The ache collided with fear, knowing he’d never leave her behind. Not while breath still burned in his lungs.
The fleet recovered with brutal speed, snatching Fenn’s fire midair and flinging it back like a spear.
Serenna didn’t hesitate.
Even knowing the shamans could seize her lightning in the same way, she gambled on surprise—because a heartbeat’s delay meant his capture. Or worse.
The spark in her chest ignited, cracking the sky open. Lightning branched down her spine, seared across her wings, and erupted from her talons as she called the storm. She unleashed a chain of sparks straight at the ship that had hurled Fenn’s fire against him.
Let it be enough,she begged.
Lightning collided into the deck with ravaging claws, catapulting splinters skyward. The mast toppled in a groan of timber, rigging and pulleys bursting apart.
Wreathed in flame, figures staggered through the smoke, their screams cut short. One by one, they fell as the hull reared against the ocean’s heave.
A second bolt kindled at her wing tips, fury and desperation fused into one last chance. Fenn could dive. Grab her. They could find Jassyn. Portal out. Escape. Or die trying.
Serenna bared her teeth and channeled the strike toward another ship.
But the lightning veered sideways, wrenched from her control. Anguish slammed inward as the rending bindings surged. Shadows raked deep into her nerves, delivering punishment.
Her ribs strained, crushing her lungs. Essence flayed her raw, scattering her breath. Darkness swallowed her vision. She convulsed against the restraints, thrashing as a scream shredded her throat.
The rending slackened, just enough for her to collapse to the deck. Shadows snapped taut again, crueler than before. Her wing talons scraped uselessly across blood-slick planks as her limbs spasmed, claimed wholly by pain.
She tried to move. To rise. To fight the betrayal tearing through her. But her muscles seized, fingers clawing at the deck as the edges of the world shattered white.
No. No, Saundyl wasn’t—
He wouldn’t—
Somehow, through the writhing wreck of her body, Serenna lifted her head. Chin dragging from the boards, she forced words through gritted teeth.
“Saundyl,” she gasped. “Please.”
He didn’t flinch. No hand raised, no mercy offered. Shadows seethed around his boots, tendrils lashing in time with her convulsions.
He only watched.
But for a heartbeat—just one—something flickered across his face. Guilt. Or resignation. She couldn’t tell.
It vanished as his magic surged, climbing to a new, unrelenting peak.
Serenna’s spine arched, nerves seared to flame. Blood pooled in her mouth, metallic and hot. Agony crashed through her in waves, shattering her mind on the tide.
Time unraveled. She could only count in pain, in spasms, in breath stolen.
When the torment ebbed, Serenna sagged against the deck, gasping. Shadows slid back into place, venomous and precise, pinning her limbs to the boards.
Something inside her cracked. Grief fossilized into fury, bleeding into defiance.
If this was the end, she wouldn’t meet it face down.
She had one reservoir left to fight with. One vessel of power not yet stripped.
The Starshard at her throat.
The tether smothered her Well, but perhaps she could still tap into what she’d stored within the shard.
