Page 196 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Vesryn’s mouth curved with the same reckless delight he’d worn while taunting the wind gliders, trailing prismatic Essence for them to chase. “And if we ignite our circle first, every channeler focuses on us. Takes pressure off the dracovae too.”

Serenna’s heartbeat stumbled as she glanced at Vasharax hovering at Fenn’s side. She’d meant to draw danger away from the hatchlings, not drag one into it.

“Vasharax stays with the circles,” she said, pointing toward the rings flashing in and out through Skylash’s storm.

The hatchling’s molten eyes flared. Her mind brushed Serenna’s in a pulse of fear and excitement, the two tangled too tightly to separate, crackling like static before a strike.

“You heard her,” Fenn said, snatching for the dragon.

Vasharax folded one wing, slipped between his claws, and shot out on his other side with a defiant puff of smoke.

Serenna leveled a look at Fenn as his wing dipped to make room for Vasharax, then turned to the hatchling. “Fine,” she muttered. “Stay by his side or I’ll portal you out by the tail.”

Fenn dropped his cloaking. The weightless veil dissolved around them, leaving them exposed to the night.

Fire whirled around Vesryn’s wing claws, shadows sheathing his fists. “Let’s give them a target they can’t resist.”

As they wheeled toward the shore, Serenna searched the churn below for openings. Human battle lines scored the mud along the bank, shields locking together only to buckle under the dracovae and fliers sweeping overhead.

Archers fired between the ranks, volleys climbing into the night, while crews heaved weighted nets into the air—black webs unfurling wide enough to snare wings and rip bodies from the sky. Deeper in the formation, shamans and elves struck from behind the shield walls, Essence blazing through every fracture as stolen druid fire veered and climbed toward anything in flight.

A lance of shadow speared upward.

One of Kaedryn’s druids twisted aside. Too late. The strike carved through his wing, tearing a ragged crescent from the membrane. His cry broke as the torn span buckled, sending him spiraling toward the mud.

The muscles along Serenna’s spine seized in reflex.

She reached through her Starshard for the portaling talent buried in its facets. Her awareness swept toward Vesryn and Fenn, their crystals stirring the instant she touched them.

Prismatic light snapped between them, a constellation igniting above the battlefield and branding their position across the sky. Vesryn’s and Fenn’s strength surged through the circuit in a hard rush, crowding her Well until the gem at her throat pulsed, sharp enough to steal her breath.

Below, shamans and elves turned toward the flare, Essence whirling through the ranks.

A net shot up below Serenna, iron weights dragging the mesh wide. Vesryn shredded it with shadows before the hooks could catch her wings.

Fire streaked through the falling wreckage, stolen druid flame bent upward by the shamans below. Fenn seized the blaze, wrenched it aside, and hurled it into the knot of channelers.

They scattered from the impact.

Serenna ripped open a rift across their escape, darkness spreading flat over the churned ground. Three hit the opening at a run and vanished into the marshes where she sent them. The fourth hurled himself sideways, torso clearing the threshold just as Serenna snapped the portal shut.

His scream ripped through the battle.

Serenna looked down as they swept overhead. The elf clawed through the mud on his elbows, blood streaming behind him. His boots and feet were gone, stranded somewhere in the marshes fifty leagues south.

Acid climbed Serenna’s throat. Every path through this battle would leave someone broken or bleeding.

Farther ahead, Essence flared. A channeler lifted both hands toward a dracovae circling low over the shield line, power gathering bright in her palms.

Serenna opened a narrow portal across the channeler’s path. Vesryn slammed a burst of force into her back, pitching her through the opening.

Their prismatic current caught the archers’ eyes. Bows swung toward them in a ripple, soldiers aiming between the shield walls as strings drew taut.

Fenn dove in a streak of flame, Vasharax plunging at his side.

Arrows rose to meet him, a volley hissing upward.

Vasharax twisted under his wing and spat a burst of flame through the barrage. Several shafts blackened and broke apart mid-flight, raining charred splinters around her.