Page 17

CHAPTER 17

SERENNA

S erenna threw her palms forward, unleashing another crackling wave of light. A shimmering dome encased her and Fenn, but it was too late to barricade the wraith further away again as they swarmed from every direction. The shield wasn’t a protective wall—it was a cage.

The mindless reavers slammed into the barrier with bone-jarring force, their talons raking against her shield. Snarls and shrieks ricocheted through the tunnel as they battled the ward, a frenzy of flailing limbs and snapping fangs.

Teeth clenched against the strain, Serenna channeled every ounce of her power into reinforcing the shield. Their survival now eclipsed any need to conserve Essence for Lykor.

Churning like a living landslide, the wraith tore at each other in their rabid rush to reach them. One clung to another’s back, biting deep into its throat before being yanked down and trampled under the surge. Their numbers choked the tunnel, blotting out the faint light at its mouth, smothering the dome beneath a mountain of gnashing jaws.

“Serenna.” Fenn’s voice cut through the chaos as he stood like a pillar of fortitude at her side.

Gulping in air, she spared him a glance. He chewed a lip ring, studying the reavers clawing to breach her shield. Something told her that they were thinking the same thing—there was no way out unless she risked expending all her power on rending.

Fenn unsheathed a pair of long knives from his spine. Gold-plated knives.

“Stab them through the shield,” Serenna gritted out, her arms trembling as she poured more strength into the ward. “I’ll repair it as you go.”

Fenn’s brows shot up, his attention snapping between her and the snarling creatures smashing against the barrier, their red eyes burning in the dark. “Can you hold it long enough?”

“If you start now,” she urged.

A grin spread across his face. “It’ll be easier than shearing a napping pocket goat.”

Fenn strode forward, knives flashing in the violet light. The gold ripped through her magic as he plunged a blade deep into a reaver’s eye. The wraith spasmed as he yanked his weapon back, collapsing in a twitching heap. Fenn didn’t hesitate. His other knife struck the next as it lunged to replace the fallen, talons scraping across the dome.

The reavers shrieked, undeterred by the growing pile of corpses under their feet. Brutally efficient, Fenn cut them down one by one, blood spraying in black arcs across the shield.

The metallic stench burned Serenna’s throat, turning her stomach. But she had to help—she couldn’t hold the shield forever and the battle was far from over. The humans would soon arrive if they didn’t collapse the tunnel, and stars help them all if Essence-wielders followed.

Fingers trembling, Serenna tied off her magic and reached for the daggers strapped to her thighs. She drew a sharp breath as she unsheathed them, her grip on the leather hilts unsteady as she approached the writhing wall of wraith.

It was one thing to attack with magic, somewhat detached from the act, but taking a life with her own hands…

“She-elf,” Fenn said, his voice breaking through the overwhelming haze of her mind. Blood dripped from his face, his grin gone, replaced by quiet worry. “You don’t have to—”

Serenna thrust her golden blade through the shield, driving it deep into a snarling reaver’s neck. Flesh tore and blood spurted in a hot, sticky spray, drenching her arm as the creature crumpled. Yanking the blade free, she stretched her magic to bolster the ward, muscles tensing as she forced herself to move to another.

The reavers had chosen this path long ago, their fate sealed. The memories of Fenn nearly slaughtered by them on multiple occasions stoked her resolve. Baring her teeth, Serenna focused on the next.

Her world shrank to the relentless rhythm of striking and slashing through the shield. Stab. Thread her magic back into place. Stab. Tighten the shield. Always moving to the next. An endless torrent of enemies closing in.

Time blurred. She couldn’t tell how many she’d killed—only that her lungs burned and her ward thinned with every breath.

A claw wrapped gently around her arm, breaking through her trance. “You got him, she-elf,” Fenn murmured. He tugged her back to her feet, away from the twitching, mangled remains she’d been repeatedly hacking.

Disoriented, Serenna blinked. Not a single reaver remained standing. She hadn’t noticed that she’d dropped her shield or collapsed to her knees. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, the nauseating taste of blood coating her tongue, the stench of entrails clinging to the tunnel.

Gagging, her vision blurred as tears carved tracks through the gore streaking her cheeks. Serenna’s grip on the blades loosened, every limb shaking. It took her three tries to slide the weapons back into their sheaths. She didn’t bother cleaning them—there was no point. This wouldn’t be the last time she’d need them.

Serenna reached for Fenn’s claw and ruthlessly steered her mind back to their mission. But they would have to wade through the corpses to reach the end of the tunnel. If these had been humans instead of compelled wraith…

No. She banished the thought, her sanity already dangling by a frayed thread. She wouldn’t let herself falter. Not now.

Delving into the depths of their shared Well, Serenna sparked Fenn’s side, drawing on his force talent. Raising a trembling palm, she unleashed a blue wave that hurtled bodies through the air, their mangled limbs flopping lifelessly as they smacked against the walls. The sickening thuds made her instantly regret the waste of Essence, bile burning her throat.

Fenn squeezed her hand, their sticky palms melding in a grim embrace as he gently encouraged her forward. The offered reassurance steadied her unraveling nerves, but it wasn’t enough to stifle the crawling sensation creeping under her skin, the blood of the slain clinging to her.

After a few moments, the mouth of the tunnel widened, revealing the frigid landscape beyond the fortress.

Suddenly, Serenna wrenched free from Fenn’s grip, the motion more than frantic. Bolting to the open air, she collapsed into the snow.

The icy crystals bit into her palms, but she welcomed the sting, embraced the cold. Grabbing handfuls, she smeared it over her arms and face. She scrubbed furiously, grinding the frozen shards against her flesh as if it were that simple to erase the horrors of the fight.

Serenna barely registered Fenn kneeling beside her, his claw a comforting weight on her shoulder. Her focus narrowed on suppressing the nausea roiling in her gut.

She’d taken lives before—always in desperate acts of survival or to protect others. But this felt different. Forced to fight husks under the king’s control, killing had become an unthinking rhythm. For the first time, the war felt undeniably real, its peril pressing down on her chest.

“I’m okay,” Serenna whispered, though the words rang hollow, meant as much for herself as for Fenn. “We—” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed hard, eyes squeezing shut. “We need to keep moving.”

Fenn squeezed her shoulder, whatever words he was saying muffled by her pulse roaring in her ears. He drifted away as she tried to steady herself, dragging in shaky breaths, the air clouding around her.

Her resolve felt as fragile as the flakes spiraling down from the sky. With trembling fingers, Serenna raked trenches through the snow, mustering her strength. She’d refused to stay behind—demanded to accompany Fenn. She wouldn’t slow him down any more than she already had.

A thunderous crash ripped Serenna free from the tangled maze of her thoughts. She twisted around, spotting Fenn at the tunnel’s entrance, deftly manipulating an array of levers embedded in the stone.

Each mechanism groaned as he pulled or flipped it, the ceiling shuddering above. A torrent of boulders plummeted down, shaking the earth and spraying shards of stone.

Serenna staggered to her feet as the storm of debris settled. Dust hung in the frigid air, the tunnel nearly entombed. “The rocks will only delay the Essence-wielders,” she said, her voice sounding distant. “The magus can clear the way with force.”

Fenn glanced over his shoulder, offering the faintest smirk. “Lykor planned for that.” He pulled a final lever. With a heavy clang, gold-plated chains crashed from the ceiling, the gleaming web trapping the rubble below. A cascade of rock followed, burying the net and sealing the entrance completely. “We’ll see how they fare when their magics disintegrate against that.”

With the tunnel collapsed behind them, Serenna swept her gaze over the endless expanse ahead. The distant army loomed along the far side of the volcano. Night had fallen, the gathered clouds blotting out the stars and spilling snow.

Fenn’s claw slipped into her hand, his cloaking shadows coiling around them like a misty shroud. Darkness encompassed them, rendering them invisible to all but wraith.

With two quick bursts, Fenn warped them around the base of the keep, closing the distance to the next entrance.

Serenna’s stomach plummeted. It was overrun, the defenders nowhere in sight.

Concealed a safe distance away, they watched as humans flooded into the tunnel, a river of bodies streaming into the keep. One figure, clad in red leathers and a hooded cloak, oversaw the operation. They stood out like a single drop of blood on untouched snow, stark against the magus hovering at the end of the line.

Fenn pulled Serenna closer, his arm wrapping securely around her shoulders as they began discussing their next move. His warmth seeped into her, a brief solace against the ice frosting deep in her bones.

“You should warp me behind the magus,” Serenna said. “Since you can stay invisible, I…” she leaned into him, absorbing his heat while her mind raced, calculating her odds of standing against twenty trained Essence-wielders. “I can keep them distracted while you pull the levers from the shadows.”

Expression grim, Fenn frowned at the advancing army, spinning a ring in his brow. “I’m not keen on making you a target. Could you stir the snows? Submerge the entrance from here?”

Serenna shook her head. “We need that golden net deployed.” She swallowed hard, forcing herself not to dwell on the blameless humans who’d be crushed under the rocks. They had no choice. “Without it, they’ll clear the way in minutes.”

Fenn’s eyes unfocused, his attention shifting inward. He blinked rapidly before exhaling roughly. “It’s not going to matter,” he said with a sigh. “My father just sent word—one of the southern tunnels is also lost.” His shoulders sagged under the weight of the news, defeat dragging him down. “Humans will pour into the fortress no matter what we do here.”

“How much time do we have?” Serenna asked, heart leaping into her throat. The prince still hadn’t returned, and tugging on the bond felt useless. “Do we need to regroup back inside?”

Before Fenn could respond, a shadow unfolded in front of them. Serenna tensed as a female appeared, twin golden braids swaying, her skin shimmering like the first blue light of dusk. She only knew of one elven wraith female—Mara.

But this wasn’t Mara.

Gaze pinned on Fenn, a fanged grin spread across the female’s lips. Her crimson eyes blazed with amusement and malice before she crooned, “Hello, brother.”