SERENNA
Three years after the fall of Galaeryn
Lightning slipped into the eggshell in branching veins.
Serenna knelt with both palms pressed against the curved surface and eased another current through. Violet light kindled within the obsidian shell, revealing the unhatched dragon in flashes—a blunt snout, folded limbs, the hooked shadow of one wing.
Then the dragon kicked.
The blow struck Serenna’s palm through the shell, pulling a laugh from her. “Impatient already. Just like your mother.”
A low growl rumbled through the cavern.
Skylash’s violet eyes narrowed above the coil of her body. Brooding had only sharpened her temper. She’d packed the highest chamber of her nesting island in the Aetherveil with moss, shed scales, grasses, and strips of hide torn from stars knew what beasts, the bedding mounded around the clutch.
Cool air wound through the cavern’s mouth, stirring loose strands of Serenna’s braid against her cheek. Veyrix had taken the four older Stormstrikes hunting far below, where the floating islands gave way to plains blurred green beneath the clouds.
Serenna turned her attention to the next egg and drew a measured charge into her hands, static prickling across her palms. The dragon inside leaned toward the power as lightning flowed inward, violet veins tunneling through the dark.
When the current faded, Serenna rocked back onto her heels. “That’s three.”
“Your command of numbers remains an astonishing feat.”
Serenna rolled her eyes and reached for another Unbound egg nestled near Skylash’s forewing.
The dragon hissed. “That is all I require of you.”
Serenna frowned. “You don’t want half as Stormstrikes?”
Five eggs already bore the faint trace of the Zephyrfang wind, leaving two eggs still Unbound.
Skylash lowered her head until one enormous eye filled Serenna’s view. “Send for the Bramblemaw’s scalebound.”
Serenna rose to her feet. “You want Jassyn to turn them?”
“Veyrix insisted that two from every clutch should carry earth for balance. I found no reason to object for now. We can raise them with wind and storm.” Skylash curled one wing claw around the three Stormstrike eggs and dragged them back against her belly.
“Fire will multiply well enough without our aid. In time, if the Tidecrasher wishes for more whelps, we may leave two for the sea as well.”
In the Maw, Skylash had demanded every Unbound egg with her be made Stormstrike. Now she sheltered two of her own whose blood would carry earth instead. Blossom might never choose a mate or lay a clutch, yet earth would endure.
Serenna stared up at her. “You’ve grown sentimental.”
“I’ve grown weary of your presence.”
Serenna scoffed. Even Sharyne lied better than that.
Skylash had been summoning her more and more, using an especially obnoxious tactic—invading her dreams.
Sometimes lightning cleaved her sleep apart until Skylash’s voice thundered through her skull.
More often, clouds blackened overhead and the dragon descended through them, jaws opening wide enough to swallow Serenna whole.
She’d wake with her pulse hammering, static crawling over her skin, and Skylash’s demand already lodged behind her eyes.
At first, Serenna had assumed such a summons meant catastrophe.
Until she found Skylash limping on one rear leg with a thorn lodged under a talon, well within reach of the dragon’s own fangs. Another dream had dragged Serenna across the Aetherveil because a half-shed scale along Skylash’s spine had required immediate extraction.
Once these visits had become nearly weekly, Serenna understood Skylash would never simply ask for her company. Not when every invitation could be disguised as an emergency instead.
So Serenna made room, shifting her Starshard research at Centarya. Another instructor took her place at the flight trials when Skylash’s demands ran too long, and luncheons with her family in Vaelyn moved to different afternoon.
Serenna planted her hands on her hips. “You know, this would be easier if you had another druid. Veyrix has managed considerably better.”
“Veyrix lacks discernment.”
“Apparently. He chose you.”
Lightning cracked between Skylash’s fangs.
Serenna lifted both hands. “Fine. But you should consider at least one more.”
“No.”
“Someone to polish your scales?”
“No.”
“Remove rib bones from the hatchlings’ teeth?”
“I have you to do it.”
The answer came too quickly, and Serenna smothered a smile before Skylash could decide to strike her for it. “Then does my Warden require any further services?”
Skylash regarded her through squinted eyes. “You may depart.”
“How gracious.” Serenna picked her way to the cavern mouth. “I’m already late for the flight trials.”
“Then you should hurry.”
The trace of amusement stopped Serenna short of the ledge. She glanced back. “Why?”
Skylash settled deeper around the clutch. “The whelps have grown bored hunting flightless prey.”
Serenna’s smile vanished. “But you told them not to hunt dracovae or druids.”
“I told them not to eat druids.” She tucked her snout under one wing and closed her eyes. “Perhaps your kind will find that fear improves the wing.”
“Stars,” Serenna muttered.
Wings tore free from her spine as she hurled herself from the ledge, racing to reach the fliers before four young Stormstrikes descended.
Wind struck the instant Serenna cleared the island. She folded her wings and plunged, letting a cloud devour her.
Mist slicked her face as white erased the sky. Only the current remained, its downward pull pressing against her senses.
The clouds scattered, sunlight spilling through.
The lower chains opened into view, and Serenna scanned the sky for lightning. None yet.
Hundreds of floating islands staggered through the sky, some carrying forests and abandoned towers, others little more than shelves of wind-scoured stone.
Bright streamers fluttered between them, marking the trial routes.
Fliers already raced the course while water, fire, and wind lashed across their paths.
Wraith, elves, humans, and everyone in between rode the currents as druids. Since the war, Rimeclaw, Veyrix, and Cinderax had chosen new scalebound heedless of the bloodlines that once decided who was permitted power.
A horn sounded from the western launch isle, and six newly-turned scalebound hurled themselves from its rim.
The trials had grown from the drills that had left Serenna bruised across the Splitfang, when staying aloft long enough to cross the canyon had been victory enough.
Now they taught the shape of losing control before the lesson could cost any lives. Speed eroded caution, competition dulled judgment, and beastblood fed on both, turning a rival’s lead into pursuit before thought could catch up.
A sheet of water erupted across the sky. Two fliers climbed clear while a third drove straight through, wings buckling under the weight before she wrestled them open again.
Farther ahead, a Zephyrfang wraith ripped the wind sideways with both claws, tumbling another flier onto his back. By the time he recovered, fire was already crossing the narrow pass beyond him, scattering the fliers across the sky.
Serenna’s station waited beyond the spectators. Iron spires rose from neighboring islands, built to catch Skylash’s lightning and web the last stretch with a maze of sparks.
She angled toward them, her thumb skimming the narrow band of gold around her forefinger. Essence was barred from this novice course, and the metal kept her magic stifled while she flew.
These days, Serenna tolerated that silence for another reason. Too much Essence drew the voices near.
Return home.
Sometimes only those two words. Sometimes others followed, distant and layered, until the stars crowded too close behind her eyes.
At night, the gold came off, and the bonds it had smothered reawakened.
Tethered, she missed sensing Vesryn and Fenn. Which was ridiculous now when both males were somewhere below. Vesryn was supposed to be monitoring the course, which meant worsening any hazard he considered too forgiving.
Fenn had planned to watch with Sharyne and Koln from one of the spectator islands. Hopefully one of them had remembered her coat. Between two wraith who regarded cold as a mild inconvenience, Serenna gave Sharyne even odds of being taught that shivering built character.
A blast of lightning struck her square in the back.
The charge spun Serenna out of the sky. She rolled with it, caught a current, and wrenched herself back upright.
Static crawled over her scales as a dark shape streaked past, close enough for displaced air to slap her wings.
Obsidian scales flashed in the sun, amethyst wings slicing through the sky.
Skyshatter.
Three years ago, he’d been the smallest of the four. Now he stretched nearly twice Serenna’s length from tail to snout, his shadow engulfing hers.
Skyshatter folded his wings and dropped straight at her.
“Oh, don’t you dare,” she seethed as the young Stormstrike opened his jaws.
Serenna twisted, but his teeth clamped around the reinforced leather at her shoulder, hooking deep into the armor. The impact jerked her sideways, yanking one wing forward while the air snatched the other and ripped it back.
Serenna shoved his snout. “Let go!”
He thrashed his head. Cloud, stone, and open blue traded places in a dizzying spiral until Serenna snapped lightning from her palms, violet sparks scattering harmlessly over his scales.
Another Stormstrike slammed into Skyshatter’s side.
His jaws tore free. Leather split as both young dragons tumbled away, wing claws hooking into each other while they fought.
Serenna flared her wings wide and wrestled herself level. A sliver of white protruded from the ragged tear at her shoulder.
When the horizon stopped spinning, she reached for it.
A fang slid free into her palm, long and slightly curved, the root slick and warm. The young Stormstrikes had been shedding teeth and scales almost as quickly as they grew, their bodies lengthening in violent spurts.
An outraged shriek ripped across the sky.