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It wasn’t long before I dismantled the barriers, with the weight of my ethèr flooding his body. As walls inside the angel fall, his fôrs is exposed. Supernatural power pours out from his fôrs to weaken me. Shake me off.
It doesn't.
"Yakobba!" I can hear the captain's anguish.
Hearing the free use of that name angered me. Angered me so much I rushed at his fôrs with unmitigated rage. We did a dance of war, spirit against spirit, but I won. I poured my ethèr into Urnael's fôrs, wrapping the ethereal, angelic frame with cords of light and raging brilliance. Then, I squeezed and siphoned out his life force. I can hear Captain Urnael screaming. Pleading for mercy. Begging to live.
He won't.
I squeezed harder, siphoning out every drop of waking existence I found, watching as his fôrs slowly weakened, losing its life, until finally there wasn't a flicker of light that remained. Not another drop of golden light flecked in the expanse within Urnael. Everything grew dim, then dark, until I knew for sure he was dead.
I released my hold, pulled my ethèr and cutlass out of him, and looked around. My crew still floated over Urnael's captured crew, their eyes blinking with satisfaction, and their hunger for blood churning. Without bothering with another glance at Urnael's lifeless carcass, I spun around and spread all six pairs of my membranous, feathered, wings wide, and began levitating off of the ship's deck.
The sôl above blazed brilliantly over the clouds. I looked down at where my ship remained on the surface of the Mistwind Sea below. Looking back at my quartermaster, I nodded once, a flame burning behind my eyes.
"Kill them all."
Pleas for mercy broke out among those who still lived from Urnael's crew. I had no taste for prisoners, especially when they proved to be beggars.
Engèli's lips crawled upward, a fiendish grin stretched across his mouth. "And the Airflower, Captain Ashthorn?"
I flicked my gaze over the massive vessel that was once an Avari warship. A ship the king of Avari refused to let me step foot on, no matter how much I proved capable of being her captain. Disgust curdled my gut.
"Burn it down."
"Aye!"
Horrendous screams filled the air like sweet music to my ears as I flew down from the vessel, floating gently along the breeze back to my ship.
Chapter 2
A Bargain With the Sea
RAESHELLE
The sea meandered on as if in mourning. I picked up a bite of kòd fish with my coralsticks and chewed, stifling my rising anxiety. I grudgingly remembered the last time I had a noonfast—the mid-dawn lunch meal—that came with this much mental anguish.
Across from me sat King Bakari Ezrathen Au'Pearl. He sat back in the shellchair with his shoulders relaxed, his six wing pairs lazily brushing through the water, as he drank his seawine with the calm of a fallen god.
There was a reverent quiet in the air as we ate in peaceful silence, the resplendence of the royal gardens our backdrop. A group of youngling angels, seated in gilded saddles atop seastallions, swam by along the outer edge of the Pearl Palace. I trailed them until they disappeared near the Glass Reefs. A pang of envy tugged at my six hearts. I suppressed it, looking back to my kòd. I was a princess, not a common angel. It wasn't for me to go outside of the castle, gallivanting as if I didn't have duties.
"Raeshelle."
I looked up to find King Bakari watching me. His curious eyes loomed just above the rim of his goblet, the pale blue and silver of his irises glistened in the low light of the sea.
"You've left me for a third time. Do I bore you?"
I flushed, instantly squirming in my seat beneath the weight of his moon-like gaze. Few things escaped those eyes. Including falsities. I took another bite of kòd fish, buying time before answering.
"No, my king. You could never." I looked into his eyes, praying my nerves couldn’t be seen. Smiling, I leaned forward, waving my coralsticks with nonchalance. "I just love watching the heartbeat of the sea, that's all. Mistwind is beautiful. Each moment I get to be in her presence, I cherish it."
King Bakari said nothing, eyeing me for a long while. After he drank several sips of seawine, I grew nervous. I pressed the length of my skirts beneath the crystal table, digging my nails into the shell embroidery of the eelsilk. I looked away from the king, turning my attention to a school of tuana swimming in the distance.
"My king, hm?"
I snapped straight, sitting up in my shellchair. My mouth dried as I coughed, searching for an excuse.
"I meant no offense by calling you?—"
