69
Kora
Raiden!” she screamed with such ferocity, her voice cracked, her throat burning as he flew away into the enemy fleet.
He left her.
He ordered her to sail back.
He’d planned this.
The bond was cold. It was fucking cold.
Kora gripped the wheel so hard, splinters broke into her palms. He’d shut the bond. When she probed, it was like a wall of ice. Of torrential wind and rain that battered back, forcing her to retreat.
Rage tinted the edges of her mind, a distant haze lurking nearby as she tried to organise her thoughts.
He would die fighting them himself. His dread had been palpable for a mere second, a panic lined with fierce protectiveness. He feared losing another person, but Barron would kill him on his own.
Kora grabbed the nearest sailor, dragging him towards her with a panicked yelp.
“Can you sail?” she asked. He nodded once, his fear was clear but suppressed as his large hands took hold of the wheel.
“Good,” was all she said as she summoned her power. Her limbs shook, and sweat broke out across her body as she focused on Fallen Angel. Time warped, her vision blurring and distorted as she spirited onto Hector’s ship.
“By the gods!” he shrieked as she collapsed before him, one knee cushioning her fall. Kora looked up as Hector’s singular eye bulged from its socket, the other covered by a black patch. His crew fell backwards around him.
“Devani!” they chanted repeatedly.
“Hector,” Kora stood, swaying as her mind swirled from the jump. It was the furthest she’d spirited, and her gut churned as she adjusted to her surroundings. “Raiden’s flown to Barron. He’s facing him on his own, I need to go after him.”
Hector paused, his stare travelling over Kora nervously. “How did ye do that?”
“It doesn’t matter!” she yelled. “Raiden could die any moment! I need you to be the pirate lord that you are and lead this fleet after him.”
“Lassie,” he sighed. “When facing the jaws of hell, ye cannot save everyone. Raiden has defied the plan. Ye must protect the people, not the person.”
Kora gripped her hair, yelling in frustration. Her water beast roared, crying for her to find Raiden, to save him, to do anything. Hector blinked at her cry as she paced the deck.
“Ye are connected,” he observed. “Will ye form the bond?”
She had no fucking clue what this bond was that everyone kept mentioning, but she didn’t hesitate. “Yes, probably, so?” Kora snapped, her anger rising.
“Stupid child. It’s distracting ye. Ye cannot see the wider picture. Saving Raiden doesn’t mean saving the island. Ye promised to protect the innocent.”
“Help me, please!” she begged. “The island needs Raiden. He’s so much more than a weapon. He’s not expendable. He’s Galen’s survival. He is Galen.”
Hector hummed in response, quickly rotating the wheel to avoid fire.
Kora remained rooted to the spot, her stare unwavering.
Red sails whipped in the increasing bitter winds, a chill skittering across the mahogany deck.
The green rigging and shrouds had been replaced, not a single remnant of the empire remained on this ship.
“So ye haven’t claimed each other yet?” Hector asked as his crew put their hands on deck, working to reload the cannons. The fire of each one was a melody to Kora’s ears, a bittersweet symphony that they still had hope.
What was this pirate lord on about? Kora seethed, not wanting to discuss the semantics of her relationship with Raiden, who was doing the dumbest fucking thing with probably the best intentions.
Kora knew he was thinking of Iris. The bond had been chaotic, but amongst the fear and protection was a sliver of guilt and grief.
“What? I don’t know what that is. Why does it matter now?”
“Aye, it always matters. Perhaps ye empire’s rule of no love was the one decent thing they did. Look at ye. Deranged and narrow-minded. We. Are. At. War!” Hector’s stare swivelled behind Kora and flared. “Drop to the deck!”
She obeyed instantly, that command uttered from a captain’s lips was never to be messed with. The stern shattered, chunks of wood thudding against the deck as an empire ship flanked their side. Kora twisted her head, peering over the debris as pirates ran, gathering their weapons to attack.
“Don’t let them pass!” Hector ordered, his falchion sword glinting as lightning crackled through the sky. “Get up, pirate-hunter. Be the admiral ye used to be. The empire has come for ye.”
Kora jumped to her feet, her mind dizzy as gangplanks slammed down onto the port side. Hector’s pirates were organised as they marched across first, some swinging with ropes from the mast and landing onto the empire’s vessel.
A vessel of all-black. And a serpent figurehead.
Hell’s Serpent.
Her heart in her throat, Kora grabbed the dagger at her thigh, the midnight weapon soothing her with Raiden’s absence. She charged, descending onto her beloved ship. As they crossed, their boots slamming onto the pristine wood, Kora paused, frowning.
Blood splattered the deck by the central main mast with a crack down the middle, a pair of chains hanging loose and abandoned. Cold leaked into her bones, her skin prickling as a familiar laugh raked across her mind, probing, demanding to be released.
No.
“Where is everyone?” Hector stomped to her side, his sword swishing the air.
The ship was silent. Kora’s gut twisted as the door to the captain’s quarters blew off its hinges, sliding across the deck with a sickening metal screech.
“Hector. Take your crew and sail back to the island now.”
Black smoke exploded from the quarters, smothering the ship in shadows that latched around her limbs, dragging Kora down to her knees.
Heavy boots thudded, the scrape of metal across the deck sparking through the shadows.
Her mouth dried as blue steel peeked through the dark, followed by a shining bald head.
“Prisoner Cadell,” Garvan announced, his rough voice not matching his tired brown eyes. His mighty sword hung at his side, its sharp end embedded in the deck, leaving a splintered trail from the quarterdeck.
Hector yelled as a sea of soldiers emerged from the shadows, dressed in acrid dark armour, cracks of malachite glistening like the boughs of death.
“I’m here to return you to your owners.” Garvan raised his sword towards the pirates.
In his other hand, a thick metal collar glinted, its clasp open.
Kora’s gut hollowed out as the darkness clung onto her frame, where something deep inside rejoiced at being reunited with it.
Barron had to be near, his magic toying with her.
“Pirates!” Hector bellowed. “What’s the first rule of the code!”
“We stand as one!” They returned, stamping their feet.
Garvan’s arm wavered in clear shock. Pirates had always been depicted by the empire as greedy, each out for their own survival. Little did they know pirates had devised a new code for their path of survival since the conquest.
And they were defending Kora’s back.
She smiled as Hector leapt forward, his falchion sword clashing with Garvan’s mighty weapon.