Chapter 7
SERENNA
Silence pressed closer as Serenna edged toward a descent that curled in perfect rings like a fossilized bloom. At the hollow’s center, an arched tunnel sagged inward, its mouth choked with dirt.
A pulse of Essence stirred. She caught Vesryn’s eyes as a portal unfurled beside him, the other end spiraling open at the base of the crater.
He shrugged. “Saves us the glide down.”
The sun vanished as they stepped through the rift, drowned by the bowl of earth. Vesryn brushed his hand across the tunnel’s sealed entrance, disturbing centuries of stillness as layers of soil flaked and fell away.
Something glimmered beneath.
Gold.
Using Essence to force their way forward was out of the question now—magic would only unravel against the metal. If Kaedryn had known about this, then why arm them with advice that could never work?
Serenna cast her awareness outward and streamers of air sparked behind her eyes. She motioned Vesryn aside and coaxed the wind into a gust. A sweep of her hand sent grit shearing from the archway in ragged sheets, dust billowing away under her control.
When the air settled, the fallen earth no longer masked what it had buried. A barrier gleamed, a door wrought of solid gold.
Vesryn’s eyes narrowed. “I guess that explains why the Aelfyn never walked back out.”
“And if gold laces the entire den…” Serenna drew an uneasy breath. “Then they couldn’t portal free either.”
Vesryn extended a palm, a sphere of flame hissing to life. “No better time to see how hot our fire burns.”
Serenna mirrored him, drawing heat from her chest until it coiled down her arm. They backed away from the tunnel to the far curve of the crater. Together, they shoved their hands forward and struck the plate of gold.
Twin gouts of fire speared across the hollow, colliding midair.
Heat ripped up Serenna’s spine, her lungs locking under the pressure.
Wings tore through her leathers as she poured more strength into the blaze.
At the tips, claws flexed and spat fire on their own, stoking the inferno as if they’d been waiting to burn.
The conflagration swelled, magnified.
Vesryn’s laugh erupted wildly as he shifted into wings. “Didn’t know the claws did that.” Fire streamed from the talons, feeding the molten river already burning between them.
The gold began to glow. The surface bowed, shimmered, seemed ready to yield.
Then stilled.
The barrier held, glimmering with a false surrender that mocked them. Heat simmered back in waves, and Serenna gritted her teeth and drove harder, arms trembling as fire rolled from her palms.
As if her flames knew before she did, the stream wavered and guttered, collapsing into smoke.
Beside her, Vesryn’s talons sputtered, fire scattering thin and useless. What had begun as a joined inferno died against the impenetrable door.
“That’s humbling,” Vesryn mumbled. Talons twitched toward his ear and he smacked the claw aside with a curse before dispelling his wings entirely.
The door could be breached—Serenna was sure of it—but not like this. The thought of retreating, of returning to Asharyn with nothing but failure clenched in her hands, scalded her pride. But Kaedryn’s cryptic advice echoed through her mind again.
If Essence could unlock the path, Serenna knew of nothing more ruinous than sunfire, the destructive tier of illumination. But she hadn’t forgotten what it had cost the prince to wield it at Cinderax’s prison. How close the blaze had come to incinerating them all.
“What about sunfire?” Serenna asked hesitantly. “Maybe the Aelfyn couldn’t summon it without burning themselves away. But we have the druid gift now—Kaedryn’s scales protected her when you channeled it before.”
Reckless light flared in Vesryn’s eyes, dimming almost at once. “Essence will just unravel against gold.”
“What if sunfire doesn’t need to touch it?” Serenna pressed. “Fire burns what it strikes, but we felt sunfire’s scorch just standing near when we freed Cinderax. If it truly carries the power of the sun, shouldn’t it be able to melt the gold?”
Vesryn went still. Then a half grin returned, sharp with dare. “Do you want to summon it with me?”
Her throat tightened. “I…”
She still didn’t trust the magic. The sunfire hadn’t only seared flesh—it had raged through Vesryn, nearly disintegrating his body into raw starlight.
But Serenna didn’t retreat as he moved behind her, the press of his chest to her back quickening her pulse. His hand brushed hers, threading their fingers together.
“Follow my lead,” he whispered at her ear, raising her arm with his. “Channel illumination outward. We’ll shape it together.”
“What if the sunfire flares out of control again?” she asked as he angled them toward the golden seal. “In the chamber with Cinderax—”
“I won’t unleash it the same way,” Vesryn said, sparking Essence between their palms. Then softer, his breath caressing her cheek, he added, “Not with you. I know exactly what I’m holding.”
His words should’ve steadied her, yet Serenna’s heartbeat skipped—snared between the peril of sunfire and the certainty warming his voice.
She shut her eyes, chasing focus, but it slid away.
He was too close, pressed along her spine.
Reckless and rising, her magic clawed toward his, begging to ignite.
Desperate for control, she turned inward, syncing to the steady thrum of Essence pulsing from his Well. Each time Vesryn twisted more into illumination, she matched him, a resonance swelling as they gathered power.
If they’d been fully bonded—like she was with Fenn—she wouldn’t have had to strain to read the shape of his magic as he honed it sharper, stronger.
She could’ve followed the pattern as if it were her own.
Because it would have been. Instead, she bent her illumination to echo his, leaning into trust.
“Want to make it interesting?” he asked, lifting their joined hands higher, guiding the stream of light that wound around them like liquid starlight. “See if you can keep up?”
Serenna glanced over her shoulder, half dismayed, half disbelieving, though she already knew better than to expect restraint from him. “Is this the best time?”
“A little competition helps me focus,” he said, perfectly serious before the grin ruined it.
Her mouth twitched despite herself, but she faced forward again.
Narrowing her attention on the golden seal, Serenna curled her fingers tighter around Vesryn’s.
She tracked the flow of his magic as it whirled around them—the way he bent the current, honing illumination until it burned hotter, brighter.
She angled her own light to follow, tentative at first. The strands met, twined, and wove together.
Then she delved deeper, gathering more power.
For a heartbeat the illumination rebelled, threatening to splinter apart as she pushed.
Serenna threw open the floodgates and plunged fully into her Well. Illumination flared beyond its limits, rising into a higher blaze.
Her breath tore loose in a gasp as Essence ruptured.
Heat slammed into her, burning brighter than if the sun itself flooded her veins. Scales rippled up her arms, plating beneath her leathers to shield against what they’d unleashed.
Sunfire burst from their palms in twin currents, twisting into a single beam—a spear of radiance so focused it seared the air like metal ripped from a forge.
Vesryn’s forearm flashed with the same mirrored sheen. Scaled and braced, his limb locked to hers, his body an unyielding pillar at her spine.
Serenna’s strand held steady while Vesryn’s burned hotter, wild at the edges. His magic wavered, the braid stuttering into raw illumination before he dragged it back into sunfire.
A low growl broke from his throat. “Not a word,” he muttered.
Serenna didn’t hide her grin. “I thought I was the one who had to keep up?”
He exhaled sharply through his nose. “Don’t let it get to your head.”
Vesryn drove their power forward. Sunfire streamed across the hollow, a flare held just shy of impact—close enough to blister the air, to whisper against the gold without striking. A sheen shuddered across the seal as if something buried within had drawn breath.
A pulse of pressure radiated from the prince, and Serenna followed—reaching, delving deeper.
Pushing for more. Her breath caught as something shifted, not only in the strength of her magic, but through the bond.
A fierce pride swelled—his pride of her—fused with a warmth so steady it felt like devotion set alight, igniting fire in her power.
Vesryn’s free hand closed at her waist, anchoring her as his voice brushed her ear. “Don’t hold back.”
Serenna let go, falling into the current of their power, her light twining with his—shaped by trust, guided by a steadiness that fear couldn’t touch.
Heat burst through the golden barrier, flushing bright. The surface rippled, then split, weeping molten ribbons that bled into the earth.
Serenna squinted through the shimmer as the runoff streamed into ancient channels carved into the basin, spirals of stone long buried by time. The grooves drew the gold in elegant arcs, carrying it away from the tunnel.
By the time they released their power, Serenna trembled from the toll of channeling Essence while holding her shift steady. Scales receding, her breath came quick as Vesryn lowered their hands, her veins still humming as if the sunfire hadn’t fully left.
They stepped toward the open tunnel together. Nothing remained but an arch of smooth stone streaked with fossilized roots, the last traces of heat fading into the surrounding earth.
“Hopefully we find something inside,” Vesryn said, igniting a few orbs of illumination. “Since the druids went to all this trouble.” He swept a hand toward the darkness. “Want the honors?”
Serenna eyed the depths as silence and cool air spilled out. “Not really,” she mumbled.
But she stepped forward anyway.