Page 243 of The Reckoning of Starlight

She shrieked in delight, braids dangling toward the grass. Koln cackled, flipped her upright, and settled her onto his shoulders.

Vesryn stretched his legs out. “Make sure she’s prepared to critique everyone’s form.”

Fenn’s grin flashed, all fangs. “We’ll be merciless.”

“How fortunate our sister has so many exemplary influences,” Aesar said.

Essence flared and a portal split the air beside Fenn. Sharyne flung up one hand in a frantic wave before the three of them vanished.

The valley fell silent in their absence. Trella stirred behind his back and drew her beak gently through his hair, each slow stroke tugging softly at his scalp.

Wind moved through the grass and a nestling wandered toward Aesar on oversized claws. It paused between his knees, tail flicking once, then scrambled into his lap.

It tipped its head back, exposing the new pinfeathers along its throat with shameless expectation. A wild thing, warm and taloned, folding its weight into his hands.

With a quiet chuckle, Aesar scratched the growing feathers under its beak. Its eyes slid shut, wings going lax against his thigh.

“So you’re leaving the flight trials unattended?” Aesar asked. “I assumed the druids required your personal supervision to feel properly terrorized.”

Vesryn turned his head enough for Aesar to catch the edge of his smirk. “Zaeryn took my rotation. I’ll owe her two in return.”

But his humor faded as his gaze drifted to the place where the portal had closed. Vesryn drew one blade of grass through his fingers, splitting it neatly along the vein. “Sharyne had another dream.”

Aesar’s fingers stilled against the chick’s chin. It opened one disgruntled eye and released an offended chirp.

“What was it this time?” he asked softly.

Vesryn studied his hand as a mote of Essence gathered above his palm. “She said the sky drowned in stars.” He curled his fingers, and the light slipped between them in luminous currents. “And someone with silver eyes was throwing them down.”

Vesryn looked up then, silver gaze catching Aesar’s.

Aesar had never grown used to the change. In certain light, it seemed as though it was their sire staring back.

“But Jassyn assured us Sharyne’s mind is her own,” Vesryn murmured. “For now. Serenna’s and mine as well. Though he was less complimentary about my capacity for rational thought.”

The attempt at levity lasted only as long as the magic. Its light flickered between Vesryn’s fingers, then vanished.

“Sometimes the whispers get louder,” Vesryn said, staring off into the distance. “When I channel Essence for too long. There are moments when I feel outside my body.”

Aesar went still. The chick resettled its weight in his lap, four claws pressing through his leathers.

Across the valley, Lykor’s illusion paused on the ridge. Even at that distance, Aesar sensed the angle of his attention, the fixed, predatory readiness that meant he’d found no threat and trusted that least of all.

“Lykor remains convinced something could’ve come through the king’s portal before it closed,” Aesar said.

“I agree.”

Vesryn’s answer came too quickly to be new. He leaned his head back against Naru and lifted his gaze to the sky. “That’s why Fenn and I still lead the hunts. For remnants of the king’s magic. For anything that doesn’t belong here.”

“But you haven’t found anything besides fallen talents.”

“Not yet.”

Aesar resumed smoothing the chick’s pinfeathers. It sighed into his palm, untroubled by dead kings or whatever survived them.

“Perhaps you, Serenna, and Sharyne are simply closer to what came before us. You nearly touched the stars and returned changed.”

Vesryn gave no answer. He stared somewhere beyond the valley until his silence had said enough, then planted one palm on the ground and rose.