Just beyond the tunnel, the air shuddered with Essence. Magic pounded against Serenna’s senses, a faint residue of fire scorching close.
Someone was bleeding Essence and earth while a crowd roared for more.
Sweat prickled beneath her hair as the rhythm shifted—footsteps striking stone, each measured clip ratcheting her pulse. She peered toward the open wall, breath catching.
The barrier quivered as painted nails skimmed across its surface. The shield fractured, then shattered in strands of violet light.
Ayla stepped through.
Crimson leathers molded her half sister’s sinuous frame, every line honed and gleaming. Ayla crossed her arms, regarding Serenna slumped on the floor like something foul scraped fromher boot. At her brow, a diadem framed a Starshard—the same jewelry she’d worn while leading the raid on Lykor’s fortress.
A smile razored across Ayla’s lips. But Serenna was already looking past it, drawn by a hum that vibrated wrong.
To the chain at Ayla’s throat.
HerStarshard, worn like a charm.
“There you are,” Ayla crooned. “Centarya’s fallen star, returned.”
Returned. As if she’d been granted a choice.
If her sister stood here, wielding her power like a crown, then this wasn’t some prison cobbled in a war camp. They’d dragged her back across the realms. And whatever waited for her at the end of the tunnel…
Ayla advanced a pace, unhurried. “You missed your moment to shine,” she said, her voice a velvet blade, “in the academy’sgrandtournament with the whole realm watching.”
She flicked her wrist, conjuring a globe of light between them, its glow crawling across the stone. “But instead, you ran. Straight into the teeth of treason. So I’m stepping in tosponsoryou, as Alari’s queen, for this new tournament, with far more at stake.” Her smile curved, indulgent with every word drawn. “The capital is ravenous to see if you’re worth forgiving.”
Serenna’s pulse lurched as she recalled a time when the initiates at Centarya had been eager to compete for Vesryn’s promised positions on the warfront.
Whatever waited beyond the tunnel would be no proving ground. It would be a fight. Always entertainment. Always for the capital. Even now, after everything, they still wanted a show.
And why wouldn’t they? It was never their blood soaking the earth.
Ayla’s fingers drifted to the chain at her throat, stroking the gem that wasn’t hers. The Starshard glimmered from within, light flaring as her nail scraped across its surface.
Serenna gasped.
A violent pull hooked through her chest andwrenched. Her body pitched forward from where she sat, knees cracking against stone as she collapsed at Ayla’s feet.
“Curious, isn’t it?” Ayla asked lightly. “We assumed you’d need to be broken with coercion. But instead…” Her eyes glittered with glacial malice. “You handed us the key to your compliance.”
Ayla flicked the Starshard.
Light seared behind Serenna’s eyes. A lock in her mind turned, a door swinging wide as something merciless slipped through and latched itself inside.
Her spine snapped into motion, breath knocked loose in a scraping rush. Muscles moved without her consent, hauling her body upright to kneel in jerking obedience.
She might have screamed. If her voice still belonged to her.
“The moment you offered your blood to this pretty thing,” Ayla murmured, tapping the gem, “you bound yourself to the vessel. And vessels…” She raked her fingernail down the crystal. Serenna convulsed as the touch scored straight down her spine. “…can be claimed.”
Slow and prowling, Ayla glided around her in a silent sweep, while Serenna was forced motionless at the center of her orbit.
“You thought you understood these artifacts, didn’t you? That the gems only store Essence.” She leaned close, words a breath at Serenna’s ear. “But you never heard the whispers of those who forged them. You never stood a chance.”
Ayla snatched the Starshard in her fist. Serenna’s body flinched, lightning bursting across her skin in unsummoned arcs. Ayla smirked, watching the sparks scatter. She released the gem and crouched, one finger sliding beneath Serenna’s chin, forcing her face upward until their gazes locked.
“I haveourdear brother to thank for delivering all of this lovely power, like an obedient little hound.” Ayla’s caress sharpened, nails digging into Serenna’s jaw. “And now it belongs to me.”
