Page 16 of The Reckoning of Starlight

But the earth didn’t answer.

Even that belonged to Ayla now.

Fenn’s arm rose in a slow, shaking arc. Every muscle fought the motion until his claw, wreathed in flame, leveled at Serenna’s heart. Their eyes met. His jaw trembled while the rest of him went rigid around the forced aim.

He’d held for her. She could hold for him.

Fenn’s face crumpled, and Serenna watched as he broke.

His mouth opened. “The desert—”

Fire wrenched from him, flames striking Serenna square in the chest.

For one suspended heartbeat, there was only heat and the shock of no air.

Then her leathers split.

Fire licked through the seams, spilling down her sternum. Serenna’s scream ruptured loose as pain flared across her skin, buckling the strength from her knees.

Ayla let the Starshard’s hold slacken.

Serenna hit the stone hard, smoke curling from her chest in gray wisps.

The acrid smell reached her next.

Her own skin, burning with the echo of Fenn’s fire, pulsing with every frantic beat of her heart.

Fenn stood frozen, chest heaving, arm still raised.

“Well,” Ayla said coolly. “That was almost an answer. Again.”

Fenn snarled. “Asharyn—”

“Don’t!” Serenna staggered to her feet. Her legs barely held. “You don’t trade them for me.”

When his eyes found hers, the light in them guttered. For an instant, Fenn only stared at what his flames had done. Then he turned to Ayla, his voice scraped bare.

“They’re in Asharyn.”

“Fenn—”

“Northeast of the marshes where Elashor has forces gathered.”

Ayla tilted her head. “Now, was that so hard?”

Before Serenna could drag another word past her teeth, fire flew from Fenn again. It launched from his cell, molten and bright, and struck her shoulder.

Another scream shredded her throat as flame devoured the armor at her collar, peeled it open, and burrowed into skin.

Serenna crumpled to her knees, palms slapping cold stone. The world narrowed to the breath blistering her lungs, each inhale snagging against the burns.

Across the corridor, Fenn staggered and collapsed, wings sagging until they dragged the floor behind him.

“No…” His voice barely formed the word. “I answered.”

His fingers shook as he reached for her across the hall. “She-elf, I didn’t…”

But Ayla and Taryn stood between them.