Together, she and Jassyn forced one last push and broke clear of the sea.
The fleet loomed in the sun’s glare, hulls cutting forward to close the distance as their wings thrashed to climb. Heavy and sodden, Fenn lurched between them, his breath hitching in ragged bursts as he blinked against the light. His own wings strummed in broken beats, threatening collapse more than rise.
But the sea didn’t claim him. The thought had barely begun to steady Serenna when the skyscreamed.
A metallic shriek raked through her teeth and down her spine, dread seizing her so hard her flight faltered.
She knew that sound.
A breath later, the explosion came. Across the water, a lance of shadows speared from the sea. The blast tore through a ship, hurling splinters of wood and rigging into the air.
Cinderax hissed and veered as debris rained past them.
Serenna’s gaze snapped to where the Starshard had struck. The sea bucked as breakers surged, serrated fins slicing foam before the creature disappeared back into the deep.
It wasn’t hunting them. Not while the fleet blazed Essence across the waves like baited lines.
“We need to portal,” Jassyn said, tracking the armada before Serenna could say the words herself.
“Fenn,” she rasped, wings burning under his weight. “Can you open one?”
Fenn coughed and nodded, chest rattling as he steadied his wings. He stripped the tether from his finger, only for it to slip from his weakened grip and vanish beneath the waves. Essence flickered around him, but before he could raise a trembling claw, the sea erupted again close to the fleet.
The creature breached with volcanic violence. Waves heaved skyward as lightning cracked down its spine. The Starshard embedded in its skull flared, thenshrieked, unleashing a cataclysm of shadows so complete it devoured sound.
Serenna’s vision fractured as another ship detonated, the blast knocking her wings off balance and launching shattered timber and canvas into the air.
Jassyn cursed, his voice rising as he shouted for Fenn to hurry. Before Serenna could rip the tether from her finger and use her Starshard to tear open a portal herself, a flash of gold split the sky.
A barbed harpoon streaked toward the sea warden, its rope snapping taut. She didn’t look to see which ship fired it, only watched the impact, metal punching into scaled flesh.
A keening wail tore from the beast. Fins battered the sea as the creature writhed, sparks scattering from its body. The Starshard blazed bright and discharged a merciless shockwave of force.
The burst of Essence sheared between them, ripping Serenna’s grip from Fenn and pitching the world sideways.
She spun. Her vision spiraled, all breath crushed from her lungs.
As her wings fought to remember the sky, a ship’s mast and rigging rushed up beneath her.
Across the gap between another vessel, she barely registered the gold before it struck.
The harpoon lanced through the air and punctured Jassyn’s wing, membrane shredding beneath the impact. Blood sprayed as the line yanked him back so violently his wings folded at impossible angles. He twisted out of the sky, swallowed by a forest of sails.
Serenna’s mouth opened, but the cry never made it past her throat. Jassyn’s blood still misted the air as she whirled, frantic now, searching for Fenn.
She found him staggering through the sky, fangs bared, his gaze fixed on Cinderax soaring above him. He thrust out an arm, the Heart of Stars burning in his palm like a captive sun.
“Go!” he roared at the dragon, ripping open a portal. “Take it and go!”
Cinderax dove, jaws clamping shut around the relic’s glow. Fenn unleashed one final burst of force, hurling the dragon into the void before the rift collapsed shut behind him.
Serenna’s attention wrenched back to the armada below, searching the decks and the churning waves between ships.
She never found where Jassyn fell.
Another harpoon whipped through the air and slammed into her thigh. Muscle split around the metal, blinding agony vaulting up her spine. Her wings spasmed as the rope jerked taut, lightning erupting wild from her fingertips.
Her scream tore loose as the line ripped her from the air. The world tipped—sky gone, sea rushing up—until the impact ofwater knocked the air from her lungs and silence slammed cold around her.
