Chapter 5 #2
Ayla’s fingers cinched tighter around Serenna’s wrists, grinding her further into the sand.
“I heard you failed to bed that half-breed our sire wrapped up in a bow and delivered to your miserable human court.” Ayla sneered, hovering above Serenna’s face.
“Why would he waste opportunities on you when you couldn’t even manage to fuck a whore? ”
Serenna sucked in a sharp breath. Jassyn was Ayla’s family after a fashion—a half uncle or something. Not that blood relations meant anything to the elves. It didn’t surprise her that this vile viper regarded him in such a way.
Hands balling into fists next to her head, Serenna’s loathing of this…this detestable creature incubated under her rage, threatening to hatch with the heat of her fury. Serenna’s revulsion erupted, snapping out its wings. Her vision went red.
Ayla emitted a satisfying gasp when shadows burst from Serenna, tombing them in a pocket of darkness. Magic twisted around them, a blurred obsidian cloud, shading the sun. Serenna brought Ayla to her knees before with rending. I’ll do it again!
Vesryn’s corrective intervention brushed against her mind. Serenna, play nice.
Erupting with frustration from the prince denying her retribution, Serenna swatted his presence out of her mind. Stomach jolting, her eyes widened when Ayla pulled back her arm. Shocked dismay broke through Serenna’s rage as she registered that her sister intended to punch her in the face.
Time slowed to a distorted crawl. Serenna scrambled to use a different talent, floundering to haul up another ability from her Well. A tingle rushed to her fingertips, her perception towed toward something else lurking at the edge of her awareness.
A window opened in her mind, like peering through glass, grasping at a fleeting reflection. A sudden breeze stirred, the gust rolling strands of hair across her face. Something peculiar whispered in the wind, a dormant heartbeat reviving, rousing from a long slumber.
Vesryn battered Serenna with commands that she didn’t decipher as Ayla’s fist inched closer. Shadows dispersing, her hold on Essence waned.
Gazing inward, Serenna’s vision unfocused as she perceived a strange, silent breath of energy beyond the magic in her Well. There was a shift in the earth, a puzzle piece clicking into place.
A puff of dust kicked up in a whirl of air, gently spiraling across the yard. She saw them. Dancing currents—streams of power waiting to be called.
Reaching out with her mind, Serenna snatched at a draft. Her senses flared like feathers, blazing to life. Foreign sensations, separate from the rush of Essence, snapped the world into a crystal focus, somehow synchronizing her with the breeze.
She twisted the gale, warping it to her will.
Ayla screeched, flying off Serenna’s body like a sail yanked taut, wrenched away by an invisible force. Her sister tumbled and rolled across the yard.
Panting from the effort, Serenna didn’t have time to dwell on what she did with her power. She clambered to her feet, dashing toward Ayla while tossing out a hand to lash her sister to the sand with coils of force.
Vesryn probably sent magic through the bond like he did during the attack. Helping me. Again.
Jumping on Ayla, Serenna faltered as soon as she raised her fist.
Obviously reading Serenna’s desire to beat her sister to a pulp, Vesryn’s humor spiked. Like this, he said, seeding a vision into her mind, showing her the correct way to position her thumb.
Serenna’s chest heaved with indecision while she caught her breath. She lowered her arm over Ayla’s immobilized body, knowing she only had moments before her sister countered her magic and freed herself from the hold.
I won’t brawl over the prince.
Why not?
Serenna scowled at Vesryn across the ring—she hadn’t meant to send him that scattered thought. He smirked, unsheathing a dagger to idly flip.
Your arrogance concerns me, she snapped. Don’t you have—
Ayla headbutted her.
Serenna shrieked, reeling back as her teeth impaled her lip. The sharp pain in her mouth sliced through her foolish hesitation.
Flinging out a hand, Serenna launched a wave of force at the prince.
She snatched Vesryn’s knife out of the air with a whip of power.
Yanking her magic, the weapon soared across the ring like an arrow.
Breath hitching, Serenna begged the stars that she’d catch the dagger by the hilt instead of the blade.
Miraculously, the leather grip smacked into her waiting palm. Serenna shoved the blade against Ayla’s throat. Baring her teeth, Serenna’s lip burned as it split further.
“Yield,” she seethed.
Ayla’s nostrils flared. Her eyes dashed to the magus monitoring the duels, but they didn’t intervene—likely deferring to the prince, allowing him to decide when to stop the escalation.
Serenna knew he wouldn’t.
A pulse of Ayla’s power hummed in response, poised to retaliate. Serenna jammed the knife into her sister’s ivory skin, drawing a stream of blood.
“I yield,” Ayla hissed through her teeth.
“Louder,” Serenna ordered with hideous satisfaction, drunk on victory. “I don’t think the prince heard.”
After forcing Ayla to squeal her surrender, Serenna wiped Vesryn’s dagger on her sister’s tunic and lurched to her feet. Releasing her magic, Serenna thumbed the streak of blood off her mouth, wincing at the stinging cut.
Eyes swinging toward the prince, her chest heated when Vesryn grinned his approval. He jerked his head for her to join him.
Recapturing her breath, Serenna lifted her chin.
She glided out of the ring, her throat too dry to swallow as every onlooker watched her approach the prince.
Nothing is unusual about us talking—he’s my trainer for the tournament.
Attention riveted on her, Vesryn’s emerald eyes hypnotically reeled her in.
Serenna’s stomach fluttered when the prince opened a portal. She sensed Vesryn’s emotions warring through the bond—concern, fury, agitation. She withdrew her attempts at deciphering him, her own alarm compounding as she worried she was somehow responsible for his irritable mood.
“I have a special activity planned,” Vesryn said as she joined him. He glanced at the looming gateway. “Some extracurricular practice before...the tournament.”
Serenna’s attention hooked on his fingers tapping against his thigh.
Sweat trickled down her neck as she handed Vesryn his dagger, her hands nearly shaking with mirrored unease.
Recalling her forced participation in the prince’s other unconventional “training,” the cogs of Serenna’s mind churned through every guess of where he could be taking her.
She didn’t come up with an answer before following Vesryn through the rift, leaving Centarya behind her.