As if this were only sport. Like she wouldn’tdieif she lost.
Before she could prepare—let alone respond—a pulse of Essence burst from the prince, punching the sky with a taunt.
Serenna’s heart seized, the clawed tips of her wings snapping shut as she sensed the storm turn. Its eye locked onto him. Wind rushed back as the sky split open. Blinding and merciless, a bolt of light forked downward—aimed straight for his heart.
Vesryn didn’t dodge. Didn’t shield.
Realization struck like a blow, and Serenna flung out a hand. “You stars-cursed bastard!”
Reaching for the static, she wrenched the lightning off its path. The current veered toward her, slamming harmlessly against her palm even as she flinched from the impact.
Breath tearing through her chest, Serenna hurled the bolt back into the clouds. The lightning twisted into the storm, swallowed by the writhing lattice of sparks.
“Try to keep up!” Vesryn shouted before she could swear at him again.
He became a blur, arrowing deeper into the Maw, wings cleaving reckless arcs. Essence flared just as erratically around him, a crackling beacon daring the tempest to strike.
Above, another charge kindled. The sky seethed, a roiling mass of black and gray fissured with light. Clouds convulsed as another burst of lightning lanced toward him.
A hiss tore through Serenna’s teeth as she tucked her wings and dove after him, slicing through the battering currents.
Reaching again, she snatched the bolt a heartbeat before it hit him. Sparks thrashed around her arm before she cast the current aside. The lightning struck a distant crag and shattered stone, an explosive echo rolling like thunder as they streaked past.
Serenna’s muscles burned as the wind howled around her, rattling her scales and jolting her with every tilt. The air turned punishing, currents of heat and cold trading blows until every joint screamed to hold her aloft.
Yet a reckless hunger rose to meet the storm. The beastblood in her veins hadn’t affected her much before, but now it reared its head at Vesryn’s challenge—the way he dangled himself before the lightning, trusting her to steal its fury before it struck.
He’d always done this, pushed her to the edge. Not to break her or watch her fall, but to see if she’d rise.
The wind carried Vesryn’s laugh as he circled wide. “You’re getting faster!”
“And you’re getting stupider!” Serenna shot back, though she couldn’t hide the grin tugging at her mouth.
Smirking, Vesryn twisted midair to face her, flying backward with infuriating ease. “Youasked for practice.” He launched another flare of Essence skyward. “I’m just giving you something to work with.”
“I doubt Jassyn’s going to taunt the storm—unlike you!” Serenna banked after him as he vanished behind a shattered peak.
But he wasn’t wrong. Better to master the elements now than falter when she flew in earnest with Jassyn at dawn.
Heart pounding hard enough to bruise her ribs, Serenna chased after the prince. As the next blinding bolt speared down to smite him, the claws on her wing tipsreached.
The talons raked skyward, and the lightning banked. She felt the charge before it struck—a shudder echoing through her membranes as the lightning leapt into her waiting claws.
Twin orbs of static pooled between her wings, hissing with leashed heat. Gritting her teeth, Serenna drew the current across her shoulders and down her arms, unraveling the energy strand by strand until the sparks dissolved into the wind.
“You’re more prepared than you think,” Vesryn called, wheeling back toward her. “You’re ready for what waits ahead.”
Wind tore silver hair across his brow, lightning flickering wild across his eyes. He banked around her, close enough that the downstroke of his wings struck hers.
A rush of air knocked her off balance before she caught herself.
Holding her gaze, he looped again—closer this time—circling with the precision of a predator. The claws on their wings grazedin passing, talons striking together like blades kissing in the dark.
Every muscle drew taut as Serenna tracked him, bracing for whatever he might unleash next.
But when Vesryn swooped, she still wasn’t ready.
He snatched her by the waist with those calloused hands and yanked her against his chest.Needslammed through the bond like the collision itself.
