Steam curled over the shattered ice, twisting upward before dissolving into the sky. Vesryn crouched beside the corpse, fingers skimming across the jagged fragments dispersed across the ground. With a thoughtful frown, he picked up a brittle piece of ice. At his touch, the edges crumbled, slick with melting frost.
“I don’t think this golem was…alive,” Jassyn murmured, more to himself than anyone else. “At least, maybe not in the way we’d understand.” His brows drew together, emphasizing the scar that cut across his brow. “I tried to delve into its mind, but there was nothing. I assumed the Starshard was to blame since it was siphoning my magic, but now…” He shifted his weight and wrapped his cloak tighter around himself. “Someone must’ve made it. How else could it have a Starshard embedded in its skull?”
“Like a construct?” Serenna asked, shivering as she studied the strewn wreckage. A warmer wind stirred, the earth’s exhale weaving around them, scattering faint embers across the snow. “You think someone created it using these frozen elements? Who?”
“I’d rather knowwhyit was guarding this pass,” Lykor muttered, his expression harder than stone, eyes fixed on the horizon.
Serenna followed his line of sight, squinting at the distant mountains. The skyline shimmered with a golden color, the white peaks dissolving at the edges.Probably just a trick of the light. But maybe—
Lykor abruptly pivoted, cutting her musings short. “Fenn can catch up.” He lashed out with a whip of force, gathering their discarded packs. “We can still make a few jumps before nightfall.”
CHAPTER 40
SERENNA
Serenna spluttered and spat a mouthful of bitter tea back into her mug. “S–Sorry,” she coughed, eyes stinging as she dashed a glance at Jassyn across the campfire. “It’s just a little hot.”
Focused on pouring another steaming cup, he didn’t seem to notice the tight smile she wrestled from her grimace. Serenna hastily shoved the drink aside and tucked her gloved hands deep into her cloak.
Amusement spiked through the bond as Vesryn’s thoughts telepathically curled around hers.You’re a horrible liar.
Serenna glared over at him, only now realizing why he’d refused the tea so casually.I don’t want to hurt Jassyn’s feelings,she snipped back.So don’t tell him.
Vesryn arched a brow, the firelight dancing over his face to highlight the curve of his smirk. He chuckled, reclining further against a fallen log. Shedding his gloves—likely to keep them from charring should his magic flare again—he ignited an orb of illumination. The glow cast silver streaks across the surrounding frost-laced pines, their branches shimmering as if dipped in starlight.
“Good luck,” the prince called out wryly as Jassyn rose with two mugs.
Jassyn froze mid-step, his eyes darting between Vesryn and the ridge beyond. On an outcrop, Lykor sat regenerating, scowling up at the sky as twilight surrendered to a scattering of stars.
With an audible inhale, Jassyn straightened, seeming reluctant but resolute as he drifted away from the fire.
Serenna scooted closer to the prince as the logs crackled, embers bursting skyward.
“You aresonosy,” Vesryn scolded, though he shifted to grant her a better view of Jassyn’s hesitant approach.
Serenna leaned against his shoulder, feigning innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Vesryn shook his head in silent bemusement as Jassyn inched toward the ridge. “Two minutes,” he murmured, idly spinning the orb of light above his palm. “Lykor hardly seems to be in the mood for company.”
“Is he ever?” Serenna asked. “But Lykordidsave him today.”
Vesryn shrugged, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they shamelessly watched. “But if Lykor thinks Jassyn is trying to poison him with that excuse for tea, we just might have the best view in all the realms when he hurls Jassyn off that cliff.”
“You’re terrible.” Smothering a laugh, Serenna elbowed the prince in the ribs, but his armor absorbed the blow. “And thanks fornothing. A warning would have been nice.”
Vesryn snorted. “I wanted to see your face when you drank it.”
Serenna wrinkled her nose, the bitter taste still clinging stubbornly to the back of her tongue. “At least Fenn should be back to take over tomorrow.”
The illumination winding around Vesryn’s hand dimmed for a heartbeat before a pulse of Essence brightened it again. Hecleared his throat, but the words that followed sounded forced. “Speaking of our preferred tea master… Where is he?”
Serenna tensed, startled both by the unexpected question and the current of unease drifting down the bond. Before she could interpret the feeling any further, it vanished as if the prince had drawn a curtain between them.
Vesryn rarely let his emotions surface, but when he did, he was quick to bury them—to shut her out. But she’d sensed it, a flicker of disquiet swiftly stifled before the bond went dark. Unsure how to navigate the muted connection, Serenna hesitated before answering.
“Fenn is…” Reaching for his presence, she searched as she had countless times that evening. He wasn’t tethered, so he couldn’t have been captured. At least, that’s what she told herself. “I think he’s still in the same place.” She bit her lip, clamping down on her worry. “But he probably needs to regenerate before he can return, and he usually does better when more stars are out.”
Gaze distant, Vesryn nodded with a low, noncommittal grunt. “We should probably get more firewood.”
