She cast her mind outward, clinging to the gem’s weight where it hummed against her chest. That stockpile of Essence had been sealed away for a moment like this, when hope turned to ash.
Her focus narrowed, mind locking around the shard like a key sliding home.
The gem pulsed, then released the flood.
Serenna twisted the wave of shadows outward, cleaving through her bindings. Essence snarled as it gnashed her brother’s magic.
The restraints shattered.
She lurched upright, lightning clenched in her fists. She tore off her tether, wings snapping wide, vengeance crackling through every joint. Sparks laced across her arms, her own shadows climbing her spine like armor. Her knees shook but held. For a breath, she stood unbroken, rage bracing her against the ring of soldiers.
She could fly.
Diving back into the gem, she seized portaling. Flinging a hand out, she ripped open a seam in the sky—aimed as close to Asharyn as she could reach.
They could escape. Regroup. Return with vengeance. Find Jassyn.
A plume of smoke streaked above the fleet.
Fenn.
Flames guttered along his wings as he plummeted. Tendrils of force trapped him in a net, yanking him toward a waiting ship.
Serenna’s breath broke, her heart plunging with him. Whatever plan she’d imagined vanished.
She was too late.
Chains of shadow lashed across her again—hurled by a dozen hands, coiling around her arms, her wings, her legs.
She struck back in frantic bursts, hurling the force of her Well and the Starshard’s power with wild, primal desperation. Essence flared. Lightning crackled. But for every strand she hacked and severed, two more knotted tighter, closing around her.
It was useless.
Still she fought, dragging more Essence from the shard even as it waned. Her portal collapsed as her power scattered.
Chest heaving, Serenna’s breath sawed through clenched teeth as the Starshard’s glow flickered and died.
Pinned back into place, she couldn’t even flinch as Saundyl emerged from the smoke. His hand shot out, fingers closing around the gem at her throat.
The chain sliced into her skin as he tore it away, the sudden emptiness cleaving fiercer than the cut. Serenna gasped, the jolt ripping through her chest, stealing what she hadn’t surrendered.
A piece of herself.
Behind him, the air convulsed. Essence converged, splitting open a portal above the deck, a scar against the white sails.
She didn’t know where it led. Only that she would be forced through.
“You were foolish, sister,” he said, voice low and cold, his fingers tightening around her Starshard, “to tie your Essence to something so easily claimed.”
CHAPTER 50
LYKOR
There was nothing of Kal left to save.
Not from a death so brutal, so final, that it left the tunnel reeking of marrow. But Lykor launched himself at the dragon anyway with Aesar’s scream still howling inside his skull.
He ripped free from the warp and slammed into the Bramblemaw’s chest. His wings flared, talons clawing its hide like a rabid beast.
