Court of Sunder (Age of Angels #2) - Milana Jacks Page 0,7

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