Minutes ticked by before Kaedryn politely cleared her throat. Grateful for the interruption, Serenna dragged the back of her hand across her damp brow and reeled her magic to a halt.
“I do not fully understand your power, but it must be stronger.” Kaedryn gestured to Cinderax, enshrined on his pedestal. “The starlight offered must match the might of the dragons—rival that which they were bound by.”
“Sunfire,” Serenna whispered before she could think better of it.
Vesryn’s eyes snapped to hers, fever-bright with clarity. He clutched the Heart and pivoted toward Cinderax. Serenna moved to follow, but he shook his head.
“I can try to summon it again,” he said, studying the glowing relic. “But I need space. Just in case.”
Serenna backed up a few paces alongside Fenn, and Kaedryn followed their lead as the four other guild masters edged farther away. Her heart fluttered anxiously, but she held back her concerns. For once, the prince wasn’t acting on a reckless impulse—he was considering the dangers.
Vesryn strode toward the dragon, lifting the Heart of Stars. His fingers flexed against the relic as he closed his eyes, illumination blooming around him in a halo.
Light detonated. The chamber vanished in a storm of radiance, walls and ceiling swallowed in the blinding eruption. Power thrummed through the air, the pressure crushing the breath from Serenna’s lungs.
She stiffened, blinking into the searing glare, her vision reduced to the pulsing currents radiating from the prince. Silver tendrils of Essence skittered across the marble floor as magic surged, the air warping under a force so powerful it made her ears ring.
Footsteps pounded against stone—Jassyn and Lykor returning—but Serenna barely registered them. Her focus waslocked onto the prince, onto the maelstrom of light unraveling in the chamber.
The Heart vibrated in Vesryn’s hands as his face contorted with effort, fierce determination propelling him to the precipice of his power. Light ignited beneath his skin, Essence blazing through his veins.
Molten pain suddenly cleaved through the bond, tearing a strangled gasp from Serenna’s throat. Her heart thrashed, each beat a drum of dread as the prince hurtled past his limits—no longer wielding power, but becoming it.
“Vesryn, stop!” The words ripped from her, lost to the deafening roar of magic.
Desperate, she reached through the bond and wrenched at his power—if he couldn’t release it himself, then she could try to sever his hold before it consumed him.
Tears stung Serenna’s eyes as she lurched toward the prince—only for Fenn’s claw to clamp down on her shoulder, holding her back.
Tremors rattled through the chamber as fissures raced across the stone floor, webbing outward like fractures in glass. Overhead, the vaulted dome groaned as water began trickling through in thin rivulets.
Kaedryn’s scales erupted to shield herself and her voice rang out, commanding the guild masters to retreat.
At the same time, Lykor and Jassyn wove shields in rapid succession. Fenn joined them, drawing on Serenna’s talent to unfurl violet light and encase the chamber in protective layers.
But it wasn’t enough.
Unchecked, the sunfire raged, devouring the protective threads of magic.
A ragged bellow tore from the prince as he dropped to his knees, the sound seeming to rip from the marrow of his bones.
The chamber sweltered as heat rose in suffocating waves. Serenna gasped, her breath rapid and shallow as the light scalded her skin, blisters swelling under its scorching tide.
The Heart of Stars rose from the prince’s palms, nearly a blur as it hummed with power.
It pulsed one final time—and shattered.
An eruption of prismatic shards and Essence blasted outward, the nova of fractured light flinging Vesryn across the chamber. He slammed into a column with enough force to shudder the stone.
Tearing from Fenn’s grip, Serenna raced to him as the remnants of sunfire fell like burning rain, fizzling out before touching the ground.
Her vision wavered as she reached the prince, but one sight remained clear—the crystal fragments regathered in midair, quivering as if charged with an energy that was far from extinguished.
Serenna helped steady Vesryn as he lurched back to his feet, each of their breaths a ragged rasp, their exposed skin blistered and raw. Yet the fierce light in his eyes defied the pain she sensed, his attention riveted entirely on Cinderax.
The air crackled with power as the luminous shards drifted over the dragon before dusting him like scattered stars.
A tremor ran beneath Serenna’s feet. Then, with a deafening rupture, the dragon’s crystalline prison burst apart.
