71
Kora
Blood coated the deck. Screams, and clashes of metal rang in Kora’s ears. Darkness continually flowed around them, a swath of shadows working independently from its user. As though the darkness had become its own entity, seeping into the peaceful, gods-blessed world of Devania.
Rain mixed with the blood, creating a sea of crimson, soaking into Kora’s leathers as she leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding a swipe of an enemy’s sword.
Lightning flashed, thunder answered. The red haze in her mind sang for violence, it saw the blood, it smelled the unnatural force of Barron’s soldiers, and it demanded to be unleashed.
Kordelia wanted to play.
Kora’s water beast roared alongside, greater than a ferret could ever produce. She yelled in unison, rivers of water winding around her body for protection as she rolled across the back of a Talmon soldier, landing by Hector’s weakening side.
His eye patch had been sliced, revealing a damaged, red eye bulging from its socket. His tattered hair hung around his face as he deflected Garvan’s advance. Lightning crackled across the sky, spearing towards the heart of the Talmon Empire fleet, and the winds picked up.
As Kora wielded her dagger, sliding across the deck towards Garvan, a pair of mangled hands grabbed her arm, yanking her away from Hector.
A foul, familiar odour slammed into her as those red hands spun her around. Gloves lay discarded by the soldier’s feet, his strength tenfold as his grip crushed her. A pair of soiled eyes glared through the slit of his wet helmet, like two pits of a graveyard.
“Hello, lassie,” the sickening lisp muffled through the black stone.
“Callan,” Kora choked.
His eyes sparked with satisfaction, his stumpy fingers digging through her leathers into her skin. This couldn’t be happening. He’d been exiled into the desert. How had he ended up in Barron’s army?
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.” Callan pulled her close, the stench of him causing her eyes to stream, mixing with the raindrops on her face. Salt battered her senses, as ocean spray washed the deck, sensing her fear.
No other Talmon soldiers neared, keeping a wide berth around them. Kora’s head snapped to the side as Callan shook her violently with a growl, muttering about his shrunken phallus.
But her attention snagged on the chaos around them.
Pirates were failing, their swords shattering upon the empire’s mysterious impenetrable armour. Hector still fought Garvan, but his limp was worsening, blood streaming from various cuts on his arms and head.
“Fucking listen to me, escort.” Callan lifted her up, and Kora cried out as her legs swung in the air.
His hands tightened, crushing into her chest, the mangled flesh probing for weak spots.
The ocean raged, rocking the ship violently.
Gangplanks plummeted into its murky depths, as Fallen Angel was absorbed by shadows acting with a mind of their own.
“Go to hell, Callan.” Kora spat onto his helmet with a grimace. His presence choked her, his stench causing fear to snake up her spine as the desert flashed through her mind. Her heart relentlessly pounded as her neck burned with a phantom pain of him choking her.
“Raiden,” she begged. “Please, hear me. Please open the bond!”
“Hell has already arrived. And you will submit to it—to me.” Callan’s grip shifted, one hand snaking around Kora’s throat, whilst the other groped her breast. She flailed, clawing at him, but her nails broke as they slid across the armour, coating her fingers in slimy residue.
Darkness encroached her vision as Callan’s grip tightened, his dark eyes flashing within the slit.
Laughter rippled through him, and he cocked his head.
“Just a worthless bitch.” As his armour shifted with the movement, the tiniest piece of tawny skin appeared, with a vein running through it.
Kora’s hand moved before she thought, jamming her dagger between the folds of armour.
Blood spurted, spraying high into the sky, splattering the main mast behind Callan.
She tumbled to the sodden deck, as Callan grabbed onto her dagger, ripping it out with a snarl. Her power pulsed, erratic as Callan remained standing despite slicing a core artery. He laughed again, as the bleeding slowed, the stench of the armour increasing.
“It will always protect its host,” he sneered. “Become one with the darkness, and you will always prevail.”
Horror washed over Kora. They were unstoppable. Neither killable by magic nor steel. Galen was doomed.
Callan approached, flipping her precious midnight dagger in his hands. He didn’t deserve to touch it, to be graced by its pearls and Galenite steel. He grabbed Kora by her wet hair, pulling her onto her knees and placing her dagger across her throat.
She was going to die.
Kora pounded at the bond, desperate to reach Raiden. To tell him how she felt. How much his presence was the air she longed to breathe. He was her anchor. He was her home.
And he wasn’t here.
A tear trickled down her face, and Callan’s dark laugh sickened her before he sighed.
“I knew this would always end with you knelt before me.” He thrust his hips lightly, brushing the back of her head. “I’m sure Master won’t mind if I end you now and—”
A wet gurgle cut him off, and Kora’s blade clattered to the deck as Callan released her. She swiped it, spinning around to face whatever fresh horror awaited her.
Callan choked, clasping at his neck, clawing at his helmet until his stubby fingers bled.
He screamed, crashing to his knees as wisps of darkness leaked from his body, writhing into the air.
His skin sagged, his thick hands crumbling until they were skin on bone, connected to broken wrists.
Small flashes of green entwined with the shadows, and Callan fell forward, sprawled by Kora’s feet.
Behind, a dark shadow smiled, with burning green eyes.
“My asterya, I’ve finally found you.”
The shadows exploded. Darkness leaking from Blake at an ungodly rate as he stormed the ship. Sight evaporated, and Kora swung blindly into the darkness. Cries rang out across the ship, and Garvan’s yell was distinct, ordering Blake to stop.
Leather, petrichor, bitter soil, coldness.
The scents all combined into one, and they suffocated Kora as a finger brushed her throat.
She raised her dagger, but Blake’s presence vanished.
Her scar flared with long-forgotten agony, hints of Barron’s presence alighting it once again.
She hadn’t used her salve in weeks, Galen acting as her personal painkiller.
His footsteps surrounded her, and a growl ripped from her chest.
“Stop fucking around, Blake.”
His footsteps paused. A moment passed, and the shadows peeled back, revealing him. She peered against the suffocating darkness. It was thick, tinged with a sickly bitter taste that made her tongue curl in disgust and her throat close.
Blake leaned into the shadows, his green eyes blazing against it. He was so powerful, yet it haunted him. Black rimmed his eyelids; his nose stained from nosebleeds. He’d become so pale, and his black hair hung around his face, limp and lifeless.
“You look like shit,” Kora spoke smoothly, summoning strength to face him once again. She quivered as he leaned forward, his scent that once excited her, now sickening her.
“I’ll be much better with you by my side.” Blake brushed her hair from her face, and she jerked away. She didn’t want him to touch her ever again.
“Your father would say otherwise,” she jeered. “Never thought I’d have two men fighting over me. It’s almost flattering.”
Blake’s jaw ticked, the jab striking as she intended. “He only wants your power. I want you.”
“Sorry, not for sale. Why not turn your attention to your fiancée?”
Blake sighed at Kora, and Hector called her name, a clash of metal followed. The pirates were still fighting, yet Kora still couldn’t see anything beyond Blake.
“Look around you, asterya. You have nowhere to go. I’ve got you, and my father is claiming Galen as we speak.”
“No. You’re lying!”
“Kora! He’s trapped ye!” Hector’s cry was so close, and Kora’s stare narrowed. The others could still see. It was just her in this sphere of cold darkness, tangled once again in Blake’s web.
Blake smirked, and with the simple flutter of his stained hands, his darkness parted behind her, revealing ships crashing onto the shore of Mistros City.
She kicked his shin, pushing away and his magic shuddered, revealing the pirates swarming them, inching closer to Blake.
Hector wrestled with Garvan still, but the Talmon soldiers had become stationary.
Mindless. Blake had shut them off somehow.
Hector glanced up at the parting darkness and swore.
“Leto, ye fucking snake!”
Her heart broke, as Bone Rattler crashed into the dock. They’d left everyone behind there. Aerion, Aryn, Erick, and Skylar. The Skytors. The civilians. Sirona and poor Conan. They hadn’t prevented Barron’s invasion. This fleet had been a distraction.
“I just knew once you saw the fleet you’d come sailing out.
You could never resist a battle upon the sea.
The heroic captain, come to save everyone, determined to attain all the glory.
Did your emotions get the better of you again?
” Blake knelt before Kora, tilting her chin to look at him as her rage crested within. “I know you so well, Kora.”
“No, you don’t,” she seethed. Coldness leaked down her back as her darkness toyed with Blake’s. He smiled, as if sensing what lay within her.
“Oh? Do I not? I know that you like this, when done in the right way.” He gripped her throat and Kora gasped, the scar down her throat burning alive at his touch. Blake leaned forward, his lips so close she grimaced. He inhaled and froze.
“What the fuck.” He pushed her away, fury warping his features. “You reek of him.”
Kora snapped. “He’s mine. You can never part me from Raiden.”
Blake blinked, his fury igniting when she said his name.
He lashed out, his magic wrapping around her throat, clicking into place like a magical collar.
She cried out, heaving as it tightened, shallowing her breathing.
She tried to summon her power but it burned, his magic suppressing her already weakening gift.
“Bonds can be broken,” Blake’s gaze turned vacant. “I can sense darkness in you. It’s calling to me. It wants me. I can make you like me.”
Her heart plummeted as a laugh echoed in the recesses of her mind. No, no, no.
“I hear it,” Blake spoke with wonder, his glistening eyes dropping to his shadowy collar around her neck. “It’s the answer. How we can be together. Just give in, Kora. Allow the darkness to take you.”
“No!” she shrieked.
Kordelia’s laugh increased, circling her ears, vibrating down her spine, taunting her water beast. Kora wrestled internally, flooding her mind with light, recalling moments with Raiden, Aryn, Skylar, even Sirona.
Garvan grunted, as two pirates helped Hector push him back. He whirled, desperation flooding his face, and a tiny sliver of fear. “Disappear, now!”
Kora shook her head. She couldn’t spirit again, she used up her one chance getting to Hector. She wasn’t strong enough. She was too weak. Kordelia surged, grabbing hold of her mind.
Weak, pathetic human. You cannot win.
Blake smiled, slowly sinking to both knees before her, Callan’s body forgotten beside them. He took hold of Kora’s wet hands, his thumbs swiping across the backs.
“I can hear you, little temptress.”
Kora flinched as Kordelia purred in response to Blake’s magic. His shadows poured out of him, tinged with a hint of green. They flowed up Kora’s arms, swathing her in a blanket of darkness. She panted, writhing against his magic.
Yes! Free me!
Panic, all-consuming, laced with the deepest cracks of dread, exploded from Kora.
Her desperation to survive, to encompass her chosen self, to be the female she wanted to be, became too much.
Bright, white light shone, blinding her as her body burned.
Shrieks rang in her ears, mixed with hisses, and Blake fell back, shielding his eyes.
The shadows melted. The one on her throat dripped down her body as a hole burned through Blake’s dark smoke. Rain poured in from the sky, flooding the deck, washing away the blood. Kora rose, running towards Hector, grabbing his hand as the rain soaked into her body, her elemental power increasing.
“What . . . that’s not possible!” Blake said.
“You will never have me,” Kora replied, her voice beyond her comprehension as she waved her free hand, dissipating his magic in one swoop. Blake cried out in anguish as his second shadow faded, sucking back into his body.
“No! No, you can’t do this!”
“Your magic is rotten. You have stolen what isn’t yours.
” She had no idea what she was saying, but it flowed from her lips freely as she became a mouthpiece for a higher power.
Warmth tickled her eyelids, a cool brush of long fingers down her back, and a vibration beneath her feet. The gods were watching.
Blake looked up at Kora, and screamed, scrambling back. Even Hector craned away, whatever was on her face terrified them. Good.
“Kaiah blesses you, Blake Marwood. Their creations will always have their gifts.” Kora clicked her fingers and Blake spasmed, his hands returning to their normal colour, his eyes brightening. He sobbed, whimpering as, with her final push, Kora spirited away with Hector.