Page 26

CHAPTER 26

SERENNA

“ T he last time I held the Heart, the dragon spoke of searching in ‘nature’s roots, the shade of the glade,’” Serenna said, finishing her explanation for the prince. The insight had come from what Lykor believed to be the voice of one of the chained dragons—his theory that her connection to the earth allowed her to hear it.

“So, where do we start?” Vesryn asked, scanning the towering expanse of trees surrounding the clearing. He tipped his chin toward one, its sprawling canopy stitching the sky into fractured patterns of light. “That behemoth over there?”

Serenna hummed noncommittally and cast her awareness outward, attuning herself to the jungle. She skimmed past wraith and rangers butchering their kills, over the magus meticulously arranging supplies, and around a flight of dracovae sprawled in shafts of sunlight. Each pulse of plant life thrummed through the forest, weaving among the leaves above, twisting around the roots below.

Closing her eyes, Serenna sailed deeper into the resonance. Every inhale wove a tapestry of scents, sweet blossoms mingling with woody resin. Her breath snagged as the rhythm faltered, her awareness plunging into a sudden void. The break jarred her like a missed step, a hollow where she expected a constant pulse.

Serenna’s eyes flew open, drawn to the tallest tree, looming above the others. Her heart quickened, the emptiness within the tree scraping against her senses like a dissonant chord. Of course it’s the one Vesryn pointed out.

Gnarled and ancient, its bark knotted in harsh whorls. A crown of twisted branches clawed skyward like jagged talons, pooling sharp shadows on the ground.

Dragging her teeth along her bottom lip, Serenna glanced at the prince and shrugged. “We have to start somewhere.”

Vesryn arched a brow. “You didn’t have to make a show about agreeing with me.”

Serenna rolled her eyes, knowing there was no convincing him otherwise.

They wove a path around wagons stacked high with supplies as they angled toward the far side of the clearing, the massive tree growing larger with every stride. Near the stream, hammers clanged as a group assembled a makeshift bridge. Waist-deep in the current, wraith hefted beams into place, their efforts bolstered by magus weaving Essence.

Serenna’s steps slowed as they reached the sprawling base, her breath hitching at its sheer size. The colossal trunk spanned so wide that she doubted even fifty wraith linking arms could encircle it.

She exchanged a look with the prince before reaching out, fingertips sinking into the spongy moss clinging to the bark. The void struck her immediately. The tree’s rhythm pulsed unevenly, layered with something foreign. It wasn’t quite the hollow emptiness she’d anticipated—it thrummed, alive with an undercurrent of purpose.

Something ancient stirred within, its presence pressing against her. The weight of unseen eyes lifted Serenna’s hairs, as though the tree itself was watching her.

A whisper of movement stirred the canopy, so faint she might have imagined it. Yet the leaves rustled, their motions too synchronized to be guided by the wind.

The sensation deepened, a silent pressure coiling around her awareness. Serenna’s breathing shallowed, her pulse drumming in her ears.

Then, a soft creak. Not from the trunk, but from deep within the earth, as though the roots themselves were shifting in slumber.

A twig snapped in the undergrowth beside her. She whirled toward the sound, heart hammering—

“Is it saying something?” Vesryn asked, plucking a spiky blossom from a nearby vine. He winced, jerking his hand back as a hidden thorn pierced the pad of his thumb.

“What kind of flowers bleed?” he muttered, scowling at the broken petal as it oozed a liquid that gleamed like his blood.

Withdrawing from the trunk, Serenna shook off the unsettled feeling, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The tree isn’t ‘saying’ anything, but there’s something more to it. I can feel its life force and…” She hesitated, searching for the right answer. “Maybe there’s druidic magic? Whatever it is, I can’t fully grasp it.”

Vesryn grimaced and pinched the thorn from his skin before flicking it to the ground. He tilted his head, eyeing the gnarled surface. “Sounds like it has something to hide.”

Serenna nodded slowly, tracing the deep grooves in the trunk. “The open trees—like those we’re using for the infirmary—seem as though they were intentionally shaped or guided to grow hollow. But this one…” A faint wind stirred through the glade, swaying the branches above. “I think it might’ve been similar once, but now it’s sealed.”

Vesryn unsheathed a belt knife, using the blade to strip back a layer of bark, clearly expecting to uncover something. Frowning, he ran his fingers through the glowing sap that trailed from the cut.

“Can you…open it?” he asked. Shadows sprang to life, coiling across his arms like living smoke. “Or maybe I could—”

“Let me try first,” Serenna interrupted before he began hacking the tree into firewood. Though Jassyn would probably be better at this, she thought, planting her palms against the trunk.

Drawing a grounding breath, she centered herself before channeling her awareness outward. Relying on instinct, Serenna focused on the rippled texture beneath her fingertips. A roiling torrent of life ebbed and flowed as she plunged into the tree’s river of energy.

The deeper she anchored herself to the rhythmic pulse, the more certain she became that something lurked deep below. With her power entwined with the tree’s, Serenna braced herself and shoved.

Resistance thickened beneath her touch, a force pressing back as if aware of her intent. Energy writhed within—not yielding, but recoiling, clinging to itself in silent defiance.

Beneath Serenna’s palm, the pulse stuttered, then surged—a violent, thrumming protest. She drove her will further and a tremor ran through the trunk, deep and shuddering.

A deafening crack split the air, echoing through the clearing like thunder shattering the sky. Serenna staggered, her pulse lurching as if the fissure had torn through her instead of the wood.

“What if I kill it?” she gasped, hand flying to her racing heart. She stared at the thin, jagged line now ripping up the center of the trunk.

Vesryn shrugged, flipping his knife and catching it. “Looks fine to me. Why not just close it the same way you’re prying it open? You know, after we have a look inside.”

Serenna chewed her lip, unease winding in her stomach as glowing sap wept from the wound. The ancient tree towered over the glade, feeling like the heart of the jungle itself. “I don’t want to hurt it.”

Clicking his tongue, the prince tapped his blade against the bark. “With how big this thing is? I doubt it’ll notice.” He held his thumb up to her face. “That thorn did more damage to me than you scratching at the trunk.”

Saving her breath, Serenna bit back her retort that perhaps the sting would make him think twice before touching things he shouldn’t.

Refocusing on the tree, Serenna reached for the energy coursing within, coaxing and urging the split to widen. The wood resisted at first, creaking and groaning under the strain until the fracture slowly splintered apart.

Drops of water beaded along the freshly exposed bark. As carefully as she could, Serenna channeled her focus into folding the outer layers inward, smoothing the edges to seal the wounds.

Vesryn watched intently, sliding his knife back into its sheath before peering into the darkened hollow. Veins of green light began flickering to life, tracing up and down the interior of the trunk.

“If it decides to swallow us, you can force it open again, right?” he asked.

Serenna groaned. “I wasn’t even considering that until now.”

“In any case, we can always rend or portal our way out.” The prince conjured tiny globes of illumination and the orbs whirled ahead, pushing the shadows back. “Looks inviting enough.” With a shrug, he squeezed through the gap.

Spine tingling, Serenna recalled the terrors of the previous time she retrieved a Heart—the volcanic chamber collapsing around her.

As she hesitated at the threshold, a strange awareness slid across her senses, almost as if the ancient sentinel was aware of the intrusion.

Vesryn’s hovering spheres of illumination guided them as they followed a twisting path downward through the trunk. The bark walls, slick with moisture, pressed close as the spiral constricted. Roots coiled over one another, weaving a rough semblance of a staircase. A steady emerald glow coursed through the tree, its hum resonating in Serenna’s skull like a second pulse.

“Do you hear that?” she whispered.

Vesryn paused, tilting his head. A thin veil of fog swirled around his boots, his orbs of light dimming slightly as he strained to listen. “Hear what?”

“That…thudding.” Serenna motioned uncertainly, the sound echoing from every direction. “Maybe we should wait for Jassyn to return.” A shadow of doubt slithered into her mind, whispering that she might not be prepared for this. “Aside from today, I haven’t manipulated this branch of elemental power before, and he’s—”

“Currently in the middle of nowhere, leagues away from here,” Vesryn finished as he continued down the path, his steps steady despite the uneven terrain. “You survived enemy territory, incinerated a renegade wraith leader—which I still need the full story of—and you’ve already located one Heart. I’d say you’re ready for a new challenge.”

“But Fenn and I nearly died retrieving the last one,” Serenna countered, her voice rising, every instinct urging caution against the prince’s certainty. Her mind flashed to the memories of collapsing stone and magma closing in. “I just want to be careful if we find another relic. That’s all.”

“Well, you’re with me this time,” Vesryn muttered, irritation clipping every syllable. His tone softened, though it carried the infuriating sharpness of someone who believed every word. “I’ve never put you in a situation I didn’t think you could handle.”

Serenna couldn’t stifle the faint huff that escaped her, a slip of disbelief. She opened her mouth when his spreading smirk dared her to argue, but thought better of it and exhaled a loaded sigh instead. She should’ve known the prince would push her past what she thought were her limits—he always did.

With every step downward, the air thickened, heavy with the weight of the tree’s ancient breath. Growing cooler and more pungent, the air saturated her lungs with the sour tang of decay and the loamy musk of damp earth.

“Careful,” Vesryn warned, extending a hand after stepping over a lattice of knotted vines.

Serenna gripped his palm and scrambled over. Ahead, the path tapered, braided roots curling upward into an archway, funneling them deeper down the tree’s throat.

Shadows leaped along the narrowing walls, contorting into disturbingly lifelike shapes. Serenna’s skin pebbled as motion wavered at the edge of her vision. She edged away from the trailing vines, unable to shake the feeling that the plants might lash out and ensnare them. Or drag them further into this tunnel that was beginning to feel like a living tomb.

Sensing Vesryn’s burning curiosity—the complete opposite of her uncertainty—Serenna cast a glance at him. His restless fingers twirled, weaving a thin stream of illumination around his hands. Flicking his wrist, he sent the shimmering strand of liquid starlight gliding forward to join his globes of illumination.

But the darkness peeled away as the passage spilled them out of the tunnel. “‘The shade of a glade,’” Serenna whispered, her eyes drifting up to trace the ceiling of the vast, hollow chamber. “We must be underneath the camp then. How far down did we go?”

Her question hung unanswered while Vesryn’s attention riveted on the center of the chamber. Massive roots sprawled across the ground like the limbs of a great beast, curling upward and twining together to form a pedestal. Nestled among the gnarled mass rested a Heart of Stars, the prism bathed in the tree’s eerie jade glow.

Vesryn took a step forward, but Serenna seized his arm. “Wait!”

Cold unease laced through her veins as her eyes darted across the vaulted cavern. Beside the Heart’s resting place stood something else—vines braided tightly to form a staff, a guardian watching over the relic. At its peak rested a crystal, a sharp and glinting triangular gem, its facets familiar—much like the strange jewel she’d seen in Ayla’s diadem.

Serenna’s fingers tightened against the prince. “What’s on top of that staff?” she asked, her voice taut as she pointed.

Vesryn’s gaze lingered on it, interest kindling. “There’s only one way to find out,” he said with a shrug.

Lifting a hand, he summoned a thread of Essence, directing it toward the crystal fragment. “I wonder—”

Before he could finish, the gem flared to life. The air around the crystal shard trembled, faint distortions rippling outward. A burst of ebon light erupted from its core—if it could even be called light at all. The glow was deeper than darkness, a midnight abyss splintering open to devour the brightness around it.

Vesryn staggered, his orbs of illumination and raw stream of Essence wrenched from his grasp, surging toward the staff. Consumed without a trace, the magic vanished the instant it touched the shard, leaving behind a shadowed glow.

Now lit only by the veins of green light flickering in the bark, the chamber descended into an oppressive silence. Even the tree’s thrumming had ceased, replaced by a stillness so dreadful it seemed to suck the air from the cavern.

Serenna’s breath rasped in her ears as her eyes locked with Vesryn’s.

“That crystal shard just siphoned my magic,” he said in a hushed voice, his gaze returning to top of the staff as the light within the gem faded to a faint, glimmering void. Alarm flickered across his face, but it didn’t mask the fascination pulsing down the bond. His hand twitched, as if tempted to reach for the fragment. Mesmerized, he took a step closer to the staff, ignoring the Heart. “I think—”

A high-pitched whine swelled, rapidly rising to a keening wail. Serenna clutched her ears, the sound slamming into her skull like lightning given voice.

Brilliance erupted from the crystal, a tidal wave of illumination detonating outward.

Flinging her hands forward, Serenna wove a shield in frantic desperation, ribbons of magic knotting together.

It didn’t matter.

The torrent of light devoured the chamber in a flash brighter than an exploding sun, shattering her ward.