I really wanted the image to be true to the story.
The focus on the wings, instead of a person, really drives home the idea that the focus of the story is about the wings.
The woman is Aralin in the story. The glowing light at her chest provides a sense of magic. The glow in water (bottom right) suggests the magic is somehow coming from there. It is clear they in a natural, green area.
The dagger, and important element in the story, sets the reader in a medieval fantasy world setting.
While I like to put together my own covers, I often use other’s art. The art mostly includes assets purchased from Daz3d’s store. I posed them in Daz3d and rendered the scene with 3Delight. Finally, I put it all together in Paint.net, which is similar to PhotoShop. All the software applications used were free, though the art assets, I purchased.