Chapter 6
SERENNA
Leaping from Naru’s back, Serenna wheeled in a downward arc, wings slicing the wind as she glided toward the petrified grove.
The drop punched her gut, but she tipped her wings, forcing her flight steady.
Below, the den gaped wide, rimmed by trees long dead, each one a gnarled sentinel locked in stone.
Overhead, Vesryn banked into one last loop. Essence rippled through the air as he flicked a hand, opening a portal in the sky. Naru trilled and tossed his head, vanishing through the rift back to Asharyn. They’d return the same way after they explored the depths below. At least, that was the plan.
Serenna flared her wings as the earth surged closer, snagging the sky to slow her descent. Her boots skimmed ground, legs jarring through rough strides before she skidded to a halt in a spray of dust.
A smile tugged at her lips. Compared to her first graceless crash, which Fenn would never let her forget, this almost felt elegant.
Vesryn touched down beside her with barely a whisper, practiced and infuriating. He stretched as if the flight had been effortless, wings fanning wide just to ruffle her hair. “Didn’t even scuff my boots.”
Serenna rolled her eyes, abandoning dragonsight as scales sank back into her skin. Her wings slid cleanly through the slits in her leathers before vanishing. Smoother now, though she still tensed, remembering the day it took to learn how to pull them through without splitting half her armor.
Instead of shifting, Vesryn drew a Starshard from his leathers. Serenna flinched when he flicked it into the air. The claw at one of his wing tips snatched the gem from its arc, deft enough to prickle her skin.
The opposite claw clacked its talons, then lunged, yanking Vesryn’s hair until he winced. Serenna bit back a laugh as he slapped it aside with a muttered curse.
“You could just dispel your wings,” she said.
“And you could keep yours out,” he shot back. “Builds strength. Besides, the claws only turn fidgety when they’re bored.”
Serenna raised her brows. “Kaedryn says males who keep them out are compensating for something.”
Wings twitching, Vesryn scowled at her. “Kaedryn says a lot of things.”
“Right,” Serenna said, turning toward the crater’s edge, where the hollow sloped into a shadowed tunnel. Where Aelfyn bones lingered beneath the earth, denied a pyre that should’ve lifted their souls to the stars.
She wasn’t sure she believed in the restless dead. But the air stilled as if the stone itself held its breath in remembrance.
“Speaking of Kaedryn,” Vesryn said suddenly, his tone too casual while the bond hummed with uncertainty. “She helped me craft something.”
Serenna dragged her gaze from the den as he went on, fingers working at his armor. “And before you panic—it’s inert. Kaedryn confirmed it.”
From a hidden pocket, he drew his second Starshard. No longer a bare gem, it rested in a necklace of braided silver, the metal winding close to clasp the jewel at its heart. The facets shimmered, veins gleaming with the defiance of stars exiled from the sky.
Palm up, Vesryn offered it, his wings locking close to his spine. “It’s for you.”
“Me?” A rebuke stalled on Serenna’s tongue, awe and unease colliding with the memory of the gem’s unbridled power. She blinked, staring at the necklace before meeting his eyes. “It’s…beautiful. But wouldn’t it make more sense to give it to someone without Essence?”
“Maybe.” Vesryn shrugged, glancing at the claw still clutching the other shard. “But you helped collect both. I’d rather you have it.”
Of course he would. It was the kind of gesture he specialized in—thoughtful in his own way, but just dangerous enough to make her hesitate.
Serenna stared at the necklace, recalling the terrible screech it would release when it discharged power. “And it won’t…activate on its own?”
“No. And I found a way to focus to use the shards silently too.” Vesryn’s voice softened, fingers tightening against the necklace. “It’s not bound to anyone—or anything—now. This one came from that ice golem in the Wastes. I can attune it to you. If you want it.”
Serenna’s breath drew shallow. The chain wasn’t around her neck yet, but already she felt its weight at her throat—an Aelfyn relic, half-understood and deadly.
Through the bond came his silent insistence, protectiveness threaded with something sharper, like the shard could shield her if he couldn’t.
Shoving away her fear, Serenna nodded. The gem might be dangerous, but it also held power. And she was done flinching from it.
Vesryn offered his other palm. “I’ll need your hand.”
Steadying herself, Serenna slid her fingers into his. Essence stirred beneath her skin where they touched, rising to meet his magic.
“This feels familiar,” she murmured when shadows curled around her wrist with intimate certainty, recalling the moment he’d broken her finger.
Vesryn’s smile tugged crooked as he set the Starshard in her palm.
Serenna didn’t feel the rending—only the gem’s cool weight, warmth blooming as shadows split her skin and blood welled bright around the shard.
Her hand clenched against the crystal on reflex.
But the pain never came. Not with Vesryn smirking, stealing it through the bond before she could ever feel its bite. Just like always.
A soft flare of light bloomed from the Starshard’s core as a hum stirred beneath her skin, slipping through marrow with quiet insistence. Almost like hunger. The sensation curled into the root of her Well and the shard tugged once, as if claiming her, before settling against her pulse.
“I’ve already filled its reservoir with Essence,” Vesryn said, his thumb brushing her palm as he cast a tendril of mending to close the cut.
“You can draw from what’s stored before you’ll need to use your own.
Even siphon power that’s thrown at you—like the druids did to us.
But that’s nothing compared to what else it can unlock. ”
Serenna tore her gaze from the gem back to him. “What do you mean?”
A triumphant gleam lit Vesryn’s expression. “You can access all eight talents.”
Serenna’s eyes widened. She hadn’t considered why Kaedryn—technically a wraith who didn’t even have Essence—could wield abilities she’d never possessed through the shard. This was more than a gift. “All of them?”
Vesryn plucked the gem from her hand, wiped it clean on his leathers, then fastened the chain gently around the back of her neck. “Like an arch elf.”
The Starshard settled against her collarbone, cool and deceptively light, humming gently into her skin.
Serenna adjusted the clasp, fingers lingering to trace the crystal edge. “These Starshards…” Her voice faltered as she searched his face. “You were right. There’s more to them than I thought. But it won’t activate unless I…?”
“It answers to you now,” Vesryn said. “It’s just a pretty gem until you draw from it.”
He glanced at the shard pinched in his claw. As his wings vanished, the crystal slipped free. He swiped it out of the air and pocketed it in one seamless motion.
Serenna’s hand tightened around her own shard before she let go. It hadn’t flared again, but she could still feel the thrum of power, coiled and waiting.
Vesryn tipped his chin toward the hollow below and angled for the crater’s rim. “Let’s see how well the druids locked the dead inside.”
Her stomach turned, but she didn’t correct him. They hadn’t locked dead Aelfyn beneath the earth at all.
They’d buried the living.