“Wait.” Fenn captured her wrist before she dispensed the shimmering globe of power into his chest. “If I lose my fangs, can you retrieve your magics?”
Fighting the tide of her jumbled emotions, Serenna forced a smile, unsurprised that he’d joke at a time like this.
Holding her breath in anticipation, Serenna spiraled Essence into him. Fenn went rigid, every muscle taut. Fingers seizing, he clasped her hand over his stampeding heart.
Fenn’s features shifted ever so slightly, his gaunt angles softening—nearly impossible to discern if Serenna hadn’t been staring. Still undeniably wraith, his scarlet eyes focused on her. Fenn’s chest heaved as he gulped in air, catching his breath.
Reclaiming her hand, Serenna glanced out to the snowy valley. Her heart plummeted, still sensing the prince a world away.He’ll be here.
Serenna’s pulse skipped when Fenn lightly touched the side of her face, silencing her fretting thoughts. His fingertips pressed a warm blaze against her chilly cheeks, a delicate flame melting frost. Tracing the edge of her jaw, his talons skimmedalong her neck, sliding through her hair to cradle the base of her head.
A shiver rippled through Serenna when their eyes collided.
“Thank you for this gift.” Fenn blinked, the closest she’d seen him to startled. “Your eyes.” Peering further, his gaze danced across hers. “There’s a halo of red surrounding the blue. It’s beautiful,” he breathed. “Like fire enveloping ice. I…” The look of his usual confidence ebbed as his gaze trailed down to her lips.
Serenna shied away from the way her stomach fluttered. Fenn must’ve felt her stiffening because he cleared his throat and untangled himself from her hair.
“How do I use the magics?” he asked, holding his claw above his chest like he could haul Essence out. “It’s force magics, you said?” He cocked his head. “Is it like weaving the winds?”
Torn between emotions, Serenna somehow wanted to burst into tears at the prince’s absence and laugh at Fenn’s antics at the same time.
Opening her mouth to explain how he could use emotions to facilitate channeling his talent, Serenna flushed. Her teeth clicked shut at the memory of Vesryn seducing her into power with desire. She refused to do that to Fenn.
“It might take a little time to perceive your Essence,” Serenna said, sweeping her attention out for one final glance over the rolling snow.He’s not coming.“I can teach you what I know, but your father or Aesar would probably be better instructors.” She focused back on Fenn, guilt souring her gut.“You’re technically a pure-blooded elf, so maybe you’ll manifest your power more easily than I did.”
Fenn inspected his talons. “Sometimes I wonder if the Aelfyn were wraith before they captured the magics of the stars.” He curled his claw into a fist, studying his scarred knuckles in the moonlight. “Why else would we change?”
“That…” Serenna frowned, grabbing the tether. “That is an interesting thought.”
She clasped the gold around her wrist, extinguishing her hope.Vesryn didn’t come. He didn’t… Ribs caving in, a piece of her heart shook loose, tumbling into the depths of her chest.I used Fenn and he thanked me for it.
Not sensing her inner war, Fenn looked up at the sky as he spoke. “I didn’t think you’d be the one inside of me first, but here we are.”
Serenna’s throat clogged as she choked on a laugh. Fenn beamed, brighter than the moons’ light. He snapped his fangs out and then retracted them, as if assuring himself they were still there.
“They’re still longer than Lykor’s,” Serenna heard herself saying, not wanting to ruin his evening just because hers was. She carefully touched the points of her canines with the pad of her thumb, inspecting the change.
Fenn cackled and said, “Now who has the stubby fangs?” He bumped his shoulder into hers. “Are we going to watch these moons kiss or what?”
Heart twisting, something in the way Fenn was looking at her had Serenna convinced that he’d try to pluck a shooting star out of the sky if she asked. Wrapping an arm behind her back, he braced his claw next to her hip, close enough to dispense his radiating heat. All she had to do was lean a fraction to be absorbed by his offered embrace.
Serenna allowed herself to imagine doing it. Falling into him, melting into the cradle of his arms. Letting him distract her, sweep her thoughts away from this night. It would be so easy to crumble her defenses and drown in his lofty boasts.
Fenn doesn’t deserve pieces. He deserves a whole heart. And I’ve already used him enough.
Tucking her shame and sadness away, Serenna bleakly returned Fenn’s smile before gazing up to the eclipsing moons.
There isn’t a way out. My future is with the wraith.
CHAPTER 42
JASSYN
Regretting every foolish decision he’d made the night before, Jassyn’s body shook as he gripped the edges of the porcelain sink. He studied his bleary reflection in the bathing chamber mirror before digging his palms into his eyes.
Reminded of the dreadful experience of withdrawing from Stardust, Jassyn massaged his pounding head. Since dawn, he’d been yielding his stomach, thoroughly convinced that what he was going through now was worse. Much worse.
Why in the bleeding stars did I let Vesryn convince me to drink so much?They had no reason to help themselves to the Vallendes’ wine stores.And that certainly hadn’t been his idea—no matter what the prince had claimed when they were drowning themselves in the spoils.
