Page 84 of Daughter of the Dark Sea

All was silent.

Callan pumped his length, the tip wet as he tightened his grip on her talisman. Tears flowed down her cheeks. She couldn’t breathe. She was going to die. Her fingers flexed beneath her back, but there was no water to summon, no liquid nearby to manipulate. Her water beast was hidden deep within her, too afraid of the monster before her.

Please.

I need you.

She wasn’t sure who she was begging now. Who she desperately sought help from. Her mind cried viciously as Callanexposed the last of her body, her own trousers discarded, and a shiver shuddered through her.

Her body shut down, her mind escaping into a dark corner, away from the impending violation. She hadn’t experienced this since the Darkoning Trials, where she learned to remove herself from the present . . . from the pain she couldn’t control as she’d been beaten within an inch of her life.

Nobody was coming.

His finger ran up her slit, and she barely felt the sensation as she burrowed deeper into herself.

No one would save her, and she couldn’t even save herself. What good were her powers, her water beast, if they couldn’t prevent atrocities like this? The chain painfully cut into her neck as Callan flushed his body against hers, murmuring everything he was going to do to her.

Halting, his face contorted into a frown. His body quaked, his muscles rippling, and he released the chain. Kora sucked in a deep breath, panting, gulping down air, as Callan fell back, his hands clutching at his body.

“What is this?” He glared as he tore at his flesh, rubbing it, scratching until his caramel skin turned a similar shade of pink to his scarred neck.

Kora covered her body with the scraps of her shirt, now able to move . . . to bepresent. Callan trembled, his hands roving frantically over his body.

“What are youdoingto me?” he snarled.

A blue hue encapsulated the tent, basking his face in a deathly glow, and his eyes widened in horror as she smiled devilishly, raising her shining hands, letting the light bloom. It was a minute amount of power, but it was enough.

She would save herself.

“You’re amage!” he hissed, and her smile broadened as his skin visibly rippled, his veins writhing beneath the surface.“Stop it!” His lisp thickened as that familiar pulse returned, racing across her bones, coalescing in her core before bolts of energy surged out, elevating her until she felt untethered from the world.

With his limp cock hanging out in the open, Callan dragged his churning body out of the tent. She delighted in the veins bubbling along it, coated in coarse sand. He whimpered as she followed him, one hand clutching the fragmented remains of her trousers.

“You’ll . . . be hanged . . . for this,” Callan spoke between panting breaths. He stopped and rolled onto his back, glowering in pain. “I’ll tell them all.”

“Dead men tell no tales.”

Her throat burned and her voice was hoarse as she twisted her hand, imagining his blood churning in his body until he vomited, clenching his stomach. He moaned and begged, and she placed her booted foot on his neck, cutting off his speech—his air. Raging red bloomed as he choked, coughing, desperately trying to flood his lungs with air.

“Not so fucking nice, is it?” She glanced down at his limp dick and flicked a finger towards it, urging the blood to redirect itself. Callan shrieked as it shrivelled.

“Captain!”

The blue hue died from Kora’s hands as Blake sprinted to them, a familiar palomino mare by his side. Moonlight bounced from his sword, his alert green eyes glaring in the darkness.

“I was on watch and heard a scream. Cadence was running towards—”

He halted to a stop, staring at Callan convulsing in the sand, her foot still on his windpipe. His eyes scanned the details—Callan’s bleeding hand, his exposed length, her torn clothes, and tearful eyes. A dark shadow swept over his face.

“Tell me he’s getting what he deserves.” Blake’s tone could have frozen the whole desert. Even Callan shivered.

“It’s all her fault!” Callan rasped. “What’d you expect me to do? She practically invited me into her tent.” Kora almost laughed at the blatant lie.

“I very much doubt that,” Blake snapped.

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she nuzzled her cheek against his warmth. Callan’s eyes widened in response. He’d not only attempted to rape a captain . . . but aninvolvedcaptain.

“You two . . .” Callan wheezed, choking down air. “Insubordinate behaviour . . .” he spluttered beneath Kora’s weight.