Chapter 23
JASSYN
“Wait!” Jassyn yelled as the heels of Vesryn’s frayed boots disappeared in a frantic sprint through a portal.
The prince had appeared in Jassyn’s chambers earlier that evening, raving about Serenna vanishing through the bond while he was in the capital. It was all Jassyn could do to pry any coherent words out of his cousin.
While Vesryn had paced furiously enough to score trenches in the rugs, Jassyn had eventually pieced together that Serenna must be tethered. The prince had claimed that the bond had winked out instead of shattering as it would’ve in her death.
A few moments ago, her presence had briefly flashed in Vesryn’s mind. The prince snarled something about her disappearing again before he was able to pinpoint her location. By the time Jassyn blinked, Vesryn had slashed open a rift and vanished.
Having no idea what to expect on the other side of the gateway, Jassyn braced himself and dashed after his cousin. He could only hope that Vesryn wasn’t transporting them somewhere as perilous as he had with Magister Thalaesyn the night before.
Frigid wind blasted Jassyn on the other side of the portal.
He inhaled a shocked breath, his boots churning through snow.
The biting air crystallized in his lungs, threatening to freeze him from the inside out.
Pursuing the prince, Jassyn tucked his arms against his body.
He struggled and lurched, wading through the knee-high drifts.
They were deep in a valley’s cradle, surrounded by a mountain range.
Jagged, snowcapped peaks stretched up to the canopy of stars, the pinpricks of light as cold as the surrounding tundra.
Glinting off the barren landscape, the gibbous moons and spiraling galaxies hovered over the endless white expanse.
Over the blustery gusts, Jassyn called out to his cousin’s back, “Vesryn, there’s nothing here!”
The prince’s breath plumed as he carved a path, blasting away snowy fountains with punches of force. “I need to find her!” he shouted over his shoulder, the sound nearly swept away by the howling wind.
Jassyn wiped away tears that the icy wind ripped from his eyes.
He studied the barren landscape, blood chilling along with his limbs.
The colorless canvas unfolded in every direction with no end in sight.
Attempting to determine how Serenna could be in such a desolate wasteland, Jassyn’s thoughts whirled like flakes of snow, but fell short of any explanation.
“We need to go back to Centarya and plan, Vesryn.” Jassyn trudged after the prince, hindered by the snowy banks.
He fought to keep the rising trepidation out of his voice.
“You said you didn’t sense Serenna's exact location.” Curling his arms around his middle, Jassyn shivered, somehow still dozens of paces behind.
“You won’t find her if you’re dead. Stars, we don’t even have cloaks! ”
Vesryn collapsed to his knees, his anguished words echoing across the valley. “I’m not leaving her here!”
Jassyn halted in place when a pulse of Essence flared from his cousin. What is he doing now? Slamming his fists to the snow, Vesryn released a bellow of rage. An ocean of magic exploded from the prince, bursting like a dying star.
The world quaked. A surge of force cracked along the ground, fractures splitting across the ice. Jassyn stumbled as the earth shifted beneath his feet. Snow tumbled down from the surrounding mountain peaks, triggering avalanches across the frozen valley. Straight toward them.
Jassyn yelled for the prince to stop, but the rumbling mountains drowned out his voice. Fear petrified his spine, the frosty air stabbing his lungs as he gasped for a breath that didn’t come.
Face now covered with his palms, Vesryn seemed lost to despair as his magic pummeled the land. Essence erupted around him in shimmering waves, knocking the frigid landscape loose. The power flooding from the prince discharged like a vengeful geyser, shaking the foundations of the world.
A freezing landslide rolled down the summits. Horror twisted through Jassyn’s gut. If Vesryn didn’t open another portal for them to flee, the snow would engulf them within moments.
Jassyn started sprinting. He wouldn’t reach his cousin before the tumbling avalanche buried them in a glacial grave. Clutching his magic, Jassyn flared a shield with scant confidence that the ward could withstand a mountain’s worth of snow.
Scouring his mind for any way to prevent their rapidly approaching doom, Jassyn recalled the shaman power he’d harnessed the night before.
The prince had pressured him to channel the lightning from the clouds.
At Vesryn’s incessant urging, Jassyn had funneled the sparks from the sky over and over until the proximity of the Maelstrom had splintered his nerves.
Hardly possessing a shred of control over the elemental magic, Jassyn had accidentally blasted the prince when his patience snapped.
Shoving away his doubts that his brief practice wouldn’t help him now, Jassyn focused on the torrent of snow surging at them. Halting ten paces away from his cousin, Jassyn’s heartbeat thundered in his ears, a drum counting down the seconds to their imminent burial.
Snow is water and water is an element—I can do this.
At least, that’s what he told himself as he decided to unravel his shield, throwing all his strength toward that ancient power.
They were dead if he couldn’t halt the landslide since Vesryn didn’t appear to be in any rational state of thinking to leave. Stars, this had better work.
Jassyn branched out his perception, allowing his mind to stray from the familiar embrace of Essence. He grasped at the foreign magic stirring in response. Fingers tingling, a rush of energy ignited in his veins, yanking the world into focus.
The tumbling snow burst into light. Striking out with something unseen—something from the earth—Jassyn shot his arms out like he could physically push back the toppling drifts. Body tensing, legs locking, Jassyn battled an invisible resistance, a colossal heaviness threatening to crush him.
A pocket of space hollowed out, encasing him and the prince. The icy deluge slammed into his control, suspended in the air. Knocked off balance from the impact, Jassyn staggered, sinking into the frosty powder. The remaining snow he hadn’t snagged smashed to the ground around them.
With a savage heave against their tomb, he shoved the avalanche away with the sheer force of his will. The snow drift soared through the sky, crashing in the distance.
Jassyn took gulping breaths, bracing his hands on his thighs as he severed his connection to the earth. He brushed snowflakes from his hair and lashes and then flinched. Vesryn’s expulsion of power continued to thunder through his chest.
Jassyn swore, numb fingers fumbling as he ripped out a knife from the hidden seams in his armor.
He’s really not going to like this. With the weight of his body, Jassyn whipped the golden blade at Vesryn’s back.
Screaming through the air, flipping end over end, the dagger impaled his cousin’s shoulder.
Vesryn toppled forward, catching himself on his hands, magic snuffed out. He launched to his feet, rounding on Jassyn with rage in his eyes, as if ready to take his fury out on him. Not bothering to remove the lodged weapon, the prince charged across the snow like a rampaging bull.
Jassyn frantically fabricated a shield in his cousin’s path.
Vesryn crashed into the ward, staggering a few steps back.
Baring his teeth, the prince pivoted to skirt around the barrier.
Flicking his wrist, Jassyn kenneled him in completely with violet walls.
Vesryn clawed over his shoulder to reach the knife while Jassyn stalked up to him.
Snatching another blade from his leathers, Jassyn dropped a portion of the shield, entering the magical cage to confront the prince. Vesryn lunged for him. Jassyn instinctively punched something at his cousin’s chest—a wall of air.
The prince stumbled, grunting as the hilt protruding from his shoulder collided with the ward behind him. Jassyn shoved his dagger against Vesryn’s throat, the action now practiced and precise. Just to make a point, Jassyn seized his cousin’s hair, yanking his head back.
“Stars, are you even thinking?” Jassyn hissed through his chattering teeth, hoping his cousin wouldn’t decide to disarm him by breaking his wrist.
He increased the blade’s pressure when Vesryn tensed under his fingers, likely plotting to spring. Chest heaving, the prince’s skin split around the knife with every breath.
“Serenna is somewhere in these mountains.” Jassyn tightened his fist in Vesryn’s hair, giving his cousin a shake to rattle some sense back into his skull.
“What if you brought one down on her head? You nearly killed us!” The prince’s nostrils flared, but Jassyn didn’t relent.
“You sensed her again. That means she’s alive—that’s all that matters. ”
Vesryn’s jaw flexed as he panted out of his nose.
A wave of irritation surged through Jassyn from his cousin constantly shoving him to the brink of his patience.
He preferred logic and thoughtful discussion, but Vesryn continually forced him to lash out with violence.
The prince would only see reason if conquered by aggression.
Spending more time in his cousin’s company had only made that obvious.
“You are going to take us back,” Jassyn said, driving the dagger deeper into Vesryn’s throat, fighting his cousin in a battle of wills. The knife trembled against the prince’s neck as Jassyn’s limbs succumbed to the cold. “Then we can calmly discuss what to do next.”
Vesryn blinked, the manic fury receding from his eyes. Shoulders slumping in defeat, he hung his head, catching his breath. “I’ll need more Essense first to form another gateway,” he mumbled. “I doubt I’ll be able to regenerate at the moment.”