I don’t know what damage we could cause by simply unraveling the magic, Jassyn said, continuing to pluck at the coercion. By doing it this way, I can monitor Thalaesyn and make sure there aren’t any adverse—
A streak of rending penetrated the magister’s skull, slicing the coiled telepathy in half.
Jassyn’s pulse skidded to a halt. He sucked in a shocked breath when the cluster of coercion he was working on disintegrated like a wick burned by a flame.
Thalaesyn staggered backward.
“Stop!” Jassyn shouted at his cousin, rushing to catch the magister before he collapsed. “You have no idea what you’re doing.” He helped steady Thalaesyn on his feet before rounding on the prince. “Stars, you can hardly heal a scorching bruise! You have no business trying to free his mind.”
“But did it work?” Vesryn asked, eyes bright with curiosity as his shadows receded.
“I doubt it!” Jassyn said, grabbing fistfuls of his soaking curls. “There are a hundred knots in that web.” Dueling waves of incredulity and disbelief at Vesryn’s idiocy had Jassyn’s heart furiously flinging itself against his ribs. “Don’t do that again. We can’t even begin to guess what effect untangling the coercion might have on his mind.”
Thalaesyn’s hand trembled as he touched his head. “The wraith are my fault.” He flinched at the admission, eyes darting between Vesryn and Jassyn. Thalaesyn focused on the prince, his words spilling out in a rush. “You need to stop killing them. They’re not the enemy—”
Shadows erupted from Vesryn, the black cloud around him mirroring the Maelstrom’s wrath. Darkness seized Thalaesyn in a violent hold.
Without even thinking, Jassyn grabbed the prince. To do what, he had no idea, but Vesryn shoved him off.
The prince snatched the front of the immobilized magister’s tunic. “How can you say that?” he snarled, eyes blazing with outrage. “Those monsters took everything from me!” Chest heaving, he shook Thalaesyn. “They took everything from you!”
Apparently, Thalaesyn finally had enough of the prince and ignited his own Essence in response. His rending hacked at the prince’s shadows but Vesryn’s magic exploded, a hundred straps lashing to bind the magister completely.
Using all his strength, Jassyn hauled Vesryn away. Sensing the prince’s power flare in response, Jassyn tossed his hands up, frantically slamming a shield around himself to avoid the restrictive hold.
“We need to listen to what Magister Thalaesyn has to say,” Jassyn gritted out as Vesryn’s rending battered his ward. “He knows something. That’s why we’re doing this—to get answers.”
A tendon in Vesryn’s neck strained as his shadows roiled like the waves slapping the stones. The prince rounded on Thalaesyn. “Where were you the night of the attack? How did you survive?”
“Galaeryn already had me tethered in the dungeons,” Thalaesyn snapped. “I couldn’t even warn Maraelyn of what I’d done through our bond.”
Jassyn blinked. He was bonded to the queen?
Releasing his hold on Thalaesyn, Vesryn started pacing, brow dented in a furrow. The prince cut his hand over to Jassyn, pointing at the magister. “Keep working.”
“We’ve had enough for one night.” Jassyn glanced at Thalaesyn before studying the raging ocean as another echo of thunder crashed above them. “The storm is nearly here. Let’s return to Centarya and we can figure out how to proceed.”
“Now!” Vesryn barked at him.
Jassyn shook his head, struggling to keep calm, but urgency laced his tone. “Vesryn, we need to leave.” The wind sped up, whipping curls in his face. Visibly closer, the Maelstrom’s eerie lightning crackled and flashed, ripping at the sea.
“He’s had enough,” Jassyn repeated, scalp prickling.
“I’ll do it myself,” Vesryn growled. He stalked toward the magister, shadows angry, swirling in his wake.
Jassyn threw himself between them, realizing that his cousin intended to sever the knots of coercion with the brutal force of rending. “You could damage his mind. Irrevocably.” Jassyn’s stomach pitched in a sea of dread, keenly aware of his inability to stop the prince. “We could lose everything the king tried to conceal, not to mention Magister Thalaesyn’s sanity.”
Vesryn shoved past Jassyn’s shoulder, shadows coiling around his hands as he grabbed for the magister. Jassyn had heartbeats to consider snatching one of his golden daggers to tether his cousin. If he could have his mentor restrain Vesryn like Serenna had with rending, they might jointly buy enough time to settle the prince.
Before he could roll a blade to his fingers, Jassyn’s body seized, a numbness zipping through his veins. An electrifying charge coalesced under his skin, shooting down his arms. Vesryn’s eyes widened with his.
Lightning had hurtled from the clouds, straight into Jassyn’s fists.
Staggering away from Thalaesyn and the prince, Jassyn wrenched his arms closer to his body. Horror crystalized in his chest as the wave of sparks danced between his fingertips. This isn’t happening.
Jassyn’s gaze whipped to Vesryn, then to Thalaesyn, and then to the light striking between his trembling hands.
“I—” The power flared, expanding to an orb the size of his head. Jassyn stumbled out from the roof’s shelter, panic compressing his ribs. Every muscle tensing from the effort of dragging in labored breaths, he frantically considered what to do with the lightning twisting in his palms.
His eyes flitted to the sky, blinking back rain, like there would be an answer in the storm. The earth’s magic left me when I released my hold on the ground, but I have no idea how to dispel lightning!
“You need to get out of here,” Jassyn said, backing away further, shaking water out of his face. “I—I don’t know what’s happening.”
Neither the prince nor Thalaesyn moved, both wide-eyed and staring at the electric web.
Panting now, Jassyn extended his arms, the clash of magic surging through his bones. Purple and blue sparks spilled out in waves instead of dissipating like he desperately willed. If anything, the sizzling globe of power surged in response.
“You need to portal out of here,” Jassyn pleaded, alarm rising in his throat. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Vesryn opened a gateway and unceremoniously shoved Thalaesyn through. Closing the rift, he approached Jassyn, joining him in the rain. “This is…unexpected.” The prince tilted his head, attention riveted on the spinning sparks. “Care to explain?”
Stinging sweat and sea spray dripped into Jassyn’s eyes, but he didn’t move for fear of this foreign magic spiraling even more out of control. Terror had him blurting a confession.
“I channeled something in the earth.” Jassyn swallowed past his panic. “During the wraith attack. I don’t know what I did, but I felt something. A different power. I called roots from the ground. That’s—that’s what happened in front of the Spire.” His chest constricted, waiting for Vesryn’s reaction. “I…I think I can access elemental magic.”
Vesryn’s brows drew together, a sign of his intensive thinking. “Is it like Essence?” As if charmed, the prince lifted a hand to touch the magic bouncing around his palms.
“Don’t!” Jassyn yelled, jerking his arms away from his cousin. His mind raced to process the question, fear sundering his lungs. “I think it’s actually lightning.”
