Page 63 of Petals for Deadly Power

Therewasnofeather.

The shock cost her deeply.

The petals buried her face, blinded her eyes, covered her nose, filled her still-open mouth.

The fire must have followed, but, by then, Lenna was long gone.

40

Jake

Themetalrailofthe navia screeched under Jake’s clenched fists.

His knuckles were white like the corpses he left many times behind. His clothes were still soaked from the torrential waters he had dived in when he rushed to the deck after Lenna disappeared from his grip.

Disappeared.

He had given up on shouting her name, praying to the Cardinals they would keep her safe.

Bullshit praying, that was. No one was fucking safe in an ordeal.

It hadn’t been until sunrise that he saw the red mass interrupting the expanse of the sea, until he chased the courtrades and begged them to move the navia as fast as they could. He probably hadn’t asked in the nicest way. He had offered whatever they wanted in exchange. Those were problems for later.

The problem right now was that red mass—whatever the Fifth hell that was—was still too damn far. And there was no doubt Lenna was on it.

Obviously, he was going to try to not interrupt her ordeal. Obviously, he believed Lenna was capable of this challenge and many others. Few beings on Terrha had the will and determination she had. The fire in her veins, in her eyes, in the way she didn’t think twice when speaking her mind. The fire that burned worlds down.

Did that mean he was going to sit and watch if his woman was in danger? Cardinals be damned—obviously not.

It had taken all his restraint to watch as red rain started falling on a specific part of the red mass. A person wearing black moved towards the center of the—was it a four-petal platform? A field?

The courtrades moved behind him, the shadows not as helpful as they were at night, the navia still too far as he watched red rain fall, and fall, and fall on Lenna. Whatever that rain was made of it was not letting her run fast enough. Then her magic started, Taking away what kept her feet stuck and—Giving something to the sea.

“That’s my woman,” he muttered, pride filling his chest and squeezing his corrupt heart. It was awfully difficult to use opposite powers in sync. Very few panoms had mastered it, and here she was. His stubborn, unyielding womandoingit.

His silver eyes narrowed, his nostrils flaring with the need for her to make it, for her ordeal to finish already.

And then, she tripped, and she was on the floor.

“Faster!” he shouted to the courtrades behind him. “Llunal, I’ll suck your dick if you have one, but I swear on the Fifth if this navia does not move faster,I’ll burn it down.”

Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down.

The words echoed in his mind, in his ears, in his life. Because in front of him was a flame, a living, raging flame on the platform where Lenna stood. A flame that trailed towards her, towards her body too full of whatever the fuck the redness falling on her was.

No.

Seeing Lenna fighting harmed him more than all his ordeal put together. The fire was too fast, her pace too slow, the distance to whatever was in the middle of the panom shape too far.

No.

Over his dead fucking body, he was going to let her be tortured again. He didn’t care if it was at the hands of his father or the five wicked Cardinals. This was not happening again.Hewouldn’t let it happen again.

Jake jumped out of the navia, cursing Llunal, his slow-as-shit shadows and all his useless stars. The cold water engulfed him, his arms and legs pushing away from the navia with all the strength he could master.

He only needed to swim far enough, far enough to—

He had never been happier to moure in his damned, long life.

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