Page 2 of A Rising Hope (The Freckled Fate #3)

2

FINNLEAH

A throbbing headache brought me wide awake. I winced as I moved. Pain radiated through my body, each muscle feeling sore and bruised. My mind reached for my murky memories; my thoughts laid heavy, as if swaddled in a thick fog.

I groaned. Bright sunlight cut through as I opened my eyes. Immediately regretting the decision, I shut them closed again. Oily fog still muddied my consciousness, but thought by thought, I fought through the grogginess that poisoned me. I moved my hands up, rubbing my closed eyes, hoping the motion would relieve the sting in them. A little shiver ran down my body at the motion, followed by the utmost feeling of dread.

My exhausted mind couldn’t comprehend the loud alarms and sudden warnings that blazed through me. Screaming something at me, so loudly it almost hurt.

What? Why? I didn’t remember. Couldn’t understand.

I moved my hands to massage the sides of my head, hoping to relieve the growing pressure.

I knew it then. That recognizable heaviness around my wrists sent a wave of shock down my body. My eyes shot wide open. Panic, anger, disbelief recoiled through me like a tidal wave pulling me underneath. I willed my eyes to stare at the heavy Basalt Glass shackles on my wrists. Their serrated edges cut into my skin deep enough to stifle the fire within me, but not deep enough to make me bleed out.

“We meet at last, Finn ,” a velvety female voice purred, and I darted my gaze to the door in this odd and unfamiliar room. Though I had never seen her before, I knew without a single doubt in my mind that the woman standing in the door frame was the woman from my vision—the Mad Queen herself.