Page 201 of The Reckoning of Starlight

A blast of force bludgeoned their ward. The shield flared at the point of impact, threads of Essence splintering through its surface. Lykor drove more strength into the damage until every break sealed.

Too many for steel. But he could siphon their Wells, strip Galaeryn of soldiers one screaming body at a time. Gut the platform before the king ever set foot on it. Leave a massacre behind.

Aesar’s grip tightened around the glaives. “We did what we came to do.”

Lykor hated that he was right. He’d left Jassyn alone for barely minutes. Too long.

He glanced back to the overlook, but snow and falling sparks obscured his view. Overhead, thunder rolled from Rimeclaw’s wingbeats as he and Veyrix pursued Skylash. Each concussion struck through their chest as another wave of shadows broke against the shield. Then Skylash’s lightning tore the lake white.

The ledge where he’d left Jassyn flashed into view.

Empty.

Lykor’s gaze ripped through the smoke, hunting for Jassyn.

Across the platform, Blossom lifted her head.

Crystal split under their boots.

A root punched through the fracture and snapped around their ankle. Lykor sheared it away with frost, but two more burst through beside it, faster than the first. They clamped around their calf, jerking their leg sideways.

One knee crashed against the ground. A vine lashed around their thigh, a second around their waist. Before they could rise, the roots wrenched them backward. Aesar’s glaives screeched across the platform as their shoulders slammed down.

Beyond the shield, soldiers pressed close, weapons and Essence flashing through the glare. Rending scored black across the ward. Force struck after it, cracking a jagged fault through the violet light above their face.

Lykor drove Essence into the break until it fused, even as another root hammered across their waist. The coils around their legs constricted with it, grinding their body against the platform until crystal bit into their spine.

Lykor froze the roots.

New growth split the ice.

Vines speared through the platform’s widening fractures, forcing past the frost-locked roots. One whipped across their forearm and pinned it flat to the crystal. Another wound over their middle and climbed higher, tightening across their ribs.

Blossom cinched the snare. The roots compressed their chest, stealing what little room remained inside their lungs.

Aesar dragged one glaive back into their grip and chopped into the vine trapping their other arm. Steel bit deep, scattering splinters across the crystal. Bark sealed over the wound before the fragments landed, swallowing the blade to its hilt.

Through the tendrils closing over their vision, Blossom moved.

One foreclaw struck the crystal. Then the other. Slow. Heavy. Roots trailed from her in writhing lengths as she advanced.

Coming to feed.

Lykor yanked shadows through the roots clamped around their neck. Wood split. Sap sprayed their jaw as the severed lengths recoiled, air knifing into their lungs.

Another root lashed into the opening, crushing their throat shut again. Their body spasmed as they gasped for a breath, the shield unraveling as Essence slipped away.

Blossom’s looming shape doubled behind the soldiers, then bled into the darkness closing around her. Sound collapsed to a thin, distant whine.

Then the earth exploded away.

Roots ripped from their body in every direction as something slammed into the platform, the impact shuddering through the crystal and up their spine.

Aesar reeled inward and Lykor seized control, twisting onto one side and shoving himself up on a shaking arm. His lungs spasmed around the first gasp of air, then dragged in another, his chest jerking with the sudden rush.

He forced his head up.

Jassyn stood over him, viridian wings flared, a Heart of Stars blazing in his fist.