Page 103 of The Reckoning of Starlight

The sky opened into a void. Tucking her wings, she shot through in pursuit.

A river spilled from the Everfrost Caverns, a silver scar winding between frozen cliffs beneath low-hanging clouds. The rangers had fanned out across the west, their dracovae hunting warmer thermals, while Serenna, Vesryn, and Fenn flew into the unmapped north.

Serenna sliced through the currents until she flanked Vesryn and Fenn, her braid snapping behind her. Fenn cackled as he warped circles around the prince while Vesryn sent fire ripping through each afterimage Fenn left behind.

Fenn split the air with a portal and plunged through, emerging miles ahead.

With each rift, the mountains unraveled into jagged ridges, their peaks sheared by ages of wind. Serenna settled into Vesryn’s wake, letting the air he carved steal some of the strain.

They vaulted through portal after portal as the sun climbed, crossing frostbitten plains veined with rivers and fractured by ice. Steam silvered the fault lines below, where warmth seeped through and pale mosses clung to exposed stone. Serenna’s muscles burned with each wingbeat as the sky fought her for every inch.

Far ahead, a shimmer wavered against the horizon.

Fenn banked sharply, air thundering beneath him as he pulled up short. Wild delight broke across his face—the first Serenna had seen in days.

He pointed with a talon, breath misting. “Tell me your dragonsight can see that even if your elf eyes can’t.”

Vesryn’s pupils thinned to draconic slits as he searched the distance. “See what?”

Fenn motioned wildly. “Sky islands. Like your academy but bigger. Much bigger.”

Vesryn’s skepticism vanished. He tore open a portal and dove through without waiting.

Fenn flashed Serenna a triumphant grin. She shook her head, and they surged through the rift.

On the other side, the world broke open.

Serenna flared her wings and swept into a hover with Vesryn and Fenn, the sudden resistance jarring her shoulders.

The Aetherveil rose before them—floating islands strewn like fragments of a broken crown. Dozens at first, then hundreds, suspended at staggering heights, their jagged undersides trailing curtains of mist and vines. Root bridges spanned between neighboring islands, swaying in their slow drift. Wind hummed through the archipelago, a vibration Serenna felt through her connection to the earth.

“Look at that,” Fenn murmured. “Some of the sky islands have towers.”

Serenna followed his gesture farther out, where pale spires climbed in slender twists, their contours bending as if they’d been grown rather than built.

“The druids must’ve lived here once,” Vesryn said. “We could make this our new base.”

“How?” Serenna countered. “Not everyone has wings or the ability to portal.”

“And Blossom didn’t carve shelter into the Everfrost so you could uproot everyone the instant a sky castle caught your eye,” Fenn added.

“I’d rather hold the skies than rot underground.” Vesryn’s wing talons clacked together before he angled toward the nearest island. “Let’s get closer.”

“We don’t even know if we’re alone here,” Serenna said, tilting her wings into a higher current. “We should regroup with—”

Vesryn was already gone, racing toward the isle without looking back.

“He’s never going to listen, is he?” Serenna mumbled.

“You know he only ignores you because of the face you make,” Fenn said before peeling off after him.

Serenna tipped into pursuit, exasperation hissing between her teeth. Above them, more islands hung in ascending tiers, surfacing through layered clouds like stepping stones.

The sky pulsed.

The first metallic note pulled every tendon along Serenna’s wings taut.

A Starshard.