CHAPTER 1
JASSYN
Achill seeped through Jassyn’s veins, an insidious ice crawling deeper into his bones. His strength bled out, each muscle becoming an anchor, dragging him down.
A fog blanketed his mind, turning his thoughts sluggish beneath its numbing grip. He strained to reach through the haze—to force himself to move—but his body remained unresponsive.
He became aware of a distant tug on his leathers, hauling him along. Unable to focus, the world wavered to smudged fragments as night closed in. Grass whispered against his cheek before a sudden slap cracked across his face.
Jassyn’s eyes flew open as water engulfed him, blurring his vision. His chest convulsed from the shock, but instead of air, the stream crashed into his mouth.
He couldn’t move. Couldn’t feel his limbs. Could hardly register whatever thudded into his shoulder as his perception of Essence vanished, like a flame suddenly snuffed out.
One of his golden knives must’ve impaled him, tethering him.
Lykor.
Memories slammed into him, as relentless as the water flooding his lungs. Lykor hadbittenhim—paralyzing him somehow—lashing out in a desperate, animalistic fury after Jassyn had breached his consciousness.
His chest burned as water rushed down his throat. He needed to reach the surface. To breathe. To escape. But he was drowning.
Helpless.
Panic ignited. Jassyn’s mind clawed for control but his body refused him, imprisoned by the crippling grip.
He couldn’t let it end here. His survival wasn’t just about him—he had to tell the prince about Lykor and the visions he’d seen through his eyes. Serenna. Aesar. The wraith. The king.
Jassyn reached for Vesryn through the bond, but only emptiness answered—the golden blade in his shoulder had silenced his power. Surely the prince would sense it, like the void Serenna’s disappearance had left behind. He’d been reluctant to form the connection when the prince first suggested it, back when they were fleeing Centarya—but now, its existence might be the only thing that could save his life.
After portaling him to the jungle earlier in the evening, Vesryn had returned to the rangers. But he’d come searching. He had to. He’d find him here and rescue him from this sinking fate.
Dark flecks swam across Jassyn’s vision as his body spasmed from the lack of air. A faint tingling nipped at his fingertips. Perhaps this immobilizing effect was beginning to relinquish its iron hold. Buoyed by the foreign haze, he drifted between thoughts, his heartbeat slowing to a crawl.
Something shamefully familiar stirred—the euphoric rush, a dangerous craving burning with insatiable hunger. How absurd to desire that feeling even now, to feel a twisted satisfaction as he slipped further from himself.
What am I doing?The thought surfaced slowly, then sharpened.It’s just water.
Wrestling his mind into submission, Jassyn battled the fog. He focused on the current humming around him, swirling against his skin. Beneath it, the pulse of the earth waited.
His wrists twitched as he reached outward, willing the stream to bend. The water peeled away smoothly, rippling open in a shimmering arc.
For a moment, triumph flickered. But then realization struck—he’d been floating at the surface. He plunged a few feet through the sudden pocket of emptiness, colliding with the rocky bed below.
Air. He needed air.
Grounding his spinning head, Jassyn dug his fingers into pebbles, clinging to the roughness. By sheer force of will, he pried his mouth open, wrenching the water from his body. Liquid spilled out of him, a dam breaking as he convulsed with the motion.
Then a violent gasp filled his lungs. He sputtered and coughed, forcing out the last dregs. Still unable to move, he panted, but clarity returned with each inhale.
A sudden burst of Essence ripped through the glade. Jassyn lay face down in the exposed stream, water parting around him. His muscles quivered in a failed attempt to lift his head as heavy boots pounded against the earth, each step echoing in his chest.Stars, please let it be Vesryn. Not Lykor, coming back to finish the job.
“Jassyn!” The prince’s alarmed voice cut through the silence.
Before his cousin reached him, ribbons of force cocooned Jassyn’s body. Vesryn’s magic lifted him from the rocky bed, setting him gently onto the grass.
Jassyn released his tenuous control of the current and the stream clapped back together.
The prince dropped beside him, already gripping the knife lodged in his shoulder, yanking the blade free. Essence surged back into Jassyn’s awareness. Their bond blazed to life, Vesryn’s presence shining in his mind.
