Page 66 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Vasharax skidded to a halt in the sand, a low rumble replacing the growl as she searched his unfamiliar face for the grin that always meant pounce again.

Her nostrils flared. Whatever she scented made her leathery frills snap wide. She backed up, one claw at a time, planting herself in front of the nearest cluster of hatchlings.

Serenna’s legs wrenched toward Vasharax against her will. The cavern guards should’ve been between the hatchlings and the reavers by now. Unless the raid in the city had pulled them from their posts.

She grasped for Cinderax’s mind, reaching through the scalebond. “We’re compromised. The city—the hatchlings. Get them out.”

A low chuff answered from the dark.

Obsidian scales glinted as Cinderax stepped from the shadows—fangs bared, steam hissing from his throat. Around him, the hatchlings closed into a rough crescent, claws gouging the sand, wings rustling as every small body turned to face the reavers.

Taryn laughed. “These runts are what the king’s in a frenzy to seize?”

“We have our orders,” Ayla bit out. “Send them to Centarya under guard. Then return to the siege—”

Roars thundered from every direction.

Wings unfurled, fangs catching the firelight. Jaws opened, and a storm broke loose inside the cavern.

All twenty-three dragons charged, hitting the reavers like a breaking tide.

Fire and frost collided—heat searing one side of Serenna’s face while cold cracked through the stone under her boots. Sparks lanced through the air, slamming into reavers in bursts that threw bodies backward.

The entrance darkened behind the reavers. Shadows spilled over the sand, and wraith and druid defenders burst into the cavern, flames crawling over their claws. Fire leapt from fists. At the tip of a druid’s staff, a Starshard shrieked. The nearest reaver burst apart before they could raise a shield, gore slapping against the ground.

Serenna tried to join them—tried to throw herself into that defensive wall—but Ayla’s command crushed the impulse before it became motion.

The ring around the hatchlings buckled as reavers turned from the dragons to meet the defenders flooding in behind them.

Wraith struck from shadows and vanished before reavers could strike with Essence. Druids drove flame low across the sand, fire curling around boots and climbing armor until Centarya’s forces screamed inside smoking armor.

The nursery became a battlefield built around its hatchlings, every defender closing ranks until each path to them had to break through flames or claws.

More Starshards screeched through the smoke and dust as they discharged waves of shadows.

Ayla hesitated. Her grip on Serenna’s spine slackened for one precious second, command thinning to a thread.

Serenna’s fingers twitched, answering her own will, but Ayla’s hold clamped back down.

“Seize their relics!” Ayla snarled to the reavers.

Magic ignited around Ayla as she withdrew a key from her armor. She plunged the metal into Serenna’s collar and twisted. The lock cracked open, and the gold fell away, the thud of it striking sand swallowed by the battle’s roar.

She was free from the tether, but the cage had only changed shape. Ayla needed Essence to win this fight.

Serenna’s Well erupted like a mountain splitting open. Power surged, racing through every limb until her bones felt ready to shatter.

And Fenn—Fenn—his presence finally blazed in her mind so bright she nearly buckled.

Vesryn. Serenna dove down the bridge of his bond. He had to be close. He had to be—

Ayla wrenched her forward.

Serenna grappled for the flood of power.

Ayla seized it first.

Her sister’s magic spliced into the molten starlight, a blue band of force cinching around Serenna’s Essence before she could claim a single current.