But he ignored the provocation and shouldered past her, planting himself over the clutch as though claiming the sand beneath his boots.
“I want half as Tidecrashers,” he said. No glance her way, just the flat, possessive weight of his attention on the eggs.
Serenna flung up her hands. First Skylash, now him. “Stars, is everyone lining up to make demands of me now?”
She shoved into the narrow space between him and the clutch, refusing to cede an inch. “No. I gave my word to Skylash. I won’t risk her fury by turning only a few.”
Lykor’s lip curled, cold peeling off him like exhaled frost. “And you’ve convinced yourself that she won’t turn you inside out the moment she gets what she wants?”
“I’m not stealing from a promise I already made,” Serenna snapped.
Lykor’s nostrils flared, his gaze flicking down briefly to Cinderax at their feet before pinning back on her. “And what ofbalance? Kaedryn speaks of it like prophecy. If we have the power to mold these dragons, we should. Tidecrashers have a different advantage than Stormstrikes and Emberharts.” He stooped to her level, the sneer in his voice scraping the air between them. “Surely I don’t need to spell out the strategy for you.”
Serenna dragged in a slow breath as her beastblood writhed at the challenge. Curling her hands at her sides, she refused the far more satisfying path of letting them find his throat. She hated his bluntness and the undeniability of his logic. But that didn’t make the choice any less volatile.
Skylash’s spark thrummed beneath her ribs, wild and unpredictable as the tempest herself. To bend her vow now felt like casting fire into oil and pretending it wouldn’t erupt.
And yet…Lykor might be right. If she forced herself to look ahead with his ruthlessness instead of fear.
Still, Serenna lifted her chin. “Thenask. And we can discuss it. But don’t barge in here with your demands. The eggs are my responsibility. Not yours.”
“We must see past this coming war,”Cinderax rumbled at last.“To ensure what endures beyond it.”
Serenna nodded, the concession settling heavy across her shoulders. Yielding even a few eggs to Lykor could shatter Skylash’s fragile goodwill before the true battle ever touched the horizon. But in the end, Veyrix’s freedom might be a force strong enough to keep their alliance with her from crumbling.
“Four,” Serenna said. “You can claim four as Tidecrashers. The rest will be Stormstrikes.”
Let Skylash rage if she must—if she even knew how many eggs there were. Serenna would face her wrath when the time came.
Lykor’s shoulders twitched, but whatever argument burned behind his eyes cooled.“Four, then,” he muttered, lifting his palm. Water rose in a ripple above his fingers, glistening in the sunlight. “How do I do it?”
Serenna knelt beside the nearest egg and gestured for him to join her. Warmed sand cradled her knees, the spark in her chest stirring in an anticipatory pulse.
“You offer a path,” she said, coaxing lightning forward as her hand touched the shell. “And trust the dragon to choose how to rise.”
CHAPTER 42
JASSYN
Abreeze skimmed Asharyn’s lake, silver ripples shivering beneath the hush of stars. Jassyn had meant this night to be their final meal before dawn sent him across the realms, but below the lantern glow on the pier, the food lay untouched.
Kaedryn had arranged the table with care—baked fish wrapped in fig leaves, bowls of wild rice, peach pastries still warm from the brick ovens. Yet Jassyn sensed everyone’s nerves were wound too tightly to reach for anything but the silence.
Selecting a pastry, he made himself bite through the sugared crust. But the sweetness curdled bitter on his tongue and he set it aside.
It was past time to stop lingering in the city, past time to stop shoving each day’s burdens into the next. Every squandered hour surrendered ground, another inch for the king’s forces to march closer to Asharyn from their foothold in the marshes.
A week. That was all the reprieve he’d granted the factions after the Maw. But the days trickling by had left him feeling as though he stood beneath a waiting gallows, its shadow stretching long over his decisions.
At least the uneasy week had given them time to lay their paths forward. They’d charted the flight toward the Aetherveil to search for Skylash’s mate and mapped the direction toward the sea, where she claimed a Heart waited in the Maelstrom’s depths. At dawn, he and Serenna would leave the city behind, flying toward the Shattered Reef with Cinderax and Fenn.
A faint clink drew his attention—Fenn, leaning over a teapot on the table, steam curling in ribbons from its spout. The chestnut brew he poured carried a sharp earthen spice.
“What’s in that?” Jassyn asked, grasping for any excuse to break the quiet.
“Cardamom and sage,” Fenn said, filling Serenna’s mug. “Effective for calming nerves.” He leaned past her, his grin all fangs as he caught Vesryn sipping his own. “And—if you steep it long enough—seduction.”
“Seduction?” Vesryn rolled his eyes. The remaining half of his hair spilled loose over one shoulder, sharpening his profile into something feral. Nearly an echo of the untamed edge Fenn wore so easily, but Jassyn would never tell him.
