“Do you hear that?” she whispered.
Vesryn paused, tilting his head. A thin veil of fog swirled around his boots, his orbs of light dimming slightly as he strained to listen. “Hear what?”
“That…thudding.” Serenna motioned uncertainly, the sound echoing from every direction. “Maybe we should wait for Jassyn to return.” A shadow of doubt slithered into her mind, whispering that she might not be prepared for this. “Aside from today, I haven’t manipulated this branch of elemental power before, and he’s—”
“Currently in the middle of nowhere, leagues away from here,” Vesryn finished as he continued down the path, his steps steady despite the uneven terrain. “You survived enemy territory, incinerated a renegade wraith leader—which I stillneed the full story of—and you’ve already located one Heart. I’d say you’re ready for a new challenge.”
“But Fenn and I nearlydiedretrieving the last one,” Serenna countered, her voice rising, every instinct urging caution against the prince’s certainty. Her mind flashed to the memories of collapsing stone and magma closing in. “I just want to be careful if we find another relic. That’s all.”
“Well, you’re withmethis time,” Vesryn muttered, irritation clipping every syllable. His tone softened, though it carried the infuriating sharpness of someone who believed every word. “I’ve never put you in a situation I didn’t think you could handle.”
Serenna couldn’t stifle the faint huff that escaped her, a slip of disbelief. She opened her mouth when his spreading smirk dared her to argue, but thought better of it and exhaled a loaded sigh instead. She should’ve known the prince would push her past what she thought were her limits—he always did.
With every step downward, the air thickened, heavy with the weight of the tree’s ancient breath. Growing cooler and more pungent, the air saturated her lungs with the sour tang of decay and the loamy musk of damp earth.
“Careful,” Vesryn warned, extending a hand after stepping over a lattice of knotted vines.
Serenna gripped his palm and scrambled over. Ahead, the path tapered, braided roots curling upward into an archway, funneling them deeper down the tree’s throat.
Shadows leaped along the narrowing walls, contorting into disturbingly lifelike shapes. Serenna’s skin pebbled as motion wavered at the edge of her vision. She edged away from the trailing vines, unable to shake the feeling that the plants might lash out and ensnare them. Or drag them further into this tunnel that was beginning to feel like a living tomb.
Sensing Vesryn’s burning curiosity—the complete opposite of her uncertainty—Serenna cast a glance at him. His restlessfingers twirled, weaving a thin stream of illumination around his hands. Flicking his wrist, he sent the shimmering strand of liquid starlight gliding forward to join his globes of illumination.
But the darkness peeled away as the passage spilled them out of the tunnel. “‘The shade of a glade,’” Serenna whispered, her eyes drifting up to trace the ceiling of the vast, hollow chamber. “We must be underneath the camp then. How far down did we go?”
Her question hung unanswered while Vesryn’s attention riveted on the center of the chamber. Massive roots sprawled across the ground like the limbs of a great beast, curling upward and twining together to form a pedestal. Nestled among the gnarled mass rested a Heart of Stars, the prism bathed in the tree’s eerie jade glow.
Vesryn took a step forward, but Serenna seized his arm. “Wait!”
Cold unease laced through her veins as her eyes darted across the vaulted cavern. Beside the Heart’s resting place stood something else—vines braided tightly to form a staff, a guardian watching over the relic. At its peak rested a crystal, a sharp and glinting triangular gem, its facets familiar—much like the strange jewel she’d seen in Ayla’s diadem.
Serenna’s fingers tightened against the prince. “What’s on top of that staff?” she asked, her voice taut as she pointed.
Vesryn’s gaze lingered on it, interest kindling. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said with a shrug.
Lifting a hand, he summoned a thread of Essence, directing it toward the crystal fragment. “I wonder—”
Before he could finish, the gem flared to life. The air around the crystal shard trembled, faint distortions rippling outward. A burst of ebon light erupted from its core—if it could even be called light at all. The glow was deeper than darkness,a midnight abyss splintering open to devour the brightness around it.
Vesryn staggered, his orbs of illumination and raw stream of Essence wrenched from his grasp, surging toward the staff. Consumed without a trace, the magic vanished the instant it touched the shard, leaving behind a shadowed glow.
Now lit only by the veins of green light flickering in the bark, the chamber descended into an oppressive silence. Even the tree’s thrumming had ceased, replaced by a stillness so dreadful it seemed to suck the air from the cavern.
Serenna’s breath rasped in her ears as her eyes locked with Vesryn’s.
“That crystal shard just siphoned my magic,” he said in a hushed voice, his gaze returning to top of the staff as the light within the gem faded to a faint, glimmering void. Alarm flickered across his face, but it didn’t mask the fascination pulsing down the bond. His hand twitched, as if tempted to reach for the fragment. Mesmerized, he took a step closer to the staff, ignoring the Heart. “I think—”
A high-pitched whine swelled, rapidly rising to a keening wail. Serenna clutched her ears, the sound slamming into her skull like lightning given voice.
Brilliance erupted from the crystal, a tidal wave of illumination detonating outward.
Flinging her hands forward, Serenna wove a shield in frantic desperation, ribbons of magic knotting together.
It didn’t matter.
The torrent of light devoured the chamber in a flash brighter than an exploding sun, shattering her ward.
CHAPTER 27
