broke from Serenna as the bond blazed between them.

Then Vesryn kissed her.

There was no gentleness left to spare. His mouth turned fierce with heat and despair, a promise bitten into her lips. Serenna clutched his armor and pulled him closer, fingers clenching hard enough to hurt. His heart hammered against her palms, warm and solid and still hers.

Vesryn broke away, and Serenna blinked against the brightness pouring from his skin. His wings flared wide, fire spilling from their talons. But his body had gone too still, already half-claimed by the stars.

Serenna swallowed. “I lo—”

The words died against her tongue when Vesryn ignited.

Sunfire erupted from him in a white-gold spear. Scales flashed over Serenna’s arms before the heat struck.

For one suspended instant, she saw him divided between flesh and light—the prince before her, eyes flooded with silver, and another Vesryn wrought entirely of radiance tearing free from his chest.

The luminous figure shot upward after Galaeryn.

Vesryn’s body didn’t follow.

He went slack, wings folding wrong. His fingers slipped from hers as he plummeted toward the lake.

Serenna dove after him, one hand outstretched, even as the bond wrenched her awareness skyward after the brilliance pursuing the king.

Her fingers closed on empty air. He was already gone from the flesh, beyond her reach. She’d known he meant to intercept the king, but only now understood he intended to ascend.

“I love you.”

She sent the words through the bond, upward into the star he’d become.

Vesryn’s light flared above.

At the same instant, shadows split the air below.

Fenn appeared in Vesryn’s falling path and caught the prince against his chest, wings snapping wide as the lake rushed up.

He warped back to Serenna’s side with Vesryn limp in his arms, the prince’s wings trailing loose behind him, tossed by the wind.

Vesryn’s head tipped against Fenn’s shoulder in a way his pride would’ve never allowed. Fenn glanced at his unmoving chest, then upward to the luminous streak racing after Galaeryn.

Horror crashed through the bond as Fenn sucked in a breath. “He’s not breathing.”