Chapter 3
SERENNA
Serenna released a wordless scream as lightning tore from her fingertips.
The blast flew across the corridor and struck Fenn square in the chest. His scales should’ve risen, plating him in armor. Instead, they stayed trapped beneath his skin, the Starshard in Taryn’s grip holding him defenseless while Serenna’s lightning burned through his flight leathers.
Violet-white light devoured him. His armor charred in jagged streaks, seams snapping open from the strike. The reek of scorched hide and singed skin caught at the back of Serenna’s throat.
Fenn’s body bucked against his Starshard’s hold. His wings spasmed, their talons clenching tight as his fangs ground together around whatever sound tried to break loose.
Serenna’s hand stayed lifted, sparks skittering between her fingertips.
She lurched across the corridor toward him, but her Starshard snatched her by the spine and yanked her to a halt. Serenna strained to lower her arm, shaking as the gem in Ayla’s grip held her hand aimed at Fenn’s heart.
“Fenn,” she choked, his name torn raw from her throat. “I didn’t—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Ayla clicked her tongue and scraped one painted nail along Serenna’s gem. “Again? Or do you have an answer?”
Fenn’s snarl reverberated against stone. “Tell them nothing.”
“This druid power,” Ayla said, ignoring him. “His fire. Your lightning. How did you claim the dragon’s magic?”
Serenna dragged air through her nose and her stomach heaved on the bitter proof of what she’d done.
Through the haze of his smoking armor, she met Fenn’s eyes. Crimson burned, steady despite the pain. He shook his head, sweat tracing clean tracks through the arena sand on his brow.
Serenna’s knees trembled. The Starshard held her upright by force, arranging bone and muscle into obedience while her voice gathered behind her teeth and died there, strangled between the sight of his split leathers, the scorched skin beneath, and the answers she could never give.
Ayla sighed, her control sliding through Serenna’s limbs like ice poured down to the marrow. “How touching. Let’s try again.”
“Please,” Serenna gasped. “Don’t—”
A sob broke loose as lightning flooded her fingertips, crawling hot against her nails. He wouldn’t survive this unscaled, with only shredded armor between his flesh and the next strike.
Serenna fought for an inch of defiance—a turn of her wrist, a broken angle, anything. The Starshard clamped down harder.
Lightning tore loose, lashing across the tunnel in a burst that slammed into Fenn.
He dropped to one knee before the last sparks dissipated, talons scraping furrows into the stone. Smoke spilled through the scorched seams of his armor, thick enough to veil his cell. Under his leathers, blistered channels wept black blood, pale scars branching where the lightning had carved.
Ayla’s fingers drummed against Serenna’s Starshard. “How did you claim your power?”
Serenna swallowed. Her mouth opened, but nothing came.
“Don’t,” Fenn growled.
She met his eyes, seeing the command that lived there—and with it forgiveness, already waiting if her magic struck again.
But she couldn’t keep hurting him. Words cracked loose before Serenna could stop them.
“The dragons—”
“Say another word,” Fenn rasped, voice flayed raw as his skin, “and they die.”
Smoke still curled from his armor. Each breath dragged a tremor through his wings, but his eyes stayed locked on hers, crimson and unyielding.
Ayla’s boots whispered over stone as she glided closer. “Tell me,” she said, fingers hovering above Serenna’s Starshard. “Or I’ll make your lightning scour him down to bone.”
Serenna’s knees buckled.
The Starshard seized her before she could fall, locking her spine straight, forcing trembling muscles to hold her upright.
Fenn watched her through the smoke, still silent though Ayla had already made him bleed for it.
Another strike might kill him.
Serenna’s mind sifted through their secrets, searching for the smallest truth Ayla might mistake for surrender. Her sister already knew they possessed the dragons’ magic, but assumed that their power had been taken by force.
“The dragons gifted us their elements,” Serenna said in a rush. “Cinderax, the Emberhart Warden, imbued Fenn with flame. Skylash, the Stormstrike Warden, granted me lightning.”
Ayla hummed. “And how did you make them yield? The dragons we possess are beasts.”
Dragons—more than one.
Serenna’s pulse stumbled.
Rimeclaw, she knew. The other had only been rumor, carried through Lykor from the Tidecrasher himself. If Veyrix still lay trapped in the Aetherveil, then Galaeryn’s second dragon could only be the Bramblemaw.
“Dragons aren’t beasts,” Serenna hissed. “Your king lacks the scalebound gift. He can chain their bodies, but he can’t hear their voices.” Her fingers curled at her sides. “Their power is given freely. Or not at all.”
“How sentimental.” Ayla folded her arms, sharing a glance with Taryn. “Perhaps the king will have to teach them the language of obedience.” Her attention returned to Serenna, sharp as a hook. “You named two dragons. We hold two. Where is the last?”
Serenna didn’t answer. Her pulse pounded in her temples, drowning thought.
Ayla knew nothing of their other dragons.
By now, every egg hidden in Asharyn should’ve hatched. Twenty-three dragons with Cinderax among them, while Ayla stood here hunting for one Warden.
If Ayla didn’t know where Veyrix was, then the druids still had a chance to free the Zephyrfang first.
If Cinderax had made it back to Asharyn with the Heart of Stars they’d retrieved from the Maelstrom.
If the city hadn’t been scouted by razorwings.
If Jassyn hadn’t been tortured into giving up their secrets.
Too many ifs while Ayla’s nail hovered above Serenna’s gem.
“Time’s up.”
Serenna flinched as lightning surged back to her palms. “Wait,” she pleaded. Her hands shook hard enough to scatter sparks across the stone. “Please.”
Ayla raised her brows.
Serenna hesitated, every breath becoming a bargain.
“We don’t know precisely where the last dragon is,” she said hoarsely.
Ayla’s expression cooled.
“It’s the truth.”
“Then tell me something useful, like where your little druids have been hiding.”
Across the corridor, Fenn hauled himself upright by inches, his wings trembling too much to lift. One knee buckled before he locked it, fangs bared and bloody.
Ayla exhaled through her nose. “If you won’t speak, perhaps he will.”
She stepped aside, and Taryn took her place, Fenn’s Starshard lifted between her fingertips.
“The reavers have a debt to settle with you,” Taryn said, attention riveted on Serenna.
Fenn snarled as fire ignited from his talons. “Taryn.”
His sister didn’t look at him. “You killed our leader.” Her lips peeled back from her teeth, old hatred bared with them. “And you were never properly punished for Larek’s death.”
Fenn’s voice dropped as flames crawled up his wings. “Don’t do this.”
Ayla sniffed. “Then tell me where the druids are hiding.”
Fenn said nothing.
Taryn smiled and lifted his Starshard. Fire surged around Fenn. “You would choose them over her, brother?”
Ayla kept Serenna standing taut above the stone, but fury shivered under Serenna’s skin. She reached inward, grasping for the scales that should’ve shielded her.
The Starshard’s grip coiled tighter, killing the shift before it rose.
She clawed for her shaman blood next, reaching for the magic that could bend flame away from flesh.
But the earth didn’t answer.
Even that belonged to Ayla now.
Fenn’s arm rose in a slow, shaking arc. Every muscle fought the motion until his claw, wreathed in flame, leveled at Serenna’s heart. Their eyes met. His jaw trembled while the rest of him went rigid around the forced aim.
He’d held for her. She could hold for him.
Fenn’s face crumpled, and Serenna watched as he broke.
His mouth opened. “The desert—”
Fire wrenched from him, flames striking Serenna square in the chest.
For one suspended heartbeat, there was only heat and the shock of no air.
Then her leathers split.
Fire licked through the seams, spilling down her sternum. Serenna’s scream ruptured loose as pain flared across her skin, buckling the strength from her knees.
Ayla let the Starshard’s hold slacken.
Serenna hit the stone hard, smoke curling from her chest in gray wisps.
The acrid smell reached her next.
Her own skin, burning with the echo of Fenn’s fire, pulsing with every frantic beat of her heart.
Fenn stood frozen, chest heaving, arm still raised.
“Well,” Ayla said coolly. “That was almost an answer. Again.”
Fenn snarled. “Asharyn—”
“Don’t!” Serenna staggered to her feet. Her legs barely held. “You don’t trade them for me.”
When his eyes found hers, the light in them guttered. For an instant, Fenn only stared at what his flames had done. Then he turned to Ayla, his voice scraped bare.
“They’re in Asharyn.”
“Fenn—”
“Northeast of the marshes where Elashor has forces gathered.”
Ayla tilted her head. “Now, was that so hard?”
Before Serenna could drag another word past her teeth, fire flew from Fenn again. It launched from his cell, molten and bright, and struck her shoulder.
Another scream shredded her throat as flame devoured the armor at her collar, peeled it open, and burrowed into skin.
Serenna crumpled to her knees, palms slapping cold stone. The world narrowed to the breath blistering her lungs, each inhale snagging against the burns.
Across the corridor, Fenn staggered and collapsed, wings sagging until they dragged the floor behind him.
“No…” His voice barely formed the word. “I answered.”
His fingers shook as he reached for her across the hall. “She-elf, I didn’t…”
But Ayla and Taryn stood between them.
“Two for two.” Ayla smoothed her crimson leathers. “I suppose it’s only fair they learn early that pain will be divided.”
Taryn twisted a braid around her finger. “I think he can take more. What else do you know that would please our king?”
Serenna’s vision wavered and her skin burned, but her fury seethed.
“He’s your brother.”