Page 224 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Aesar flinched hard enough that his form blurred, then withdrew into the shared dark of their mind.

Silver consumed Vesryn’s eyes where emerald belonged, luminous and depthless, starlight staring out from a face Aesar knew as well as his own.

Serenna turned in the same moment.

Her eyes matched the prince’s.

Lykor warped before he realized he’d moved.

His knees struck the ground beside Fenn hard enough to send muddy water flying. One hand clamped around Serenna’s throat, the other around Vesryn’s, wrenching their faces toward the falling light.

Fenn snarled as shadows burst from Lykor’s fists and locked the three of them in place.

Lykor stared from one silver gaze to the other, into that starlit wrongness, and saw only Galaeryn peering back through bodies that had already died.

CHAPTER 58

LYKOR

Falling Essence scored the sky with shattered color, but Lykor only saw the silver in Serenna’s and Vesryn’s eyes as he clutched their throats.

“Lykor,” Aesar hissed in his skull the same time Jassyn’s hand landed on his arm, the touch cutting through the blood roaring in his ears.

Lykor’s grip loosened.

Fenn bared his fangs, crimson gaze igniting as darkness flooded his Starshard.

Shadows tore out of the gem, slicing through Lykor’s bindings. The unexpected backlash snapped through Lykor’s chest, hurling him aside.

Lykor struck the mud on one knee, fingers furrowing deep into the muck. He stayed there, staring at Fenn, before wrenching himself upright.

“They have his eyes,” Lykor snarled.

Serenna pressed a shaking hand to her neck. Vesryn’s silver stare pinned on Lykor, the shock in his face burning down into draconic fury.

Fenn kept them gathered against his chest on the ground, one claw locked around Serenna’s armor while the other held Vesryn’s shoulder. “I can feel them,” he gritted out. “Both of them. They’re mine.”

Serenna closed her fingers around the gem at her throat. Her brow furrowed, attention turning inward. “But the bond’s changed.”

Vesryn went still. “It’s just through the Starshards now.”

Fenn’s grip tightened. “Changed isn’t gone.”

“But the king is.” Vesryn’s gaze lifted to the expanse of stars where Galaeryn had vanished into light before turning those unnatural silver eyes on Serenna. Whatever passed between them completely shut Lykor out.

“His Essence disintegrated,” Vesryn said. “I felt it.”

Serenna leaned into Fenn with a shudder. “So did I.”

Lykor stalked closer. “You two came back from the dead. How can we be sure he won’t?”

Jassyn caught his wrist before he made it three steps, drawing him to a halt. “His body is gone and there wasn’t anyone to call him back.”

“The Starshards,” Aesar murmured, his attention fixed on the gems dimming at their throats.

Every instinct in Lykor recoiled. Ancient artifacts. Bound by blood, barely understood, still chained around their necks.

Salvation fastened like a noose.