Page 51 of Petals for Deadly Power

One moment, the sea around them was peaceful and quiet, the waves hitting gently against the navia. The next, a massive wave, the height of the navia, was heading towards them from a close distance. A wave that would hit them in less than a minute and would likely throw them into the sea.

The three courtrades regrouped and stood next to each other, their hands lifted, shadows interconnecting, building a thick wall for the wave to crash against.

Lenna ran towards the rail facing the gigantic wave, her golden sparks flying in the form of ink towards Jake.

He wasn’t anywhere she could see, but Jake’s words invaded her mind nonetheless:I’m coming.

“Sasha, run inside,” Lenna shouted, hoping she wasn’t hurt from the fall and would do as she said. Lenna’s hands were in front of her, but she didn’t know what to do, if the shadow wall was enough to hold such force. “What the fuck is that?”

“Nature at its worst,” Nevan shouted, his face straining as he pushed shadows faster and harder. The wave was going to hit them any moment now, and there were many holes in their shadow wall. Many, many holes.

Lenna opened her hands, Giving electric sparks to fill each gap within the growing wall. Golden streaks formed between the shadows, the fiery, energetic sparks waiting impatiently to react against the water.

The door to the deck banged open with running footsteps Lenna knew too well stopping between her and the courtrades.

“This won’t be enough,” Jake muttered. Lenna couldn’t take the eyes off the approaching mass of water, now towering above them. Their shadow and golden electricity wall was barely high enough to reach its mid-height.

“Courtrades, seek cover,” Jake shouted, his silver eyes focused on the mass of water, his palms in front of him, sharp, navy sparks jumping around him. “Lenna, behind me.”

Lenna didn’t have time to question him, to wonder why Jake wanted tobeher cover. She ran behind him, not daring to touch him in case he lost the focus on his target.

He clenched his jaw, the muscles on his broad back tense, and when the wave hit against the wall of shadows and golden sparks—

Jake roared, closing his fists with more strength than was needed to kill a man. Lenna inhaled sharply, the blood in her veins freezing with panic as she realized what he was attempting.

Jake wanted toTakethe massive force of water that was going to drown them all. He wanted to make it disappear with his magic. With his hands.

And he fuckingdid.

The terrifying wave disappeared, and the wall they built with it. The navia stayed ashore, only rocking a bit harsher than before.

Jake didn’t move, looking to the horizon, to the Radel Sea and every single wave in it. Lenna couldn’t take her eyes off him, his brutality and his violence. She couldn’t resist the need to hand him her heart.

“Jake,” she prayed, pulling his face towards hers, kissing him as if it was the last time she’d ever do.

He answered her kiss with the same fervor, their lips and tongues clashing as if they were the wave and the navia. He pulled her up, her legs hooking around his middle, his fists filled with red hair, her hands unable to get enough of this man.

When she managed to speak, her lips were tender. “I can’t believe you Took a Cardinal-cursed force of nature.”

Jake didn’t take his hands from underneath her thighs. He didn’t set Lenna on the ground.

His silver eyes only moved from hers to the Radel Sea. “Whatever that was, it was not nature.”

32

Hope

Hernakedlimbsweretangled with those of someone else, the touch of an arm in particular cooler than the rest. Shadows surrounded her body, her breasts, her bare, aching core. Everything was dark, save for eyes the color of the waters, the shine of a finger that pushed her chin down, her lips parting for—

Hope woke up sweating in her lonely, disarrayed bed. She wasn’t naked, but her core . . . Her core ached as much as in her dream. She closed her eyes, refusing to let the fantasy leave her mind, trying to hold onto the shadows and the metallic arm as much as she could—It was useless. Her cheeks were flushed, her heartbeat fast, realization sinking in.

Fantasies were allowed.

Fantasies. Were. Allowed.

Fantasies didn’t cause panomquakes, they didn’t risk the land. It was Hope and her imagination, nothing for the Cardinals to worry about. Nothing tangible that mattered.

Hope closed her eyes, her hand sinking under her pants, finding the part that desired more, and let her mind loose.

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