Page 250 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Sharyne lifted one hand and waved hard enough that Koln caught her ankle again. “Go fly, Renna.”

Serenna glanced back toward the course, where a barrage of ice exploded across the sky.

“Okay, I’m going.”

She turned and soared away from the island.

Pressure vanished beneath her left wing.

Serenna dropped. She flared for the neighboring current, but the lift slid away before her membrane could catch it. A gust struck from the right and flung her clear of the course.

She corrected.

The air fled again.

Then a blast rose from below with enough force to wrench both wings wide and hurl her upward. Serenna rolled through the ascent, sunlight breaking across her vision as white membranes swept through the open blue.

Vesryn flew into view, silver hair loosening from its braid as the wind tore past him. Two years ago, Veyrix’s gift had bleached the maroon from his wings, leaving the leather pale enough for sunlight to filter through.

One corner of his mouth lifted.

“Don’t start,” Serenna warned. Wind had made him far more dangerous to her patience than fire ever had. “We’re supposed to be setting an example.”

Vesryn tipped a wing. “I am.”

The air under Serenna curled sideways.

She let the roll carry her until Vesryn crossed her sightline again. Irritation sparked lightning through her arms, and Serenna hurled it from her palms.

Vesryn dropped beneath the bolt and cut past close enough that the wake from his wings struck hers, pitching her sideways.

Serenna recovered on a hard downstroke and wheeled after him. Before she could close the distance, the current above her collapsed and shoved her sideways. Vesryn glided overhead with scarcely a beat of his wings, riding air that changed shape faster than Serenna could read the sky.

She slipped between his next gusts, flipped onto her back, and cracked lightning toward his exposed ribs.

Vesryn reacted too late.

Violet light skittered along the edge of one white membrane, snapping the wing off rhythm.

Satisfaction streaked through her, bright and vicious. “Are you finished?”

But Vesryn was already bearing down.

His wind slammed into her, hurling Serenna backward through a fringe of clouds. She tucked one wing, braced the other against the pressure, and burst back into sunlight.

They crossed too fast to stop.

His wing claws snatched hers in passing, and her own traitorous talons locked around his before momentum could tear him away. Their joined grip swung them into the same turn, the sky wheeling around them.

Serenna twisted into him, close enough to plant one palm against his chest.

Vesryn released her before lightning flew from her fingers.

She spun free to find him several spans away, already weaving through the island chain with a taunting grin.

Beastblood surged hot through Serenna’s veins until challenge became pursuit. The exact feeling the trials were supposed to teach their inexperienced fliers to control.

She chased him anyway.