Serenna’s pulse leaped as a sliver of darkness stroked down her slit with a sensation that she could only process as torturously pleasant. Desperate for a release, she trembled, twitching within the confines of her skin, fighting to push her body into his.

Serenna yanked in air, her core pounding with unsatiated arousal. It took her more than one attempt to speak. “How do I summon my power while you’re doing that to me?”

The prince dipped a finger inside of her. Serenna emitted something between a shriek and a moan when he curled his hand to reach her innermost wall. Her eyes rolled back into her head as the prince worked his fingers, stroking and teasing, his thumb joining to caress that sensitive peak of nerves.

Serenna shuddered with waves of pleasure before Vesryn settled her legs back to the bed. The prince inched up her body, trailing a wake of kisses over her chest.

“Separate your mind from your environment,” Vesryn whispered into her ear, his teeth grazing the point. “Like you do when assembling your mental barricades.”

Completely at his mercy, unwilling to slam a door against the pleasure he offered, Serenna’s words were a pathetic whine this time. “But I don’t want to.”

Moaning, she arched as much as the rending allowed when the prince stretched her with a second rough finger, the friction of his calluses crafting another round of bliss. Serenna’s knees shook, overwhelmed by the collective sensations of the prince’s shadows skimming over her body, his mouth sucking at her neck, and the friction of his fingers rhythmically pumping inside of her.

Vesryn’s lips swept over hers. Serenna released a shocked gasp against their tangling tongues when his shadows joined his hand, the combined pleasure fracturing her sight. As soon as her core started to flutter, the prince withdrew, reclaiming his fingers and magic.

Serenna ripped her lips away from his, screeching in frustration as he yanked her back from careening over the edge.

“You’re not going to win this,” Vesryn said, chuckling with more smugness than anyone had a right to possess. “Not when I can tell what you’re feeling through the bond.”

“Stars scorch you,” Serenna seethed, squeezing her eyes shut, attempting to sever her mind from her body. She sensed the prince fully intended to force her into obedience by swinging her pleasure out of reach.

Behind her eyelids, she felt Vesryn shift his weight lower. Blood jerking in every direction, the return of his mouth between her thighs brought a renewed wave of warmth. Serenna emitted a discouraged sob at the way his tongue flattened against her aching center, delivering only half the pressure she needed to chase a release.

Serenna spent what had to be years straining to block out every sensation, forcibly steering her awareness away from the pleasure the prince was wringing out of her body. Since he intended to continue torturing her forever, she stubbornly refused to break first and demand that he stop.

Against all odds, Serenna distanced her mind enough to reach the intangible space where Essence lay waiting. She recklessly snatched at her magic, desperately hauling rending from her Well.

It took multiple tries.

Power igniting, shadows thrashing, Serenna hurtled her entire strength against the prince’s restrictive magic, severing his rending with a vicious slice of her own. Her body bolted up as she disintegrated his grip.

Grinning, Vesryn peeked up from between her legs. Serenna seized his hair and shoved his face back down, grinding against his mouth before collapsing back to the bed.

Vesryn laughed against her, the rumbling from his lips burying a rapturous tide of vibrations deep into her core. The prince doubled his efforts, fingers pumping, tongue flicking. Serenna locked him in with her thighs, savagely moving with him. Chasing pleasure, she rode against his mouth, building her release.

Serenna whimpered, mind unraveling, lightheaded, so close to the brink. This time, Vesryn let her tumble over the edge—shoving her off when he did something inexplicable with his shadows.

Magic ricocheted against her from the inside out, sending Serenna’s spine arching off the mattress. She fissured and shattered, her climax shuddering, barreling through her body in crashing waves. Serenna went limp, collapsing onto her pillows.

“Scorching stars,” Vesryn panted against her, hauling himself up to her face. He smoothed her hair away from her eyes. “That felt…” He didn’t finish the thought before his ravenous lips collided with hers.

Serenna didn’t have time to catch her breath as their mouths kindled against each other, stoking coals in the fire. No longer willing to be the only one unclothed, Serenna tackled the half-tied laces of Vesryn’s trousers. I’ll die if he stops me again.

“As much as I want to,” the prince said, halting her hands.

Serenna’s wordless objection began flying off her tongue before he interrupted her.

“Jassyn has been badgering me telepathically for the past fifteen minutes.” Vesryn’s voice was tight with annoyance. “Apparently, he requires my assistance at this exact moment and refuses to take no for an answer.”

If it was anyone but Jassyn, Serenna would’ve protested. She propped herself up. “Well, you deserve it for all the times you’ve harassed him.”

Rising, Vesryn tied the laces of his trousers and slipped back into his boots. Serenna’s mouth twitched with amusement from his disarray. The prince yanked his leathers straight, shoving stray strands of hair out of his eyes.

“I plan to continue this later.” Leaning down, the prince brushed his lips against hers. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Muttering to himself about Jassyn’s atrocious timing, Vesryn opened a portal. Serenna leaned back into her pillows, watching him disappear. As the cloud of lust cleared from her mind, she frowned, realizing they’d never truly talked.

CHAPTER 15

JASSYN

Sensing a surge of power, Jassyn jerked his head up from the tome he was reading at the dining table. About time. He’d only been persistent in bothering his cousin since Vesryn was stubbornly balking. Let’s see how he likes being the one pestered.

As expected, the prince’s portal tore open in the middle of his sitting room. Readjusting his plated ear cuffs from the sudden jarring, Jassyn pushed away the remnants of his dinner.

Vesryn stalked through the portal, snarling. “This had better be life threatening or I’m opening a rift to the Hibernal Wastes and tossing you through.”

Folding his arms, Jassyn leaned back in his chair. He returned the prince’s scowl, sweeping his attention over his cousin’s disheveled state. Silver hair half out of his topknot, rumpled tunic, and—

Jassyn yanked his gaze up, clashing with his cousin’s eyes. His mouth pinched further into a glower upon noticing that Vesryn’s excessively tight leathers only highlighted his blatant erection.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jassyn grated out through his clenched jaw, thinking his teeth might crack. “You obviously need to cool off in a snowdrift before we go anywhere.”

The prince’s nostrils flared as he released his magic, the rift fading behind him. “I don’t know which part of ‘I’m giving Serenna the most mind-blowing clim—’”

Jassyn slammed the book in front of him shut, cutting his cousin off. “It was my mistake to assume you were simply being lewd.” His cheeks heated with discomfort that he hoped the prince interpreted as anger. “I assure you, it won’t happen again.”

Uttering something incoherent to himself, Vesryn ran his fingers through his hair. Apparently noticing the sorry state, he untangled the dangling leather strap, rebinding the top portion.

The prince’s lips twitched. “You said I needed to work on my lesson planning. That delightful body lock trick sparked the idea of drawing Serenna’s power out with a more…enjoyable approach.”

“Excuse me?” Jassyn could only express his disbelief through a scoff, unable to form a response. He couldn’t begin to decipher how the prince had been inspired when they’d had him tethered with a knife against his throat.

Vesryn smirked. “Serenna struggled spectacularly.”

“I didn’t ask.” Jassyn’s ears singed. Regret assaulted him, making him wish that he hadn’t bothered reaching out to his cousin this evening. “If you’re quite finished informing me of”—he pointedly kept his eyes fastened on the prince’s—“whatever you did with Serenna, can we discuss why I asked you to come?”

“Thanks to you, I actually didn’t, but—”

“Scorching stars, I’m referring to the coercion on the magister,” Jassyn all but pleaded, shoving his palms into his eyes.

“Why do you need my help with Thalaesyn?” Blessedly redirected, Vesryn joined him at the table. The prince unceremoniously readjusting himself had Jassyn rolling his eyes. “This really could’ve waited another day.” Vesryn gripped the back of a chair, releasing a humored grunt. “Or another minute. What I felt through the bond nearly had me—”

“Again, I didn’t ask,” Jassyn said, driving a hand through his curls. “And quite frankly, I really don’t want to know.” Vesryn opened his mouth and Jassyn silenced him by holding up a finger. “You’re the commander—I figured the authority of your presence would be helpful in the event of any…reactions on Thalaesyn’s part if I inquired about the compulsion.”

Vesryn snatched a slice of beef from the discarded dinner plate. Jassyn’s lip curled as the prince shoved it into his mouth. With the hand he just had in his trousers.

“Since you mentioned it,” Vesryn said around the mouthful, “I’ve been trying to determine why there’d even be coercion on Thalaesyn. It’s possible he might know something from the first time the wraith attacked the capital.” A muscle jumped in the prince’s jaw before he grabbed Jassyn’s glass of water and guzzled the contents. “He somehow survived that night when so many others in the palace didn’t.” Shaking his head, the prince dropped into the chair across from Jassyn, evidently intending to finish the leftovers. “My sire banished him to the dungeons until the completion of Centarya, but I never thought to ask why.”