“Your training session isn’t over.” Untangling himself from her, Vesryn retreated with a chuckle. He pushed Serenna’s eager hands away when she tried to haul him back on top of her.
“Of course it isn’t.” Serenna released a disgusted sigh, sitting back up.
With an irritated huff, she retied the laces to her bodice, unsurprised that the prince had loosened them without her knowledge. What am I doing? She paused on a knot. On a dungeon floor, no less. She glanced at the wraith, still mindlessly flailing against Vesryn’s restrictive magic.
He’s promised to Ayla, she sharply reminded herself. That thought extinguished any lingering kindling of lust. I want to be something more than his plaything. Serenna’s heart twisted at the distance the realm had established between her and the prince, even if no one would bat an eye if they were involved. I just want to feel like I belong somewhere.
Serenna pulled her legs to her chest, lacing her fingers around her knees. Working up the courage to put her unease into words, she cleared her throat, unsure how to voice her concerns without succumbing to envy. “About this bond and your engagement…” The scowl on the prince’s face made her falter.
“We’re here for your training,” Vesryn said, his irritation flashing through their connection. Flaring Essence, he tugged a water flask to his hand that she hadn’t noticed resting against a wall. “I’m in no mood to discuss my royal responsibilities.”
Conveniently, he never seemed to be in the mood for that. Serenna opened her mouth to press on with a question about Ayla, but bit her tongue when Vesryn clenched his jaw, shoving the canteen at her.
“You need to be ready if the wraith return.” A command. His tone suggested that now wasn’t the time for the conversation she wanted—needed—to have.
Serenna didn’t feel like she was asking for a lot. I just want some assurance of what will happen to us once he’s married off.
She drank from the offered flask while her heart battled with shame and dejection, sinking her with doubts. Resentment of her failures sent her in a downward spiral. I don’t deserve to be his champion, let alone anything more. I’m a liability to him, not an asset. Defeat pricked at the corners of her vision.
Unable to meet Vesryn’s eyes, Serenna absorbed herself with twisting the cap back on the canteen as she assembled her thoughts. “I’m sorry my incompetence distracted you during the attack.” Despair needled an ache in her chest. She swallowed, making a poor attempt at furiously blinking away a stream of tears. Her voice broke without her permission under the strain of her inadequacies. “I understand if you want to reject the bond—”
“What?” Vesryn interrupted her. He cupped her face, turning her head to meet his gaze, eyes searching hers.
Serenna barely heard her words. “You were so angry when you brought me here.” She hastily swiped at a stray tear before it spilled down her face.
“I’m not angry with you.” Vesryn’s eyes softened as his thumb brushed her cheek. “I’m angry at the wraith. And furious that I wasn’t able to protect you. That’s why we’re doing this.” He dropped his hand, his brow forming a severe ridge. “I want to ensure you can defend yourself in case…I can’t be there.” His voice lowered, and she sensed regret rolling through him. “Again.”
Serenna rapidly blinked, processing his words. “Oh.”
Relief unwound the tension in her shoulders. He couldn’t have said that when we portaled here? Serenna studied the snarling wraith, talons clacking as it clenched its claws, still mindlessly fighting the shadowy restraints. Regardless of the prince’s motive, he wasn’t wrong. I need to be able to fend for myself. I can’t always count on being rescued.
They sank into a swelling silence. Vesryn unfolded from the ground, offering a hand to help her rise.
“Wraith can fade into shadows unless they’re in bright light.” Vesryn suddenly dispelled the illumination, plunging the cell into darkness. “We’ll level the playing field.” His voice echoed from every direction as he left Serenna’s side. “If you can detect their life force in the dark, their invisibility won’t be a match for you.”
Serenna slumped with a weary sigh, hearing the wraith charge across the chambers. “I really hate you,” she muttered.
CHAPTER 9
JASSYN
The sun melted below the island’s horizon while Jassyn spent the quiet evening sitting at the table on his private balcony—the first night back at his quarters since his time with the prince. The floral scents from the Infirmary’s lavender hedges fluttered up to the magus’ residence hall on a breeze.
Brushing the stirred curls away from his eyes, Jassyn flipped through the ancient volume Farine had granted him the final time she’d summoned him to her estate. He’d scoured the tome multiple times. For all its tattered pages, the amount of useful information from Fynlas’ research was scant. Archivists hadn’t documented shaman powers—the control of fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning—since the extinction of both the shamans and the druids a millennium ago.
Farine intentionally provided a single book from Fynlas’ study to whet my curiosity and have me crawling back for more. An incident at her estate where she’d forced him to grovel at her jeweled slippers skirted the fringes of Jassyn’s mind before he took a shuddering breath, forcibly shoving the thought away.
She knows something I don’t and would be delighted if I begged for what she’s withholding. Dread lanced and then twisted though Jassyn’s gut as he considered returning to the Vallende manor willingly to obtain answers. There’s knowledge in that estate, but I don’t have the strength to pay the price she’s set.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Jassyn steered his mind away from the horrors he’d endured at Farine’s hands, suppressing a sudden urge to bury the memories in Stardust. Steadying himself, Jassyn opened his eyes and directed his attention toward the screen of wisteria vines sheltering his balcony from the neighboring magus.
Perception coasting like clouds on the wind, he stretched his awareness out to the plants. The veins of the leaves hummed with energy, like they had a heartbeat of their own. Jassyn tugged on the droning power and a cluster of blooming flowers drifted to his extended palm.
I need to learn how to control this new magic. As the vines coiled around his hands, Jassyn clenched the plants as a sobering thought flitted across his mind. Regardless of the prince’s exclusive claim to his bloodline, the elves would undoubtedly force him back into servitude if they discovered that the elemental magic had awakened in him. Aside from the Vallendes, some of the higher members of Alari’s society must’ve known that the council had deliberately intermingled human lineages bearing the ancient powers with prominent elven lines.
Jassyn wrestled for control of his breathing before fear compressed his chest. I’ve hardly had two weeks of freedom. The last thing he wanted to do was fall back into the council’s clutches.
I’m not alone though, Jassyn reminded himself. Many at Centarya had the ancestral ties—including Serenna. Her name was inked at the bottom of one of the family trees hidden away in Fynlas’ study.
He doubted that Elashor had informed Serenna about the shaman roots in her mortal bloodline, considering she thought shamans were simply human folklore. I have to tell her. She needed to be aware of the danger if her powers suddenly manifested too.
Thoughts shattering, Jassyn’s muscles spasmed like he’d been struck by a wave of lightning. He flinched, his control on the earth fracturing. The vine wilted and drooped, no longer prodded by power. Jassyn tensed, sensing a groping presence cling to his mind. Cringing, he knew the incessant touch could only belong to the prince.
Come to my quarters, Vesryn commanded through the telepathic link, confirming Jassyn’s suspicion.
I think we’ve spent quite enough time together lately, Jassyn clipped. Assembling his mental barricades, he swiped the prince out of his head with all the attention he would’ve afforded brushing dust off a shelf. Having only retired to his chambers mere hours ago after joining the prince at the Ranger Station, he wasn’t about to drag himself back to Vesryn’s rooms.
The prince redoubled his efforts, latching onto Jassyn’s mind like a leech. Irritation compounding, Jassyn rolled his shoulders, hoping his cousin would grow bored and relent.
Moments passed while Vesryn persistently battered against his barrier. Exhaustion from the previous few days had Jassyn dropping his face into his hands in defeat.
What could you possibly need? Jassyn snapped, abandoning his mental shield. He scowled toward the peak of the Spire when the prince’s telepathic presence flooded back into his awareness.
I took Serenna training and she came out with a few scrapes and bruises. I thought you could heal her.
Seriously? Jassyn stretched in his seat, massaging one of his aching calves, loosening a knotted muscle. Why can’t you handle mending something so minor?
Do you really want me healing her on my own?
You’re right. Jassyn’s nose wrinkled in disgust, smelling his cousin’s manipulation radiating from the top of the tower. I had to straighten that last mess after you “mended” her finger into a useless hook. Blowing out a sigh, Jassyn rose and gathered Fynlas’ research, returning indoors. His watery legs already dreaded ascending the Spire. I’m on my way. Driving his hands through his curls, he shoved the prince out of his mind.
Tucking the tome away in a bookcase, Jassyn wondered how he’d manage to clandestinely exercise his new power. Since Vesryn was intent on ensuring he didn’t relapse, Jassyn could only assume that his cousin wouldn’t permit him to have any significant time alone.
A wave shimmered in the middle of Jassyn’s sitting room, unfolding into a portal. He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, pleading to the stars for strength. I see Vesryn made himself familiar enough with my living quarters. At some point in the past few days, the prince had taken it upon himself to root around in Jassyn’s belongings and dispose of his Stardust supply.
Lips thinning, Jassyn stomped through the rift. He could concede that the gateway was a convenience, but he didn’t have to tolerate Vesryn's unsolicited intrusion into his chambers whenever he pleased.
Half blinded by the glaring angle of the descending sun in the prince’s apartment, Jassyn detected his cousin outside on his balcony, his silhouette framed by the flowing waterfall. Vesryn wandered into the sitting room, leaving the sliding glass door open to permit the evening breeze.
Unwilling to cultivate the prince’s gesture into a habit, Jassyn withheld his gratitude for the portal that’d spared him the daunting climb. “I don’t appreciate you slithering through my mind or helping yourself to my quarters,” he announced as the rift disappeared. Jassyn surveyed the apartment. “Where’s Serenna?”
As if summoned, the bathing chamber door banged open. Freshly showered, mahogany hair hanging loose and damp down her back, Serenna glided into the opulent sitting room. Nose in the air, she clearly was making it a point to ignore the prince as she weaved around the couches, avoiding him.
Instead of her leathers, she wore loungewear of that cashmere material Vesryn favored. Jassyn frowned between her and his cousin, disregarding the unsettling fact that she had a set of nightwear in the prince’s rooms.
After he processed Serenna’s outfit, Jassyn’s eyes darted across her, assessing her split lip and the trenches gouged down her arms. He blinked. Discolored skin peeked out from under her clothes, concealing further injuries.
“Scrapes and bruises?” Turning to the prince, Jassyn’s question came out strangled. “Scrapes and bruises?” He flung an arm out toward her. “She’s more mangled now than she was after the assault!”
