But nothing gutted him more than knowing he couldn’t protect Jassyn without relinquishing part of the fight to someone else.
And not just someone who would say yes without hesitation.Her.
It didn’t matter that she hadn’t witnessed the moment he broke. Jassyn’s mouth on his. Stealing the words he’d been trying to force out. That kiss burned through Lykor’s restraint harder than any goodbye spoken aloud. She hadn’t watched him walk away either, pretending every step didn’t shatter him.
Lykor would rather throw himself into the Maw alone, let the storm flay him, than shape the plea she was about to hear. Asking for help wasn’t strategy. It was surrender. And his pride felt the wound of it, pacing and baring its teeth.
But Trella would be the one to burn for his stubbornness. If he fell before stopping Rimeclaw or reaching Jassyn, then every sacrifice he’d made would be worthless.
“Fly with me.” Lykor hurled the words like an order. Anything softer would’ve exposed his throat. “Use your druid flame to help shield that”—he flung a hand at Trella pacing outside—“unruly beast. I’ll handle whatever the fuck Rimeclaw unleashes.”
Or die trying.
He almost snarled when Zaeryn nodded, her eyes softening with something he didn’t want to see. Pity. Or worse, understanding.
Outside, Trella snapped at Zaeryn’s dracovae, feathers flared and eyes gone feral. Agitated. A storm caged under her scales, ready to rip the sky.
Jassyn had sent him from the fight and expected him to stay gone.
Lykor was done pretending he could survive that.
CHAPTER 33
SERENNA
The base of the cavern shimmered around Serenna and Jassyn like a vein of a fractured gem, the faceted pathways sweeping upward toward the distant pinprick of sky. Encased in crystal before them, sparks crawled over the ridge of Skylash’s spine, leaping from scale to scale.
Serenna reached into her satchel with trembling fingers, the stone beneath her boots thrumming with power. The moment she drew the Heart of Stars free, the relic ignited with the colors of her talents, light shining between her knuckles.
Something brushed her awareness—a presence vast enough to steal her breath—and she nearly dropped the Heart. Centuries of fury pressed against her thoughts, a storm trapped in stillness.
“I sense her,” Serenna whispered, tearing her gaze away to meet Jassyn’s eyes. “I haven’t heard any dragon in weeks, but now…” Her pulse skipped. “She’s stirring.”
“Does she know we’re here to free her?” Jassyn asked, wiping sweat from his brow despite the chamber holding a chill.
Serenna shook her head. “I don’t know. I—”
Vesryn’s presence slammed into her mind like a falling star, the bond flaring bright.“We’re losing the summit.”
A vision detonated behind her eyes.
Fully bonded now, Serenna didn’t just see through him. She wasinhis body, lungs burning with smoke as Naru’s wings beat beneath the prince, riding through a sky raining fire.
The Blackreach roiled below—rangers sweeping in formation over the fleet on their dracovae, unleashing gouts of molten flame onto ships cutting across dark water. Fire charred hulls and raced up white sails, the lake itself boiling.
But the king’s forces had command over the earth and struck back—seizing the druids’ fire and turning it against them. They bent the Maw’s lightning into volleys, twisting each charge into spears that ripped upward to clash with dracovae and fliers.
Serenna caught flashes of Kaedryn’s scalebound, Lykor’s wraith, and the children of earth and starlight in flight—battered by the storm they were trying to divert.
Her stomach lurched when the sky changed pitch.
Razorwings burst through the fray—nearly as many as the dracovae—their glass-bright wings slicing through the smoke.
Vesryn’s vision whipped sideways as one plunged past like an arrow, its flight a shriek of vibrating air. The rider lay harnessed and crouched along its sleek spine, no Essence flaring around them, the razorwing carrying all the violence.
Mandibles twitching, the beast shot straight for Naru’s throat, needle legs stabbing for purchase under the feathers at his jaw. Naru struck back, beak snapping shut on empty air as the creature veered aside.
Vesryn yanked fire into his palm and flung it at the razorwing’s compound eyes point-blank.
