Page 253 of The Reckoning of Starlight

Serenna exhaled and relaxed into it.

“Better?” Vesryn asked.

“Getting there. You haven’t quite justified the abduction yet.”

Fenn’s laugh warmed her neck. “I can think of several ways to get you to forget the trials.”

“Really? And do you plan to demonstrate?”

A fang grazed under her ear before he turned her in his arms, eyes glowing brighter than the firelight as his gaze traveled over her with enough intent to draw a slow ache low in Serenna’s belly.

Fenn sank to his knees, claws wrapping around her thighs as he bent his head to the inside of her leg, one fang skimming her skin.

His gaze lifted. “My turn to taste you, she-elf.”

Vesryn filled the space behind her, chest warm against her back, one hand settling at her hip while the other swept her braid aside. His lips landed on the slope of her neck as Fenn’s mouth traveled higher.

Serenna tipped her head back against Vesryn’s shoulder. Touch blurred into touch, pleasure passing through the three of them in overlapping currents, each sensation colliding between the bonds until Serenna could no longer tell which response belonged to whom.

Another horn sounded beyond the cavern.

Serenna turned into Vesryn’s kiss and wove her fingers in Fenn’s hair, drawing them both closer as her chest filled with warmth.

The sky could call.

She was already where she belonged.

EPILOGUE

JASSYN

Five years after the fall of Galaeryn

The council chamber never slept.

Jassyn sat at the head of the polished table as evening spilled through the windows of the living tree, gilding his hands while sap pulsed through the grain. Beyond the open arches, the druid jungle climbed into mist, its canopy stirring through the last gold of evening.

Five years had vanished into treaties, uneasy alliances, and realms learning how to stand. Through it all, old wounds strained against every stitch meant to hold them closed.

At last, the delegates had gone for the evening, their portals sealing one by one and carrying them back to their districts with petitions tucked under their arms and grievances left to curdle overnight.

Beyond the chamber, wraith held their posts in the corridors, silent fixtures of a vigilance Jassyn had stopped pretending was temporary.

Alone, then. As much as he was ever allowed to be anymore.

Jassyn flattened his palm over a report bearing the paired seals of Kyansari’s stewards, Mara and Thalaesyn. A noblewoman of the inner court had vanished without a trace two weeks ago. Jassyn remembered the name from Farine’s estate. Jeweled hands. Crystal chalices. Laughter fading to a hum while his mind learned to leave the room before his body could.

A familiar tread traveled through the bark and shuddered into his boots. Through the earth, he sensed Lykor at the chamber’s threshold, irritation arriving with him like a stormfront.

Jassyn kept his attention on the report, leaving Lykor to stand there with the evidence between them.

“You’re late.”

Lykor grunted as he shouldered past the doorframe. “I had matters to attend to.”

Naturally.

Jassyn laid the report atop the drift of petitions spread across the map of their world. At the edge of his vision, Lykor’s claw flexed as he stalked closer.