His nonchalance only stoked Serenna’s ire. She glared at him while her body shook from the effort of battling the wraith. Fangs bared, it strained against her magic.
“Now use your power to shove that fiend back to the wall and release it again,” Vesryn said, kicking a boot behind him to lean against the stone.
Serenna’s lungs fought to expand as she panted from the exertion of restraining the beast. “I amnotdoing that.”
Vesryn shrugged, snatching the blade’s hilt out of the air. “No matter.” He waved his dagger. “I will.” Blue force magic warped around the prince as he wrenched the wraith from her power’s grip, steering it across the room. “Now that you’re more angry than afraid, let it get closer and use a shield instead.”
Leaving her no time to react, Vesryn released the wraith. Heart hammering in her ears, Serenna frantically fabricated asloppy ward, copying the lattice the prince unfolded in her mind while the creature charged her. She barely solidified the barrier in time before the monster collided with her power.
Serenna’s eyes bulged when her ward’s threads unraveled from the onslaught. Throwing out a hand, she blasted the wraith away with a punch of force.
Vesryn chuckled, casting shadows to bind the monster back to the opposite wall.
“I’m glad you find this so entertaining,” Serenna bristled, swaying on her feet as Vesryn continued to flip that stupid dagger, indifferent to her annoyance and exhaustion. “How much longer will you insist on this torture?”
“Until you drain your Well.” Vesryn caught his knife without looking while holding her scowl. “Then I’ll infuse you with my power and you’ll keep practicing until you deplete your magic again.”
Serenna’s jaw went slack at what he was demanding of her, and without allowing her to recover from her duel with Ayla. He might as well have ordered her to run around Centarya a hundred times.
“You—you can’t be serious,” she spluttered.
“We’re going to do this every day until I’m satisfied with your abilities.” He balanced the tip of the blade on his finger. “Lucky for you, there’s no short supply of wraith to corral.”
Serenna’s spine stiffened in protest, incredulity ringing in her tone. “Don’t act like you’re not punishing me for—”
“I’m not punishing you,” Vesryn interrupted, almost defensively, snatching his dagger as it tumbled from his finger. “I’mtrainingyou.”
Serenna scoffed. “We clearly have different opinions on the definition of ‘training.’” She folded her bloody arms, still unaffected by the injuries scored into her skin. “You could learn a thing or two from Jassyn. He wouldnever—”
Vesryn threw his knife directly at her face.
With a yelp, Serenna lurched backward, horror paralyzing her mind. Steered by instinct, she snatched the speeding weapon with a whip of force.
Serenna yanked in a sharp breath, released from shock. Grabbing the suspended dagger out of the air, she clenched the leather hilt.How dare he!Fury sharper than the steel in her palm, she lunged across the dungeon for the prince, punching forward with the blade.
Letting her reach him, Vesryn struck faster than a viper’s strike. He seized her wrist in a smack of skin, halting the knife before it bit into the center of his chest.
Bracing her boots against the stone, Serenna wrestled against him, every fiber intent on thrusting the weapon through his leathers. She snatched the prince’s other forearm, digging nails into flesh, fighting to pull herself closer. Muscles straining from the exertion, Serenna screeched in frustration that her physical strength was no match for a warrior.
Vesryn gripped a fistful of her hair, prying her neck back. Serenna gasped when he pushed her arm, forcing the dagger against her throat.
She went still, her pulse helplessly hammering against the icy steel. Serenna’s chest held her breath hostage when the prince lowered his mouth. A flash of desire—that most certainly belonged tohim—irrationally overrode her anger, quelling any remaining resistance.
Blood heating, every nerve in her body fired when Vesryn’s lips skimmed the edge of her ear, sweeping down in a caress from the uppermost point to the lobe. Serenna drew in a rough inhale through her teeth, lashes fluttering against her will when the prince’s mouth brushed the sensitive skin along her neck beside the knife. A wave of flame rippled down her spine, straight to her toes.
Drawing back, Vesryn’s face hovered above hers. He smirked. “You forgot about the wraith.”
Snapped out of the moment, Serenna’s eyes flew wide, locking with his. “You’re joking.”
The creature’s footfalls echoed through the chamber as it bolted toward them. Vesryn’s iron grip prevented her from moving. A heartbeat passed before Serenna flared her magic, encompassing them in a violet dome. She flinched when the wraith’s body crashed against the barrier.
Vesryn’s fingers relaxed their tangled hold in her hair, moving to brush against the base of her neck with feather-light strokes. Serenna’s traitorous magic reacted to the scrape of his calluses in a chaotic frenzy, desperate to intertwine with his power. Shoulders slacking, her common sense wavered alongside the tentative control she had on the ward.
Something bloomed in the space between them. Hauled into the orbit of the prince’s gaze, Serenna’s mind emptied as she fell into the depths of his emerald eyes. Vesryn’s chest collided with hers with every shared breath as they stared at each other, disregarding the wraith smacking against the shield, breaking the silence.
A circular heat looped through Serenna’s chest as she sensed through the bond that the prince’s wants mirrored her own. So close to his mouth, Serenna’s pulse skipped when her thoughts sauntered back to their first frantic kiss days ago. Obviously reading what she was feeling, Vesryn’s lips curved in response.
Any logical thought Serenna had left sailed out of her head, replaced with a reckless need to reach the prince’s mouth. Vesryn inhaled an erratic breath when she leaned into the blade. A warm trickle of blood rolled down Serenna’s neck, but she didn’t feel her skin splitting.
