Page 16

CHAPTER 16

SERENNA

J oining everyone at the shielded window, Serenna squinted against the twilight veil swallowing the mountains. A tide of face-painted wraith poured from portals, a dark flood of havoc unleashed in the valley below.

“The reavers?” she whispered, dread closing her throat like a vise. But I thought Lykor put an end to them.

“Where exactly did you send them, Lykor?” Kal demanded, every word a stinging lash.

Lykor slammed his gauntleted fist against the shield. “Kyansari.” He spat the capital’s name through his fangs like a venomous curse.

“Are you mad?” Chest heaving, Kal’s eyes blazed as he whirled to face Lykor. “You didn’t think the elves might extract our location? Your arrogance has spawned our doom!”

“I thought the reavers would take a few elves with them before the capital wiped them out,” Lykor hissed, lip curling. “But clearly I overestimated their usefulness.”

He didn’t wait for a response. Pivoting, he barked to Mara, “Sound the alarm. Prepare the clans for evacuation.” Rounding on Kal and Fenn, an inferno burned in his eyes. “Gather the warriors and collapse the tunnels. Destroy the lifts. Nothing gets through without a fight.” He clenched his jaw, every tendon in his neck corded with strain. “We hold the fortress until our people are beyond their reach.”

Kal crossed his arms. “I would ask where you plan to take us, but it’s a pointless question since you’re completely out of Essence.”

Serenna’s heart lurched. Lykor—their greatest asset—was hindered by an empty Well. Her eyes darted to the magister and Mara, unsure if they would have the strength to move the entire population. Regardless, it wasn’t likely either would fight as viciously as Lykor.

“Aesar could have restored our Well last night,” Lykor snarled, jabbing his armored finger into Kal’s chest. “But no , he was too busy basking in his little family reunion and wasting time with you.”

Kal knocked Lykor’s claw aside, his voice taut with fury. “Don’t you dare pin this on Aesar.” He flung an arm toward the window. “Your folly brought the elves to our doorstep.”

Lykor sneered, opening his mouth with a retort, but Mara cut him off. “Enough, you two.” With a swift motion, she extracted Essence from her chest, shimmering light pooling in her palm. Thalaesyn mirrored the gesture, the pair extending the glowing orbs to Lykor.

“I’ll need more than that,” he muttered, snatching the magic. He absorbed the power, glowing veins carving through his torso in fiery lines.

“It’s enough to get you to nightfall,” Mara said curtly before clutching Thalaesyn’s hand. “We’ll prepare the citizens.”

As they disappeared, Serenna’s gaze swept back to the frosty expanse. More portals had spiraled open, now disgorging countless waves of humans that swarmed like locusts and blotted out the snow. Next to the rifts, she spotted flashes of white leathers beneath flapping cloaks, the disciplined formation turning her blood cold.

“This…this is Centarya, not Kyansari,” she said, scanning for the capital’s plated armor but finding none. Fenn’s claw settled on her back, a silent offer of strength as her stomach soured. “Where is the capital?” Serenna glanced at Lykor, though she was unsure why she sought answers from him.

But Lykor’s mind was elsewhere—lost in thought or perhaps conferring with Aesar. He stared down the mountain, shaking his head as he uttered a string of curses.

Kal blinked rapidly, clearing the haze of a telepathic message. “I’ve relayed orders to our officers.” Stepping closer to Lykor, he placed a hand on his arm. “Lykor,” he said softly, words heavy with the weight of what was to come.

“I know,” Lykor growled, his acceptance bitter as he shoved Kal off. “I’ll keep portals open for as long as I can, but if the residential district falls, I can’t wait for you—or the warriors—to rendezvous.”

Serenna stiffened when Lykor’s attention unexpectedly landed on her. “Summon your prince back here.” His shoulders twitched as he turned to leave. “We’ll need him if we’re to survive this.” Then he vanished into shadows, warping out of the war room.

Serenna exhaled shakily, reaching through the bond. She found Vesryn far to the east and hauled on the silver cord between them, hoping he’d feel her urgency despite the distance.

“I’ll grab my armor,” Fenn said, clasping his father’s forearm in a firm farewell. “Then I’ll take the tunnels on the north side—they’ll likely breach that direction first. Unless they start portaling directly in.”

With a nod, Kal hurried out of the chamber. Fenn turned toward her, his mouth parting.

“I’m coming with you,” Serenna insisted before he could suggest otherwise.

Chewing on his lip ring, Fenn hesitated, worry and pride warring in his eyes. At last, he inclined his head, jewelry clinking softly as he curled his fingers around hers—a vow to fight at her side, not in her place.

“Together, then,” he murmured before warping them to the lower levels.

Only minutes ticked by as Serenna and Fenn stopped by Kal’s household armory to don their spiked wraith leathers—wraithling armor in her case. Eyes glowing like embers in the dark, Fenn then transported them to the stronghold’s northern entrance tunnel.

“She-elf, if it comes to fighting…” Fenn trailed off, fidgeting with his new chain mail gloves. They clung tightly to his claws, each talon plated with gold.

Serenna’s steps slowed as they entered the tunnel, but she shackled the creeping tide of doubt. “I know what we have to do,” she assured him, words steadier than the frantic beat of her heart. Yet those from Centarya had no idea what they were truly fighting for, and the humans ensnared in the conflict were the least guilty of all. “Even if they’re innocent, blindly following gilded lies.”

“They won’t be the first—or the last—blameless to bleed,” Fenn replied solemnly. Hefting the bandolier slung over his shoulder, he scanned the encroaching darkness, light from flickering torches stretching their shadows across the stone. “We need to reach the other side—where the collapsing mechanisms are located.”

Serenna nodded, forcing her breaths to steady. The northern tunnel lay steeped in an unnerving silence, brimming with the charged stillness before a lightning strike, lifting the hairs on her arms.

Fenn had dispatched the rest of his squadron to the next entrance, leaving just the two of them to seal this one. Their Essence was a slight advantage—or perhaps a beacon that would draw unwanted attention.

Kal’s telepathic messages to Fenn relayed grim news—Centarya had unleashed the reavers first. A few hundred swarmed the fortress with the human army marching on their heels.

“We should try to conserve our magics if we can,” Fenn cautioned, determination tightening the angles of his jaw. Dying evening light bled around a bend to the opening outside, two hundred paces ahead. “Lykor might need more power to hold the portals open.”

Worry swelled behind Serenna’s ribs. This battle wasn’t one they could win through bloodshed. Their victory hinged on the moments they could steal—precious slivers of time for the wraith to flee. Without Lykor able to fight, Vesryn’s strength would be crucial to holding the line. Still sensing him across the realms, she reached down the bond, tugging at the prince with increasingly desperate insistence.

Taking Fenn’s caution to heart, Serenna reached for her earthen power, unspooling flames from the torches anchored to the walls. Threads of fire spiraled around her as she wove them into small globes, the burning spheres orbiting them as they walked.

A chorus of snarls suddenly echoed down the tunnel.

Serenna’s chest seized, imprisoning the breath in her lungs. A horde of reavers charged into view at full speed, the thunder of their feet shaking the ground.

Fenn yanked his short bow over his shoulder, drawing a barbed arrow from the quiver at his side. Earlier, he’d grumbled about leaving his preferred crossbow behind—too slow to reload in the chaos of battle.

“Sounds like fifty, perhaps more,” he warned as the snarls multiplied, the reavers flooding into the tunnel. “We need to end them fast—before the humans follow. We won’t outlast the numbers the mortals will throw at us.”

Images invaded Serenna’s mind as every breath became a struggle. She was back at Centarya, fighting for her life. The fear. The screams. Fangs nearly tearing into her throat.

Except… Her eyes snapped back into focus on the reavers. They should have been warping—but they weren’t. They didn’t even carry weapons.

“Fenn,” Serenna whispered, her voice sounding hollow as she stared at their frenzied charge. At the way they jostled each other to scramble ahead, guttural snarls ripping through the air instead of words. “I think they’re compelled.”

“Mind magics?” Fenn asked skeptically, glancing between her and the wraith as he nocked an arrow. He shook his head, either in denial or disbelief, but the flash in his eyes revealed his resolve. “It makes no difference. Their lives were forfeit the moment they turned on Lykor.”

Serenna forced a steady breath through her nose. This was no different than facing the wraith Vesryn had released on her in the dungeons. Though her instincts screamed for her to call on rending, she forced herself to focus on her whirling globes of fire. She agreed with Fenn—expelling so much Essence at the start felt like a reckless gamble.

Fenn released the arrow, the quarrel smacking into the face of the foremost reaver with a sickening thud.

Serenna shuttered her mind against the brewing fight. She twisted the fire into long coils of flaming rope, locking her gaze on the wraith dashing toward them.

Fenn loosened another arrow, the barbed tip embedding itself in a reaver’s chest. It shrieked but kept running, limbs flailing before an arrow in the eye sent it crashing to the ground, trampled by those behind it.

The snarls grew louder, the horde devouring the distance, only a hundred paces away now.

The limits of her shaman power pressed against her. She could harness the elements at hand, but couldn’t conjure them from nothing—each strike would consume some of the flames.

Serenna gripped her determination with all the strength she could muster and shoved that thought aside. The reavers were closing in too fast to dwell on it.

Hurling her hands forward, Serenna attacked with her fiery whips, serpents striking prey. The flames sought out vulnerable flesh, slithering into mouths and noses, scorching eyes, incinerating brains, and charring hearts.

Some fell, but the reavers still surged forward, the tunnel funneling them into a writhing mass. Claws raked the stone walls as they clambered over their fallen, eyes burning with mindless fury.

Seventy paces. Not enough time to second-guess, barely enough to survive.

A wraith warped forward in a blur, talons outstretched toward Serenna. Shrieking, she staggered back, the stench of scorched flesh singeing the air as she sliced her fiery whip across its throat. The reaver screeched and fell, convulsing as embers engulfed its body.

“Get behind me!” Fenn barked, the authority in his voice leaving no room for argument. Yet beneath that trained precision, Serenna sensed a faint trickle of worry. He fired his bow with ruthless efficiency, each shot landing true. But for every reaver slain, two more lurched forward.

Moving behind his shoulder, Serenna’s heart pounded alongside the snarls echoing through the tunnel. Sweat slicked her palms as she lashed her whips at the front line, the flames noticeably smaller now.

Thirty paces.

With gnashing fangs and feral hunger, the reavers would overrun them any second.

“Now might be the time to use your magics!” Fenn shouted.

Abandoning her fire in a plume of smoke, Serenna unleashed a burst of violet light, slamming a shield across the width of the tunnel. An arm’s length away, the wraith crashed into the barrier, stumbling as they fell backward. Snarling to reach them, they began clawing at the ward—clawing at each other—a frenzied mass of fangs and talons.

Fenn panted heavily, sweat streaking his face as he lowered his bow. “We still need to find a way to reach the entrance.”

Serenna nodded, tying the ward off, knowing it wouldn’t hold long under the relentless assault.

A harsh, rhythmic clicking sliced through the air and Fenn started swearing. Serenna’s head snapped around, stomach plummeting as a pod of scorpions burst around the corner, blocking the way they’d come. Dozens of serrated legs skittered forward, spiked tails arching high.

She didn’t think. Shadows erupted from her fingertips, a violent blast shredding the closest beasts. A chorus of hisses cut short as their armored carapaces shattered. The sharp pops of bursting shells ricocheted off the stone, glowing ichor spraying in arcs across the walls.

“Above you—” Fenn’s shout came too late as he raised his bow.

A crushing blow struck Serenna’s skull, driving her to the ground. Pain exploded behind her eyes as the back of her head smacked against the unforgiving stone.

Her shriek matched the scorpion’s as pincers snapped inches from her face, serrated ends ripping through her hair. The creature’s segmented body pinned her, scraping against her leathers, its barbed tail striking.

In a blur, Fenn appeared above her, fangs bared and snarling. Claws slashing in a golden arc, the gilded tips of his armored talons tore cleanly through the scorpion. The severed halves flew through the air, crashing against the sides of the tunnel.

More creatures surged forward. One launched from the wall, landing squarely on his back. With a hiss, its pincers clamped around his arm. Venom dripped from its tail as it slammed against his armor.

A spear of shadow burst from Serenna’s palms as she scrambled to her feet, obliterating the beast. Grinding her teeth, she unleashed a wave of darkness, engulfing the rest of the pod that rushed down the tunnel. The scorpions vanished into the shadowy depths, hisses silenced one by one.

“File my fangs,” Fenn growled as he shook off the severed pincer, ichor dripping from his gloves. “I hate scorpions.”

Vision swimming as she gasped for air, Serenna’s legs trembled while she reeled in her power. The air was suffocating, thick with the putrid tang of entrails strewn across the ground.

The snarls of the reavers behind them reached a guttural crescendo, shaking the walls. Serenna spun around, breath catching as cracks splintered across her shield. The barrier flickered, glowing fissures spreading.

Before she could reinforce it, the ward exploded in a burst of violet light. The reavers surged forward—a tidal wave of fangs, claws, and death hurtling straight for them.