“We’re going to do this every day until I’m satisfied with your abilities.” He balanced the tip of the blade on his finger. “Lucky for you, there’s no short supply of wraith to corral.”

Serenna’s spine stiffened in protest, incredulity ringing in her tone. “Don’t act like you’re not punishing me for—”

“I’m not punishing you,” Vesryn interrupted, almost defensively, snatching his dagger as it tumbled from his finger. “I’m training you.”

Serenna scoffed. “We clearly have different opinions on the definition of ‘training.’” She folded her bloody arms, still unaffected by the injuries scored into her skin. “You could learn a thing or two from Jassyn. He would never—”

Vesryn threw his knife directly at her face.

With a yelp, Serenna lurched backward, horror paralyzing her mind. Steered by instinct, she snatched the speeding weapon with a whip of force.

Serenna yanked in a sharp breath, released from shock. Grabbing the suspended dagger out of the air, she clenched the leather hilt. How dare he! Fury sharper than the steel in her palm, she lunged across the dungeon for the prince, punching forward with the blade.

Letting her reach him, Vesryn struck faster than a viper’s strike. He seized her wrist in a smack of skin, halting the knife before it bit into the center of his chest.

Bracing her boots against the stone, Serenna wrestled against him, every fiber intent on thrusting the weapon through his leathers. She snatched the prince’s other forearm, digging nails into flesh, fighting to pull herself closer. Muscles straining from the exertion, Serenna screeched in frustration that her physical strength was no match for a warrior.

Vesryn gripped a fistful of her hair, prying her neck back. Serenna gasped when he pushed her arm, forcing the dagger against her throat.

She went still, her pulse helplessly hammering against the icy steel. Serenna’s chest held her breath hostage when the prince lowered his mouth. A flash of desire—that most certainly belonged to him—irrationally overrode her anger, quelling any remaining resistance.

Blood heating, every nerve in her body fired when Vesryn’s lips skimmed the edge of her ear, sweeping down in a caress from the uppermost point to the lobe. Serenna drew in a rough inhale through her teeth, lashes fluttering against her will when the prince’s mouth brushed the sensitive skin along her neck beside the knife. A wave of flame rippled down her spine, straight to her toes.

Drawing back, Vesryn’s face hovered above hers. He smirked. “You forgot about the wraith.”

Snapped out of the moment, Serenna’s eyes flew wide, locking with his. “You’re joking.”

The creature’s footfalls echoed through the chamber as it bolted toward them. Vesryn’s iron grip prevented her from moving. A heartbeat passed before Serenna flared her magic, encompassing them in a violet dome. She flinched when the wraith’s body crashed against the barrier.

Vesryn’s fingers relaxed their tangled hold in her hair, moving to brush against the base of her neck with feather-light strokes. Serenna’s traitorous magic reacted to the scrape of his calluses in a chaotic frenzy, desperate to intertwine with his power. Shoulders slacking, her common sense wavered alongside the tentative control she had on the ward.

Something bloomed in the space between them. Hauled into the orbit of the prince’s gaze, Serenna’s mind emptied as she fell into the depths of his emerald eyes. Vesryn’s chest collided with hers with every shared breath as they stared at each other, disregarding the wraith smacking against the shield, breaking the silence.

A circular heat looped through Serenna’s chest as she sensed through the bond that the prince’s wants mirrored her own. So close to his mouth, Serenna’s pulse skipped when her thoughts sauntered back to their first frantic kiss days ago. Obviously reading what she was feeling, Vesryn’s lips curved in response.

Any logical thought Serenna had left sailed out of her head, replaced with a reckless need to reach the prince’s mouth. Vesryn inhaled an erratic breath when she leaned into the blade. A warm trickle of blood rolled down Serenna’s neck, but she didn’t feel her skin splitting.

Vesryn’s nostrils flared, indicating that he did, but he silently refused to relent. “Careful,” he warned. “I keep my daggers sharp.”

“Now you’re concerned for my well-being?” Serenna gritted out as she pushed harder against the knife.

Yanking the dagger out of her hand and away from her throat, Vesryn sheathed the weapon back at his hip. “I’m not kissing you in a dungeon with a wraith,” he hissed, releasing her. “How long can you hold this shield?”

Serenna clutched the front of Vesryn’s leathers, expecting her knees to buckle when her power faltered. “Not much longer.” She swallowed, assessing her magic, sensing the emptiness floating in her chest. “My Well is nearly drained.”

Vesryn’s eyes glittered in the hovering illumination. “I’ll wait.”

The surrounding barrier unraveled when the dregs of Serenna’s magic fizzled out moments later. The prince flicked a hand to fling the wraith back, anchoring it to a wall with rending.

Collapsing from the loss of power and not as an excuse to melt further into Vesryn’s arms, Serenna sagged into him as he lowered her to the floor. Exhaustion flooded into the void left behind by her magic, towing her back to the dungeon as the vestiges of their heated moment evaporated.

Serenna studied the snarling monster, voicing her earlier observation as the prince settled beside her. “This isn’t the same type of wraith that attacked us. Why is it mindless when the others weren’t?”

Vesryn drummed his fingers on his knee. “I don’t know.” Eyes flicking to the creature across the chamber, a crease dented his brow. “I found this one roaming the wilds a few days ago.” He glared at the wraith. “Instead of rending it on sight, I decided to bring it here so you could practice and overcome your fear.”

Serenna folded her legs under herself. “That’s a little cruel.” An unsettling feeling roosted in the back of her mind as she noticed the disturbing familiarity of its pointed ears. “It’s mindless, but it's not like it’s a rabbit to feed Naru.”

Vesryn shrugged, obviously uninterested in the topic or her opinion on his methods. He changed the subject. “From now on, you’re going to drain your magic completely and regenerate afterward—every day.” He extracted a radiant orb of white light from his chest, offering it to her. Shaking his head, Vesryn stared at the globe hovering above his palm. “I should’ve had you increasing the depth of your Well weeks ago.”

Serenna reminded herself how furious she was with the prince—and herself—before he’d distracted her. She scowled at the replenishing Essence flickering between them.

“I’ll regenerate tonight.” Serenna tilted her chin, refusing to accept the offered magic. “I can manage that much. I don’t need you doing it for me.”

Ignoring her objection, Vesryn grabbed her shoulder, eyes narrowing with an intensity that nearly made her shy away. “Don’t give me that look, you harpy,” he growled.

Before Serenna’s annoyance had time to smolder into a flame, Vesryn shoved the Essence into her chest. She gasped as the charge of energy crackled like sparks bursting from a log, spiraling into every pore as her magic regenerated, replenishing her empty Well. The vessels around her heart flared and glowed as her body absorbed the prince’s magic.

Catching her breath from the rush of power, Serenna wiped the drying blood on her arms against her leathers. “Why do you call me a harpy?”

Vesryn’s smirk gave the impression that he’d been waiting for her to ask. “Harpies,” he enunciated dramatically, “were thought to be female druids who shifted to either a dragon or a bird of prey—the details are a little unclear. Aesar and I found an enlightening text depicting harpies in all manners of…erotic positions.” The way he ran his thumb along his bottom lip had Serenna’s attention latched straight back to his mouth. He shrugged before giving her a roguish grin. “My interest in books might’ve stayed piqued if every tome contained images with such fascinating and informative detail.”

Shifting on the uncomfortable cell floor, Serenna rolled her eyes. “That really explains nothing beyond your depravity.” Her heart betrayed her dismissiveness by slamming into her stomach when Vesryn slipped his fingers over her leg.

The prince looked at her through a curtain of hooded lashes. “I was more interested in looking at their bared breasts. But apparently, harpies had a habit of ripping the hearts out of those who didn’t satisfy their insatiable appetites.” Leaning closer, he braced his other palm on the floor next to her hip.

Serenna’s breath came in a rapid rush, parting her lips as the prince’s hand glided up her leg, sending a flush of heat straight between her thighs.

Vesryn’s eyes traveled a slow journey, drifting up her body from where his fingertips rested in the crease of her waist to meet her gaze. “When I realized Essence linked us with this bond, I knew it would only be a matter of time until you sank your claws into me and yanked the beating heart out of my chest.”

A swell of warmth jumped to Serenna’s spine when Vesryn’s fingers tightened around her leg. Dangerously close to where an ache was starting to throb. His eyes didn’t stray from hers. Forcing herself to blink free, Serenna’s scattered mind reassembled his words.

Her question came out breathless as Vesryn lowered his mouth—the wraith across the room forgotten as the prince consumed her vision. “Are you saying that you won’t satisfy me?”

Hooking a finger under her chin, Vesryn angled her face up to his, so close that scents of crisp wind and leather pushed back the stifling earthen odor of the dungeon. “I suppose I’ll risk you tearing out my heart if that’s the case.” His thumb brushed her bottom lip. “But I think you’ll discover I can be quite thorough.”

Serenna threw her arms around the prince’s neck as their mouths collided. She kissed him desperately, met with the same urgency as their lips fused together between gasps for breath. Weaving her fingers through his silvery hair, Serenna greedily pressed into him.

Vesryn’s mouth muffled her moan as he pinned her to the cell floor, settling between her thighs. Serenna inhaled a hiss of pain when his teeth grazed her split lip. Apparently he wanted her to feel it, not absorbing the sting through the bond. The prince deepened the kiss, his tongue soothing over the sharp twinge with a tingle of pleasure before diving further into her mouth.

The bond’s magic writhed under Serenna’s skin, blurring all sense of who the frenzied need belonged to. She combusted with an explosion of desire when Vesryn rolled his hips rhythmically against hers, driving her into the ground. Tongues intertwining, Serenna arched into him, losing all capacity for thought. Their bodies clashed, frantically moving faster and faster.

The leathers between them were too much. She needed more. Snaking her fingers between them, Serenna grappled with the ties of his trousers.

One of Vesryn’s hands shot down and circled both of her wrists. He wrenched her arms above her head. Cheeks stained with a flush, the prince was just as out of breath as she was when he pulled away. 

“Not here with a wraith,” he said.

As if he wasn’t the one pounding their bodies into the floor. “Then toss it through a portal,” Serenna protested, hooking her legs around his waist, fighting to pull him closer.