Serenna’s stomach turned over at their malnourished faces, skin edged in frostbite. The mortal didn’t make it far before one of the wraith clubbed him with the butt of a crossbow, sending him crashing to the snow.
“They’re defenseless,” Serenna said, a swell of anger feathering in her pulse. Fenn snagged her shoulder as she stepped around him.
“I’d keep your new pet on a tighter leash, brother,” Taryn said, rolling a braid between her talons.
Attention riveted on the male wraith, Fenn flung his arm toward a tunnel that led into the stronghold. “Get the humans out of the cold and find them something to eat.” Eyes on fire, he threw the command like a javelin. “Lykor will want to speak to them.”
The male cackled like a crow. “I don’t think so. Why would we waste our resources on feeding the elves’ fodder? These mangy mutts are as worthless as their bones.”
“Larek,” Fenn growled, the low rumble from his chest reverberating through the air. His claws clacked, forming fists. “That’s an order.”
Taking a step forward, Larek broke into a serpentine smile. “You know the funny thing about orders?” His scarlet gaze dismissively slid over Serenna before he stood boot-to-boot with Fenn. “Orders are only respected if you follow the chain of command.” Larek’s fangs extended. “And I’ve grown weary of following Lykor’s blundering.”
Fenn tensed when Larek gave a shrill whistle, like a dracovae on the hunt. A warrior hauled the collapsed human up by his hair. Serenna yanked in a shocked breath as cruel talons sliced across the man’s neck. Blood gushed in a spray, drenching the snow.
Fenn lunged, his fist connecting with Larek’s face.
The valley erupted into garbled screams as the reavers shredded the remaining humans’ throats. Unable to process the fountains of red spouting in waves, Serenna went numb, watching in horror as the slaughter slowed time to a crawl.
Taryn warped beside her, snatching her arm. Wrenched into a nether of darkness, Serenna staggered, reappearing twenty paces away. Positioning Serenna in front of her chest, Taryn’s claws dug into her shoulders. Stifling a cry, Serenna inhaled sharply through her nose, recoiling from the slice of pain.
Fenn faced them with Larek on his knees, talons on the reaver’s face, threatening to gouge his eye. Twisting the warrior’s braids, Fenn yanked Larek’s head back.
“Taryn, let her go,” Fenn ordered, fangs extending.
A cruel laugh spilled out of the female as weapons rattled and unsheathed. The reavers fanned out, aiming their crossbows at Fenn.
Terror bludgeoned Serenna’s chest when Taryn tauntingly skimmed a talon across the front of her neck, scraping skin. Fenn flashed his canines. Claws forming hooks, his nails scored the side of Larek’s face, dragging out a hiss and a trickle of black blood.
“The wraith need her magics,” Fenn snarled. “You can’t harm her.”
“Is that you talking or Lykor, brother?” Disdain dripped from Taryn’s fangs like venom. “I don’t see how this elven bitch can serve the wraith, but the reavers will discover exactly how far her usefulness extends.” Taryn jutted her chin in command. “Run back and inform Lykor that we’re taking over her watch. Let Larek go.”
Shock from the sudden slaughter fading, tears streamed down Serenna’s cheeks, iced over by the wind. This is just the beginning. Pulse roaring in her ears, her mind replayed severed throats gushing blood. The humans will overwhelm the wraith when they come in force, but how many smaller groups will die until they find this fortress?
Imprisoned in the female’s claws, a sense of cold foreboding constricted Serenna’s air. Heartbeats passed while scales tilted in her head, weighing her options.
Serenna’s eyes locked with Fenn’s, the world coming to a stop. Rage honed the rigid lines of his body. If he was trying to communicate something with that fire smoldering in his eyes, Serenna was too panicked to read it. Withdrawing his gaze from hers, Fenn burned his conflagrating stare into his sister.
Sound hushed to a ringing silence as Serenna’s breaths came shallow and quick, her terror morphing to fury at the helplessness. She instinctively craved to lash out with rending, to discharge her anger for everything she’d endured since portaling to this wasteland.
Reflexively reaching for her Well, an empty expanse answered her call. Serenna tunneled into the hollow cavern, delving deeper to where she knew her power should be. Except there was nothing. A sky devoid of stars. A magic tethered.
Serenna dug her nails into her palms. I’m not letting these monsters take me.
Steering her mind away from the horrors that awaited her if she failed, Serenna focused on the snow, falling into the world. Her vision went white, bursts of light exploding around her like a thousand rays of sun. Drifting, gliding across the wintery expanse, a wave of gleaming beams streamed out from every flake, every frozen drop of water.
Serenna heaved on the earth.
Snow exploded, geysering into the sky. Stumbling from the dislodged ground, Taryn released her. Throwing out a hand, Serenna yanked on streams of wind. Summoning the flakes into a blizzard, she aimed the cyclone at the reavers.
A shadow unfolded in front of Serenna, darkening her vision. The world went black as another warp yanked her into a pocket of midnight.
CHAPTER 33
SERENNA
The glass roof filtered in the cavern’s mirrored sunlight, brightly lighting the maze of rooms. Serenna didn’t register the nauseating mode of transport on the descent to the lower levels of the fortress. Fenn had snagged her from the chaos, warping them through one of the tunnel entrances.
Serenna crumpled onto a stool at the kitchen’s center island. Natural stone archways connected the adjacent chambers in the quiet villa. Stairways ascended to open lofted levels in a dwelling that could’ve rightfully been called a mansion.
Safe within his clan’s district, Fenn had shed his cloak and weapons. When he kindled a stove, tongues of flame dashed along the counter’s obsidian surfaces in coal-lined channels, encasing the room in warmth. Pulling leaves from bundles of dried herbs hanging in a pantry, Fenn busied himself with boiling water and steeping a brew.
Serenna stared at the grainy patterns in the wooden table in front of her, still frozen by disbelief. She sensed Fenn periodically glancing in her direction, his jewelry clinking together as he worked.
She tensed when he drifted next to her, talons tentatively grazing her shoulder. There was a hesitation to his question. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
Serenna dug her nails into her palms. The sting of pain hauled her thoughts away from the slashed throats and blood-stained snow. At a loss for words, her vision wavered, blurring when she met Fenn’s eyes.
I want to talk about putting an end to this senseless bloodshed. We both know it’s for nothing. But she doubted he’d be receptive to that response despite the concern on his face.
Choked by emotion, Serenna swallowed a spectrum of feelings that she wasn’t sure how to release. Voice abandoning her, she twisted her boots around the stool’s rungs. Brushing his knuckles across her arm, Fenn gave her space, wandering back to the stove.
Crackling from the coals shattered the silence as despondency settled over Serenna like a suffocating fog. Minutes passed before Fenn removed the steeping leaves, returning to the counter.
“I’m sorry you were in danger today,” he said, placing steaming porcelain mugs between them before pulling out a seat next to her. “That shouldn’t have happened on my watch. If I would’ve known—”
“I shouldn’t need anyone to come to my rescue,” Serenna interrupted, a tremor cracking her voice. “I have two types of magic, but I’m still helpless.” Her throat closed after the painful admission while she blinked at the curling vapor.
