Page 65 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

She lifted a hand, lazy and elegant, and with a flick of her fingers a miniature cyclone burst to life between us. Sand spiraled into the air in a dancing column of controlled destruction before vanishing as suddenly as it appeared.

“I have many gifts,” she purred. “Ones I could teach you… if you allow me.”

“You’re insane if you think I’d join you,” I snapped, taking a step back.

Seraveth chuckled, the sound low and warm and utterly devoid of light. “So much spirit. I imagine I was the same once. But that was a long time ago.”

“You could still come back,” I said, quieter now, searching her face for something, anything, human. “To the Light. There has to be a way.”

That earned a laugh, sharp but hushed. “That is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time,” she said. “You’re deluded. But I’ll admit… entertaining.”

“I’m sure?—”

“Enough,” she said, her voice cutting through the air like a blade.

The cyclone of sand swirled again, faster this time, and I felt the tug of her magic like a thread coiling around my ribs.

“You will come with me, Ashlyn. Whether now or later. You know it. Feel it.” Her eyes glowed brighter, the red bleeding intothe whites like a fire consuming a dying star. “We are your true family. It’s time to stop playing pet to dragons and kings.”

She stepped closer, her magic brushing against mine like the edge of a promise.

“It’s time to claim your power.”

“No,” I said, my voice like steel sharpened in my chest. I drew my blade, the hum of its edge comforting in my grip. “You don’t get to decide my path.”

Seraveth’s smile curved like a hook. “So dramatic,” she whispered as she unsheathed her sword, the dark blade gleaming with a faint crimson hue that pulsed with something ancient. “Very well. Let’s see how far that spirit of yours goes.”

She lunged.

I met her head-on.

Steel clashed against steel, the sound sharp and bright against the crash of waves beyond the stone wall behind us. Her strikes were quick, fluid, like water sliding across a battlefield, but I was faster than she expected. I blocked, twisted, slashed low, making her dance back across the sand.

She didn’t call on her magic. Not fully.

She wanted it quiet.

She was alone, and she knew magic would alert the others.

Kaelith!I screamed in my mind, reaching desperately for the bond.

Seraveth’s blade scraped past mine, close enough I felt the cold aura radiating from it. Her movements were precise, but I saw it, the way she glanced past me, eyes narrowing.

A second later, his voice cut the air.

“Ashlyn!”

Remy.

Seraveth smirked, pulling away. “Another rider with a hero complex,” she murmured. “How predictable.”

The air around her shimmered like heat rolling off scorched stone. A ripple of warping space curved around her body?—

And then she was gone.

Not a step. Not a run.

Just… vanished.