Perhaps not her will alone, then. He must’ve been directing more of the magic than she realized.
The lattice suddenly buckled. Serenna stiffened as light flared beneath Fenn’s armor in a blinding rush. Essence surged as a third thread snapped into the flow with enough force to wrench the current taut.
Serenna’s breath locked. “You gave him a Starshard?”
“I…” Vesryn swayed, his dislocated shoulder grinding in a pulse of pain she felt lancing through her own. His fingers tightened on his shard. “It’s possible I didn’t giveallthe gems we found to Kaedryn.” His unswollen eye flicked toward the lightstreaming through Fenn’s torn leathers before he mumbled, “Figured he could use one.”
Serenna pressed her lips together, hearing everything he didn’t admit—that maybe with access to all of the talents, Fenn might stand a better chance of keepingheralive.
Shaking her head, she forced her attention back to mending. Essence curved and coiled, light sweeping between all three Starshards in a seamless circuit.
And somehow—though he lay unconscious—Fenn’s magic answered, threading through the weave as naturally as if it had always belonged there. Questions rose at the edge of Serenna’s concentration, but she let them scatter.
“He wasn’t even supposed to be there,” Vesryn said, watching the blood trace a slow descent down Fenn’s temple. “I was too busy fighting off a razorwing and missed a bolt of lightning. It clipped Naru’s wing.”
He glanced toward the dracovae, remorse twisting his face. Serenna caught a shard of the memory—sparks turning flight feathers to ash, Naru’s screech ripping through the chaos as he fought to stay aloft.
“Then that sky-maggot knocked me off,” Vesryn continued. “Couldn’t get my own wings under me.”
A breath escaped him that only pretended to be a scoff.
“Fenn reached me before I hit the ground.” With a wince he shifted, charred leathers creaking against stone. “He tried to warp us clear, but lightning hit as we jumped. Blew us both out of the sky. We slammed into these peaks.”
Serenna let Vesryn’s voice roll past her as she worked, brushing damp strands of hair from Fenn’s brow. A gash curved from the point of his ear to the back of his skull where bone had nearly split. She pressed her fingers to the bruised echo of impact, guiding Essence beneath his skin in a steady pour until the swelling began to subside.
Then she sent the current deeper—soothing bruised ribs, coaxing torn wing membranes back into alignment, and finally setting the shattered wreckage of both legs.
“If I would’ve just been faster,” Vesryn said, his voice tightening into its familiar spiral. “Diverted the lightning before—”
“Then you’d be the one we’re mending,” Serenna cut in gently. “And you’d hate that even more if Fenn were the one piecingyoutogether.”
Vesryn didn’t argue, but stubborn denial bristled through the bond.
“He shouldn’t have done that for me,” he muttered, sinking back on his heels.
Silence pooled between them as evening crept into the hollows of the Maw, shadows stretching long across the stone. Serenna rolled her shoulders, leaning more heavily on Vesryn’s power now that her own gem’s reserves were guttering out. When the final fractures in Fenn’s legs drew shut, he stirred beneath her palms.
A dramatic groan rumbled from his chest, followed by a sharp intake of breath. His eyes snapped open, wild and unfocused, and for a heartbeat she wasn’t certain he saw either of them.
Fenn lurched upright.
The motion blurred, talons flying to his head. Not to the place she’d mended, but to the uninjured side, digging in as though the blow had landedthereinstead.
His claw lingered a moment before sliding down to grip his left shoulder, which hadn’t been harmed at all.
“Fenn,” Serenna said softly, setting a hand on his arm. “It’s okay, you’re…”
The rest caught in her throat as his eyes flared, finding her with startling clarity before whipping toward Vesryn.
“Why…” His voice rasped before he cleared it. “Why can I feel the princeling’s shoulder?”
A cold prickle sluiced down Serenna’s spine. Vesryn flinched as if struck, his unswollen eye widening as he searched Fenn’s face.
In a breathless rush, Serenna asked, “What do you mean?”
Even as the words left her mouth, something misaligned tugged at the frayed edge of her awareness. In the hollow of her Well, the two familiar bonds gleamed silver, each anchored to a different heart.
They should never have touched.
