Jassyn recoiled, disbelief spiking.You can’t be serious!
Vesryn darted beneath another strike, shadows lashing around him.I know what I’m doing,he shot back, flaring a shield against an explosion of ice.There’s something important about the Starshards—I can feel it. It could be the advantage we need.
That gem is absorbing everything you’re throwing at it!Jassyn’s thoughts spiraled as he scrambled for a way to recall the prince. He should have known by now that logic wouldn’t reach his cousin, but he tried anyway.It’s going to—
Vesryn slammed a barricade between them, severing their communication. Irritation flamed hot in Jassyn’s chest.Completely at a loss, he drove a hand through his curls. He was trying to help him—tosavehim—but the prince never listened.
Unsheathing two long knives from his spine, Fenn tracked the beast’s movements, calculating. “If I can take out its legs—”
“Absolutely not,” Serenna said, snatching his arm.
“You can’t fell that thing with those toothpicks,” Lykor growled, pacing like a caged animal, his shoulders jerking tight. “Have you failed to notice that it’s armored in fuckingice?”
Fenn’s grip on his blades tightened. “We can’t just stand here.” He chewed a lip ring, gaze flicking between Serenna and the prince. “I could warp in and grab him.”
“Stay where you are, Lieutenant,” Lykor snapped. Eyes flaring, he whirled to Jassyn. “Are you eventryingto do anything useful?”
Jassyn’s throat constricted, but he forced the words out. “Vesryn’s not leaving without the Starshard.”
Lykor scoffed bitterly, throwing his head back. “Aesar figured as much.” A sneer etched harsh angles into his face before he bit out his next words. “So back to my first plan. I don’t care how you do it—just fucking stop it.”
Jassyn swallowed hard. There was no choice.
Clearing his mind to steady the tumultuous storm, Jassyn drew on his Well. He hauled on telepathy, spiraling his magic outward. The stream of power skated across the frozen expanse, toward the looming beast. Tendrils of magic unfurled, weaving a delicate lattice in the air.
“Hurry!” Serenna’s voice was a distant echo, lost to Jassyn’s ears. In a race against the pulsing crystal, he shoved his arms forward and lashed out with his power, diving into the behemoth’s mind.
When his magic brushed the beast, everything unraveled. The threads of coercion frayed andsnapped. A violent jolterupted in his skull, the backlash a hammerblow striking down the length of his spine.
Jassyn staggered, choking on a gasp as the crystal ravaged his power. The gem didn’t just disintegrate his magic—it latched onto his Well. A voracious force surged, siphoning away his Essence in consuming waves, hollowing him out.
Reeling, Jassyn wrenched himself free with a desperate burst of will, severing his access to Essence before the crystal drained his reserves entirely. Vesryn had failed to mention that the Starshard could drawdirectlyfrom their Well.
Jassyn’s hands trembled uncontrollably as he dropped his arms, unease spreading. He hesitantly met Lykor’s eyes and shook his head.
Coercion—or any magical assault—wouldn’t work.
Lykor’s jaw tightened, but Jassyn felt no judgment—only grim acknowledgment. Something else flickered in his eyes, a fleeting glimmer of concern that dimmed behind a scowl before Jassyn could be certain it had been there at all.
The realization knocked him off balance, as if he’d plunged into another free fall.
For all his scathing commands and stony detachment, Lykor had been worried abouthim. It felt wrong somehow, like a misplaced priority. While perhaps heedless and foolish, Vesryn was the one entangled in a battle, fighting for his life. But Lykor’s focus had landed here—on him.
The behemoth’s roar ripped Jassyn’s attention back across the frozen lake. Whether it was Vesryn’s relentless assault or Jassyn’s failed attempt to breach its mind, it had only grown more enraged.
A piercing whine erupted, so shrill that it sliced through Jassyn’s senses. He clapped his hands over his ears, but the sound blurred his vision, driving stakes of pain through his skull.
The Starshard blazed with a brilliance that rivaled the sun. The creature lunged, jaws gaping wide, a monstrous cavern of ice and death opening.
Vesryn’s fear lurched through the bond—a sudden pulse of dread. Then the shard detonated, unleashing a storm of shadows, barbs of darkness streaking toward the prince.
“No,” Jassyn whispered, the word escaping him as a flicker of knowing seized his chest. Somehow—just for a breath—he could see it, as if the beast’s next move had already been written.
Ears ringing from another deafening roar, Jassyn broke into a sprint as the crystal on its head went still again. Through the billowing cloud, he glimpsed Vesryn encased in a shield of violet light.
Jassyn threw his hands up, ripping spikes of ice from the ground as he ran forward. He had to distract it—dosomething.
The frozen spears flew ahead of him, but the monster lunged at the prince with an alarming burst of speed, its horde of legs screeching across the lake.
