The oye, having staked her claim on her meal, took it personally that the others had come and started fighting them off. This was good. I got hold of my mortal again and breathed into her, giving her my best glare, telling her without words I wasn’t in the mood for escaping hostages. I pointed to the oye, and we watched her fight off one of the other species.
Slowly, holding the mortal against my chest, I swam toward the fighting pair.
The mortal tried pulling away, but at this point and this deep in the sea, she needed to survive, and that meant doing what I wanted her to do while I gave her oxygen. My power seized her body.
The oye bit her opponent, tearing large chunks of flesh out of it, turning the water into a crimson cloud. I propelled us toward the surface, above the oye’s swinging tail, over her big silver-scaled body and long neck. I grabbed her horn, and the oye took off like a bullet. Water crashed into me, and my grip on the mortal slipped. Instinctively, my power lashed out and took hold of her, tucking her between the creature and me so I could breathe into her as the oye swam so fast, even my eyesight became blurry.
Once I secured the mortal, it was time to do real work with little power and even less practice. I had no idea what the oye’s body could do. I accessed the predator’s body, locating her vital organs and muscles. Excellent. I could use this powerful creature. I moved her toward the west.
Chapter 3
In the freezing Bleu Abysse, we traveled at speeds I couldn’t comprehend on top of some sort of giant snake with a horn and teeth that could eat through a supply ship. Water kept slamming against the top of my head, and I closed my eyes and prayed. I prayed for a quick death. I didn’t want to meet my maker with lungs full of water when Lord Raphael forgot to give me air.
Again, he had taken control of my body. I could tell because it felt the same way as it had when he’d done it in the keep. My body felt heavy and hot, and my bones ached. Lord Raphael was moving my lungs, pumping my heart, and breathing for me. I was certain he was doing all those things, because there was no other way I could survive longer than a few hours at these temperatures.
As a soldier in the Court of Command, every one of us, no matter the regiment placement, had trained for two weeks with one of the naval regiments, and they showed us how to survive in the water. Ten hours was the record in the regiment specializing in this sort of warfare. Everyone else, myself included, would die after about four to six hours unless they got preyed upon, in which case they’d die much sooner. I had no idea how long we’d been under.
Lord Raphael’s body, a furnace even in these freezing conditions, kept me warm, and I wrapped my limbs around him, pressing myself as close to him as possible. I was stuck between him and the serpentine creature whose body thrashed beneath us. Terrified and deprived of oxygen, I stared at Raphael’s mouth and awaited the moment he bent his head.
He pressed his lips against mine, and I opened my mouth. He expelled fresh air into my lungs. Once done, I expected him to lift his head and continue piloting the creature the same way he could pilot me, but he lingered. Violet eyes stared at me, and suddenly, despite the fact we were traveling at unprecedented speeds under freezing water, peace and warmth suffused me, calmed me. I stared into his glowing violet eyes, recognizing their true color was much more beautiful than what I’d seen in the keep. Then, the male’s eyes had lost the color, the vibrancy I saw now. Freedom shone brighter than all other lights.
The creature tracked toward the top. Yes, finally.
Lord Raphael held me tightly to him, breathing more oxygen into me. He tapped the small of my back. Unsure what that meant, I squeezed his shoulder. He squeezed my bottom at the same time as the creature broke the surface and somersaulted. I screamed and slammed back first into the water. My breath whooshed out, and my lungs wouldn’t work. I flailed my arms, trying to breathe, swim, survive.
Lord Raphael appeared above me, violet eyes shining. He grabbed me and tried breathing for me, but I couldn’t hold the air. My lungs burned. The impact had broken something, but I felt no pain, likely because I was frozen. We surfaced again, and I gasped as air entered my lungs, but the pain made me wince. A broken rib had punctured my lung.
“Stay with me, soldier.”
“Okay,” I said, staring at the position of the sun in the sky. We’d traveled for hours.
He rubbed my back, channeling power into my body until my lungs burned and I could barely handle the pain. All I could do was grit my teeth and hold on to strength, courage, and faith, the guiding lights of the Court of Command.
Then it was over. Just like that. All of a sudden, I was warm and agile again. This kind of power, although different from the commander’s, made me feel energized all the same. While the commander trained us for strength and courage, and sometimes boosted us with his own strength and courage, Lord Raphael had a different way of impacting my body when he channeled power.
Right now, I wasn’t going to think about the details of how he impacted my body, especially not how certain girly parts of me fluttered as his violet eyes stared into mine.
During his time in the keep, his hair had grown, and, now wet, it stuck to his forehead. His beard covered the bottom of his handsome face, but I’d seen what he looked like shaved, his strong, prominent jaw and that mouth many of us in the regiment wished to kiss. I moved the hair away from his forehead.
“Again. Deep breath.” He inhaled as if to show me how.
I shook my head. “Can’t we swim?”
“You’re too slow.”
“Actually, I’m a fast swimmer.”
A quirk of his lips. “Not fast enough. We have more than half a day to reach Sunder’s waters, and you won’t make it. Deep breath.”
The fear of going underwater again got the better of me. “No, don’t.”
“Soldier, you can follow my orders, or I’ll swim on my own.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You sound pissy. I remind you that I didn’t intend to be a burden during your escape and that you kidnapped me.”
“One more word of defiance. I dare you, mortal.”
I spun away. “Don’t ‘mortal’ me, angel.”
“Archangel,” he corrected.
Asshole, I thought. I swam away, slow strokes so I could swim for as long as possible or half a day, whichever was needed. I’d never swum for half a day, but the power he’d channeled through me warmed me up and made my body stronger. Salt water in the eyes wasn’t the most pleasant feeling, and I blinked. It kept burning.
Ahead of me, I spotted land, a beacon of hope.
“Look,” I said, turning, only then realizing I spoke to nobody. He’d left. He’d really left me out here. Fine. Just as well, because I found an island, and I would rest, eat, and sleep. Okay, maybe not sleep.
I moved toward it, keeping my target in sight, blinking to chase away the salt as I swam. One second I saw it, the next I didn’t. Pausing for rest, I searched for the coast. Gone. It was gone! Oh my God. The island had been right there! I couldn’t be that disoriented, could I? With Lord Raphael nowhere to be seen, I started shivering again. I spun in circles, fear threatening to sink me. I spun and spun and finally spotted a gray-and-yellow mountain of land again.
I resumed swimming toward the island, my arms trembling. Before my eyes, it disappeared once more. I spun around in a circle. Nothing but water. I’d freeze out here.