Page 50 of The Reckoning of Starlight

“Is she primed?” Elashor asked.

Jassyn nodded once. To the floor.

“Then begin.” Elashor leaned back against Ayla’s desk. “This doesn’t need to take all day.”

A high ringing flooded Serenna’s ears, the room narrowing to the ragged pull of her own breathing.

Jassyn moved first, limbs jerking forward in broken sequence—shoulders, then legs, then hands—none of the motion belonging to him. He dropped to his knees without looking at her.

Serenna held herself upright until her legs crumpled.

Her shoulder struck the wall on the way down, but it didn’t hold her. Her back hit the rug hard, palms crushing the red velvet.

Jassyn’s hands struck the rug on either side of her head. His knees planted outside her hips, close enough to cage her in without touching. He caught himself there, every muscle locked to hold his weight off her.

His breath fractured against her cheek, his forehead falling beside hers.

“I’m trying to fight it,” he choked out. His arms shook, making that impossible inch of distance the last piece of himself Elashor hadn’t taken yet.

“It’s Elashor,” Serenna whispered. “Not you.”

Jassyn lifted his head just enough to face her. All of him strained against the command, teeth clenched around the resistance trapped behind them.

“I’m still trying.” His fingers dug into the rug, knuckles white. “Even if I’m losing.”

Serenna turned her head and pressed her cheek against his. Pinned to the rug, she trembled under him, but she leaned into the only point of contact she could choose.

“Where are they keeping you?” she whispered, the words slipping between breaths, buried beneath Elashor’s notice.

“The Vallende estate.” His voice broke on the name.

Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. “Lykor and Vesryn will be searching. We’ll get out. I promise.”

Neither moved. The pause was all they could steal.

Elashor’s voice cracked across the room. “Get it over with.”

Jassyn’s hips shifted.

Serenna tensed when his fingers found the ties at her waistband, too unsteady to loosen them at first.

His apology caught in her hair.

Serenna exhaled and let her fists fall open. Any resistance would only hurt him.

There was no version of this where either of them won.

CHAPTER 11

SERENNA

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Ayla’s voice lashed from the doorway, and Serenna flinched before she registered the words.

Jassyn’s fingers spasmed away from the ties at her waistband. Elashor’s control over him seemed to tear loose, and he collapsed sideways with a broken gasp, catching himself on one hand before his shoulder struck the rug.

“On your feet,” Ayla snapped, her strides cutting across the room.