Between the absence of the prince and her friends, restlessness had Serenna seeking a diversion. I wouldn’t have wasted my time if I knew this was going to turn into a public beating. But it was too late to back down. The stubborn fragments of Serenna’s pride prevented her from yielding even though she had no grand illusions that she’d be the victor.
Ayla flicked her flame-colored braid over her shoulder before folding her arms, tapping her boot in the sand, apparently already bored with tossing Serenna around. Rolling her eyes, Ayla called out to the hovering instructor, “Could you at least match me against someone who’ll present half a challenge?”
Grinding her teeth, Serenna snatched her force talent from her Well, the unformed Essence in her hands morphing into a cerulean orb of light. Only an arch elf with all eight abilities would best her. And Ayla knows it.
Mending wouldn’t be useful, and Serenna couldn’t weave a shield even if her life depended on it. She had yet to manifest illumination and portaling—not that the remainder of her abilities would’ve been effective against her sister.
Ignoring Ayla’s question, the magus blazed a burst of light between her and Serenna, signaling the start of their next round. A riptide of Essence crackled from Ayla’s extended fingers.
Serenna’s eyes widened as four portals cleaved the surrounding air, boxing her in a prison. She didn’t have any warning before Ayla catapulted blows of force through each rift, aiming to pummel her from every direction.
Diving to the ground to escape the onslaught, Serenna scuttled through the sand on her hands and knees, fleeing through the closest gateway. On the other side, she realized the idiocy of the tactic. The portal had dumped her out nearly on top of her sister.
Serenna clambered to her feet, much closer to Ayla than she wanted to be. Unlike her sister, she hadn’t had years of extensive training in hand-to-hand combat. Serenna staggered back, creating more space. Her attention darted to the other pairs of recruits, calculating how far she could scurry to put more distance between them.
Portals unraveling, Ayla punched out a shock wave of force. Flailing with her power, Serenna returned the attack, casting a blue blast toward Ayla. Their magic collided, splitting the air with a crack like thunder.
The clash of magic swelled between them, shoving them apart. Serenna locked her teeth, boots skidding backward, digging trenches into the ring. In a frantic attempt to try something different, she slapped a wave of power against the earth.
A purple lattice ignited around Ayla, slamming into a solid shield, leaving her unscathed. A cloud of dust sailed in the sunlight while sand settled back to the ground. Waving a hand in front of her face, Serenna spluttered a series of coughs from the stirred debris. She flinched as an unexpected presence coiled around her mind, voice trickling into her awareness.
Come on, Harpy, you throw better magic than that when you’re facing me.
Focus fracturing, Serenna’s heart tripped and then raced. Her pulse jumped when she followed the subtle tug of the bond, detecting the prince near the yard’s perimeter trees. The spectating initiates eyed him warily, inching away. Vesryn arched a questioning brow at her, rolling a loose thread on his stitched dragon.
It took Serenna an annoying amount of effort to rip her attention away from the prince’s untimely presence. She silently seethed to herself, returning her focus to the match. Now he conveniently appears when I’m getting flung across the ring!
Serenna had sensed that the prince had returned to campus a few days prior. Assuming he had a hundred demands taking up his time, she hadn’t ascended the Spire like a moon-eyed girl to seek him out.
Using the telepathic link the prince still had latched onto her mind, Serenna sent him a snippy thought. You let me practice with rending, these horrid magus don’t. I’ve hardly—
The world turned upside down when a barrage of power launched Serenna into the air. Essence slipped out of her grip from the sudden shock. She crashed onto her back, colliding with the sand.
What air Serenna had left abandoned her lungs when Ayla rammed into her. They grappled in a tangle of arms and fingers until Ayla wrenched Serenna’s hands next to her head, staking her to the ground like a pinned beetle on display.
“Do you honestly think a half-breed from the human realms can compete with me?” Ayla hissed, straddling Serenna’s hips. “You have no place among the elves.”
Unable to combat the insecurity that her sister’s vicious words had induced, something in Serenna’s chest iced over, fracturing with the truth. She had yet to set foot in Kyansari. I’ll never be a pure-blood and belong. And Serenna wanted to scream at Ayla that neither would she, a fact that her sister always conveniently forgot.
Serenna bucked and squirmed under Ayla like a worm writhing in water. She yanked in air past the sting of her sister’s flaying words and the fact that the realm had reduced her to nothing more than fodder for the wraith.
Ayla’s perfectly painted lips peeled back from her teeth when Serenna didn’t respond. “Why do you think our sire selected me as the prince’s consort instead of you?”
Serenna steered her mind away from the half-formed bond with the prince—the twin silver cords connecting them. It wasn’t like Vesryn had chosen her either. Essence had randomly linked their Wells. She knew he wouldn’t have looked at her twice if the magic hadn’t forced his attention.
He said he wanted to figure out what this power between us means before we fully accept the bond, but why would he bind himself more completely to someone who can’t even fight off another recruit?
Embarrassment seared Serenna’s cheeks. The prince was witnessing Ayla defeat her. She hadn’t forgotten that his intervention—using their connection and summoning her power for her—was the only reason she’d survived the wraith’s assault.
Simmering frustration with Ayla’s constant advantage had Serenna spitting words. “Tell me,” she goaded, despite being helpless on her back, “how does it feel being sold to the highest bidder?”
“There is no greater bloodline than Falkyns’.” Ayla’s sapphire eyes flashed as she dug her nails into Serenna’s arms. Scarlet braid spilling over her shoulder, she leaned closer, words malicious with her disdain. “You will not ruin this for me.”
As if Serenna had any hope of altering the will of the realm. I can’t even get up! A disbelieving, bitter laugh burst from Serenna’s lips. Ayla is dragging this out on purpose, proving she’s better and doesn’t need magic to subdue me. Stars scorch her!
“I’m sure our sire will be so proud when you spread your legs to produce a litter for his line,” Serenna bit back, scraping her heels in the sand. She pointlessly tried hooking Ayla’s legs, straining to knock her sister off. “Will the king pay him extra once you prove your worth? Or will you get a pat on the head? Enlighten me, I always get confused with your elven customs.”
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?
