The wraith crashed into Serenna, knocking her flat on the dungeon floor. Head bouncing against the stone, black flecks exploded behind her eyes. She screamed as fangs snapped in her face and talons sliced at her leathers.

The monster’s stifling weight vanished as suddenly as it had rammed into her. A pulse of Vesryn’s power flared behind her, throwing the creature back across the cell with a strike of force. Arms flailing, it snarled against the magic, grotesquely long canines extended. Restraining shadows coiled around the wraith, securing it back against a wall.

Serenna hauled in sharp breaths, a storm of renewed terror dredging up memories from the night of the assault. She pushed herself up to a sitting position, clutching her panic-closed throat. Air burned her lungs as she warily watched the red-eyed beast, expecting it to charge across the room again. Shaking, Serenna relived what she’d thought were her final moments—both the resurrected memory from the attack and the previous few seconds.

“You would’ve been dead,” the prince said behind her, yanking Serenna out of the fear-induced trance.

Serenna swiveled to face him. Vesryn loomed like a thundercloud at the edge of the stark chamber, fingers tapping against his folded arms.

“No thanks to you!” Serenna’s voice was shrill with disbelief. “Scorching stars, what the—”

Cutting her off, Vesryn snarled like the wraith across the chamber. “Shut up and get back on your feet.”

“Why?” Serenna battled his glare with her own, stubbornly staying where she was on the floor. “So you have a better view of that monster tearing me to shreds?”

Vesryn’s mouth thinned, agitation blazing through the bond. “Summon your magic and fight.”

Dread flooded Serenna’s entire body. He intends to make me train until I’m not a burden anymore. Her fingers went numb, splayed on the cold stone. Why doesn’t he reject this connection between us and just be done with me?

Vesryn clenched his jaw before flicking his wrist. Serenna’s neck pinched from swinging too quickly to face the wraith. The creature shot toward her like an arrow. Serenna scrambled to her feet, reeling backward.

“Vesryn!” she pleaded, a strangled squeal as the monster reached her, claws slashing, smashing her to the ground.

The prince hauled the wraith back to the wall again with a push of force. “Dead,” he drawled.

Serenna scurried to stand, legs kicking under her as she steadied herself. Her eyes widened, assessing the flaps of lacerated skin on her arms. Dark blood welled from the deep cuts, dripping down her fingertips, splashing on the floor.

She didn’t feel it.

Gaping at the prince, Serenna realized he rendered her impervious to the pain, absorbing the feeling of her injuries through the bond.

Guilt flickered in Vesryn’s face before he erased his features, becoming as expressionless as stone. He bared his teeth, biting out his words. “Fight. Back.”

Serenna drew herself up, quivering with unease, betraying her attempt at confidence. Overwhelmed by the beast’s attack, her heart mauled the confines of her ribs. Serenna dashed a glance at the wraith, ensuring Vesryn still had it secured.

She faced the prince, digging her nails into her palms. “I can’t—”

The wraith crashed into her.

Anger replaced Serenna’s terror as Vesryn hauled the creature back to the wall with another magical punch. He’s doing this until I’m desensitized to these monsters like he is.

Serenna wobbled to her feet, livid at the prince and with herself for being unable to fend off one mindless wraith on her own. Ironically, her magic finally roared to life—rending summoned by fury.

Vesryn shot her an exasperated look, clicking his tongue as her shadows raced along the floor. “You’re not using rending.”

With a surprised gasp, Serenna staggered. A tide of Essence engulfed her through the bond. Every muscle locked in bewilderment, a rope drawn taught. Her access to rending vanished, snuffed out like a flame.

“That’s my power!” Serenna grappled with Vesryn through the nexus linking them, straining to reclaim her ability, wrestling him in a battle of wills. I should’ve known he could do something like this since he summoned my magic for me during the assault.

Conceding that she wouldn’t outmaneuver him, Serenna sucked in air at the loss. Her skin prickled with alarm that the prince had this much control over her—even without fully accepting their bond. Yet another aspect of Essence that he’s withheld from me. What more can be done with the bond that I’m not aware of?

“What am I supposed to do?” Serenna seethed, indignation eroding her dismay. “Let that wraith assault me until I bleed to death?” Vesryn’s silence only incensed her further.

The stress of the week was catching up to her, unraveling her like a spool of thread. She’d spent the previous days fretting over Velinya’s absence and anxious that the wraith would return in force. Ayla’s taunting—giving voice to Serenna’s trepidation that she wasn’t worthy enough for a place in the realm—had only frayed her to the point of snapping.

Bitterness welled inside of her, flooding out in a deluge of words. “Would you—for once—just tell me what you want?” Serenna’s jaw clicked shut before she carelessly unleashed anything else.

Vesryn’s unblinking gaze bored into hers. “You’re going to learn how to summon your magic without tapping into your emotions.”

“Like you’re so in control of yours at the moment!” Serenna assumed his unbridled irritation was only feeding hers.

A muscle in Vesryn’s jaw jumped as he squared his stance. “Use force or shielding.”

“You can’t be bothered to teach me how to use my power without my feelings?” Serenna glared at the prince, pointing a bloody finger at him. “You’re the one who’s been twisting my emotions this entire time to pry my abilities out!”

A pulse of magic directed across the room was Vesryn’s only response. Spinning around, Serenna gritted her teeth as the wraith sprinted toward her. Its victorious snarl at freedom echoed in the chambers, colliding into her from every direction.

Time ticked by with each of its footsteps, red eyes burning, bare feet slapping stone. Serenna breathed in deeply, then exhaled her frustration and severed her thoughts. Blocking her awareness of the prince, she slammed iron gates over her mind, caging every emotion.

Serenna snatched at her magic. A spark of Essence blazed to life, gleaming as it spiraled around her hands like starlight. She heaved her force talent out of her Well.

Striking out, blue tendrils thrashed from her fingertips. Serenna trussed the wraith in a vice-like grip, halting its crazed charge. The monster’s limbs twitched as it combatted her power, but it didn’t gain any ground.

With a shriek, Serenna swung her other hand toward the prince. Releasing a shock wave of force, pressure exploded from her palm, reverberating against the stone walls. Shards of rock clattered to the floor, sending debris ricocheting across the chamber in a thin layer of dust.

Unsurprisingly, Vesryn had tossed a shield around himself. An aggravating smirk tugged at his lips when he unraveled his barrier. “I’m nearly impressed that you wielded two channels of power at once, despite directing one at me.” Unsheathing his belt knife, the prince idly began flipping and catching the dagger.

His nonchalance only stoked Serenna’s ire. She glared at him while her body shook from the effort of battling the wraith. Fangs bared, it strained against her magic.

“Now use your power to shove that fiend back to the wall and release it again,” Vesryn said, kicking a boot behind him to lean against the stone.

Serenna’s lungs fought to expand as she panted from the exertion of restraining the beast. “I am not doing that.”

Vesryn shrugged, snatching the blade’s hilt out of the air. “No matter.” He waved his dagger. “I will.” Blue force magic warped around the prince as he wrenched the wraith from her power’s grip, steering it across the room. “Now that you’re more angry than afraid, let it get closer and use a shield instead.”

Leaving her no time to react, Vesryn released the wraith. Heart hammering in her ears, Serenna frantically fabricated a sloppy ward, copying the lattice the prince unfolded in her mind while the creature charged her. She barely solidified the barrier in time before the monster collided with her power.

Serenna’s eyes bulged when her ward’s threads unraveled from the onslaught. Throwing out a hand, she blasted the wraith away with a punch of force.

Vesryn chuckled, casting shadows to bind the monster back to the opposite wall.

“I’m glad you find this so entertaining,” Serenna bristled, swaying on her feet as Vesryn continued to flip that stupid dagger, indifferent to her annoyance and exhaustion. “How much longer will you insist on this torture?”

“Until you drain your Well.” Vesryn caught his knife without looking while holding her scowl. “Then I’ll infuse you with my power and you’ll keep practicing until you deplete your magic again.”

Serenna’s jaw went slack at what he was demanding of her, and without allowing her to recover from her duel with Ayla. He might as well have ordered her to run around Centarya a hundred times.

“You—you can’t be serious,” she spluttered.