Cormorant Run
Page 24
“For everything? You lost your father. You watched a giant sea monster eat me, and…and I killed your sister.”
Oh. That.
“I think she tried to warn me, you know,” Cora went on. “She came to me before we left on the trip and told me not to return to the Eyrie without you. She expected you to be killed or contained on Iom, so she’d only have to deal with our fathers.” Cora glanced down at his sister’s body again. “I think she tried to spare us, in her own way. Or at least give us a chance at survival.” She swallowed. “And I killed her.”
“She may have tried to spare us, but she would’ve gone through with our executions.” He shook his head. His chest felt hollow. His own sister. If only she’d talked to him, confided in him…Maybe he could’ve prevented all this loss and heartache. Maybe Dad would still be alive.
“It’s not your fault.” Cora watched him, gaze too perceptive.
Instead of speaking more on the matter, he reached forward and pulled her toward him, careful not to rip her already falling-apart outfit. “It’s not yours, either.”
She tensed and started to argue.
“You saved me.” He kissed her, pouring his entire heart into the kiss, telling her with his body how much she meant to him, how much he loved her, and how much he planned to enjoy every last waking moment of his life with her by his side.
He’d never taken her life for granted, but the scare of losing her made him realize he never wanted to go through that again. He never wanted her to be anywhere other than with him.
Epilogue
“Anyone can have a once-upon-a-time or a happily-ever-after, but it's the journey between that makes the story worth telling.”
Chris Colfer
Cora held Ronin’s hands and tried to ignore the cheering crowd below. This was so not her thing. The wind whipped her hair across her face and chilled her skin through the white flying outfit made more for fashion than actually flying. If she’d had a choice, she’d wear her normal flying leathers, but after turning down numerous suggestions from the royal fashion consultants, she’d relented on this one detail.
Ronin squeezed her hands in return. He’d left his crown behind for this part of the ceremony but looked every inch the crowned king of the Eyrie in his golden armour. The light danced off the metal and made him glow. He was the sun to her night.
It hadn’t taken much to convince the court and people of his innocence. She gave Marcus Jack the scoop of his lifetime. In addition to his article, her father’s testimony, the communications Sasha had stashed away, the peace treaty Ronin delivered calmed the unease of the Eyrie.
After the proverbial dust settled, Ronin had a lot of questions about the Sea Beast and the underwater cavern. She shared everything with him, not wanting secrets between them.
“Ready?” Ronin asked, pulling her close, supporting her weight with each heavy wingbeat.
“This is a stupid tradition.”
“And you love it.”
“Okay, Ready.” She tilted her head up and smiled.
Ronin kissed her and a loud cheer rose from below. The low croon of the Sea Beast who’d joined the celebration added to the blast of sound.
Cora’s world narrowed and focused on the joy of Ronin’s mouth on hers as they cartwheeled toward the rocky shore for the entire kingdom to see.
Thank you for reading Cormorant Run.
Did you enjoy Cora and Ronin’s story?
If so, please consider leaving a review to let other readers know, and when you have time, check out my website at jcmckenzie.ca for other similar stories.
Characters
Aeneas: King of Iom
Ava: Cora’s human contact on Iom
Cam Cormorant: Sapavian. Cormorant guard, Cora’s cousin
Caleb: Gabriel’s partner
Coraline Evangeline Cormorant: Cora, the main character. Did you just skip to the back? You naughty little reader, you.
Darryl: pfft, read the book! I’m not giving you this spoiler
Dax Cormorant: Sapavian. Cormorant guard, Cora’s cousin
Edgar Eagle: Sapavian. King of the Eyrie
Gable: Sapavian. Eyrie lord executed for treason
Gabriel: Sapavian. Ronin’s head of security, childhood friend and rival
Jacoby: Human. Ava’s fiancé
Jerome: Sapavian. Called Cora ugly when they were teenagers
Kane Cormorant: Sapavian. Head of Cormorant Clan. Cora’s father
Karla: Human kingswoman
Marcus Jack: Sapavian. Also known as Jack. Eyrie reporter
Phil: Human kingsman
Glossary of Terms
Alara: Iom fishing village. Also, an acronym for “as low as reasonably achievable,” used in reference to personal or environmental exposure to radiation.
Bearcat: a sciper created by merging black bear and mountain lion DNA.
Cap: Originally an abbreviation for Channel Access Point, this acronym evolved over time from.CAP to Cap and is pronounced k-ah-p instead of C-A-P.
Calandria: Iom city, site of the royal court where the king of Iom resides. Also, a cylindrical vessel that contains the heavy water reactor in a pressurized heavy water reactor.
Cetus: better known as the Sea Beast. An ichthyoid sapien, transformed as the result of scientific experimentation and the nuclear cascades. Cetodes (pl).
Cetodes: plural of Cetus.
Cladding: Iom town. Also, the metal surrounding nuclear fuel material.
Dose: Iom town. Also, the energy absorbed by tissue from ionizing radiation.
Giga: Iom town. Also, a measurement prefix for one billion units.
Hadren’s Keep: Iom fortress located at the Outpost Access Point
Hunter’s Quad: a group of four human hunters.
Ichthy: Eyrie Waystation. Also, a word derived from the Greek word ikhthus, meaning "fish." Ichthyology is the study of fish.
Iom: Isle of Man.
Khondros: Eyrie Waystation. Also, Greek for “cartilage.” Chondrichthyes is a group of cartilaginous fish, which includes sharks, rays and skates.
MAS: Men Against Sapavians
Milling: Iom town. Also, the process for extracting minerals from ore.
Mox: Iom town. Also, an acronym for mixed oxide fuel.
Nuwaps: nuclear warped, the result of uncontrolled radiation from nuclear explosions on scipers with volatile DNA.
Oap: Originally an abbreviation for Outpost Access Point, this acronym evolved over time from OAP to Oap and is pronounced Oh-p instead of O-A-P.
Ostei: Eyrie Waystation. Also, a word derived from osteo which comes from the Greek ostéon, meaning “bone.” There is a group of boney fish called Osteichthyes, which includes goldfish, salmon, and tuna.
Otos: short for Otolith bone, the inner ear bone found in fish.
Patagium: elastic fold of membranous skin found in sapavian wings that aid in aerodynamics.
Sapavians: Formed by genetically splicing bird DNA with human DNA, these human-bird hybrids exhibit mostly human characteristics, but are capable of flying and have some remnant birdlike tendencies.
Scipers: species created from scientific experimentation, including sapavians, unicorns, thunderbirds, and the Sea Beast.
Sievert: Iom city. Also, a unit of measurement for the biological damage caused by radiation.
Thunderbirds: nuwap scipers that scavenge the Carrion Channel. Distant cousins to sapavians.
Wap: Originally an abbreviation for Waystation Access Point, this acronym evolved over time from WAP to Wap and is pronounced w-ah-p instead of W-A-P.
Zircaloy: Iom city. Also, an alloy of zirconium used as fuel rod cladding in water-cooled reactors.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I’d like to thank the reader. Without you and your words of encouragement, I wouldn’t be nearly as motivated to keep going. If you enjoyed this story, please share with a friend or leave a review. This feeds the author soul.
I’d like to thank my editor, Lara
Parker, who’s just a fabulous human being. I snuck in an Easter egg for her and she spotted it right away. I’m forever thankful she squeezes me into her schedule.
A huge thank you to Anna from Eerilyfair Fair Designs. She created another incredible cover for me. Seriously though, she creates works of art.
This book wouldn’t be the creation it is today without the constructive feedback from my beta readers—Karilyn Bentley, Charlotte Copper and Nicole Flockton. They’re authors in addition to being readers. You should check our their books!
Thank you to Book Nook Nuts for the proofread. I always think I send you a clean manuscript and your eagle eyes still spot blunders.
And as always, a giant thank you to my friends and family for their love and support.
About the Author
J. C. McKenzie is a book loving, gumboot-wearing, unapologetic science geek. She predominantly writes urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic dystopian fantasy with strong romantic elements. When she’s not spinning tales, she’s in the classroom sharing her passion for science and mathematics while secretly warping the young impressionable minds of our future to carry out her evil plans for world domination. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and a feisty dog named Angus who believes rules were made to be broken.
Visit her at jcmckenzie.ca
Nobody crosses the Carrion Channel.
Nobody except Cora.
As a messenger for the Eyrie’s spymaster, Cora regularly braves the dangerous passage infested with sea monsters to reach a land filled with vicious arrow-toting humans.
As if her job wasn’t hard enough, she’s now responsible for escorting the arrogant heir of the Eyrie across the treacherous stretch of water. Prince Ronin needs to broker a truce between two feuding realms and Cora needs to keep her former crush alive without throttling him or revealing the key to her success.
With everything she holds dear on the line, Cora needs to succeed, but Ronin seems intent on pushing all her buttons and someone else appears determined to sabotage their plans. In a land filled with unknowns, Cora is only sure of one thing: she’s not the only one with a secret.