Page 226 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Fenn grunted. “You remember what happens when we share.”

Vesryn’s head turned slowly toward Koln, but exhaustion had apparently stripped him down to tolerance. He accepted Koln’s support without even mustering the strength to knock away the wandering claw.

“If you let him fall,” Fenn muttered, “I’ll remove your remaining eye.”

“These two have softened you,” Koln said with a grin. He patted the close-cropped side of the prince’s skull as he steered Vesryn toward the portal. “That was barely a threat.”

The others vanished through the rift. Lykor remained at Jassyn’s side until he stepped forward, then crossed with him.

The lake disappeared, replaced by a splintered outcrop jutting from the spine of a sheared mountaintop. Stone plates had split and heaved from the earth, their edges glassed where lightning had fused them, stray sparks crawling across the ground.

Skylash had Veyrix pinned, one taloned wing claw driven into his scales, her neck bowed over him. Her jaws clamped around his throat, fangs buried deep enough that one hard bite would crush his neck to the bone.

Her wings lay shredded against the rocks, membranes twitching in tatters. Lightning stuttered over her scales, each uneven burst catching on the blood slicking her hide.

Chest heaving, the Zephyrfang lay beneath her, one wing twisted at an angle that made even Lykor pause. Wind stirred around his body in broken currents, skittering gravel across the ground.

Cinderax stood near Veyrix’s head, dwarfed by the pair of dragons, smoke coiling from his nostrils.

As the portal sealed shut, Skylash’s eyes rolled toward them, still bright and feral.

Jassyn was already moving, crimson Essence gathering at his fingertips.

Lykor caught his wrist. “You’ve given enough tonight,” he said, words low so that they only belonged to Jassyn. “Send for the magus.”

Jassyn’s mouth tightened, his whole body leaning toward the wounded dragons.

Lykor didn’t let go.

At last, Jassyn gave a grudging nod. “Kaedryn. Send for anyone with enough power left to help them.”

Kaedryn pivoted, her command carrying across the outcrop as portals opened to summon reinforcements.

Lykor kept his attention on Veyrix’s closed lids.

Cinderax stalked closer to Skylash’s snout, his tail whipping against the ground. “Let the tempest go.”

Skylash’s lips peeled back, baring the fangs sunk into Veyrix’s throat, a spark jumping to his scales.

Then an unfamiliar voice rolled through Lykor’s mind like thunder trapped under stone. “She wasn’t so merciful on our first mating flight.”

Skylash went still, every charge across the mountaintop snapping bright.

Then her jaws tightened.

Veyrix hissed as blood welled between her fangs and spilled down the curve of his neck. Lightning surged over Skylash’s hide before splintering into jagged forks.

She snarled against his throat, the vibration shuddering through the ground. “The storm would never have claimed the wind by being merciful.”

At last, her jaws eased apart.

Veyrix’s eyes opened.

Lykor tensed, waiting for Galaeryn to wrench control through the dragon and prove that he’d survived inside the last creature his command could still reach.

Veyrix only stared up at Skylash, white irises clear where the crystalline lattice had once caged his mind.

Proof that the king’s grip had finally broken.