Page 21 of A Rising Hope (The Freckled Fate #3)

21

ZORA

“ S nap out of it, damn it,” I hissed, passing another soldier who convulsed in pain from his imaginary wounds. The soldier’s agonizing cries suddenly stopped, and his breathing evened out. Orest didn’t make a sound, but I knew he was marching right behind me. “You cannot shield all of them, Orest,” I uttered, but he didn’t respond. I forcefully marched through the long halls of the small chateau we claimed as the stronghold for the armies on the outskirts of the Rosefront town.

Screams, moans and gnashing of teeth echoed through the unnatural darkness that had taken hold of the world. Armies were scattered and broken. Soldiers lost in their own world of nightmares while Orest and I lived in our own.

There was no end to it.

Neither Destroyer, nor human, nor mage were immune to it. Cities, ports, and towns all fell. Crumbled in mere days. Lives were lost, and souls wandered the land. I wasn’t sure how long it’d been. Days and nights mixed into one. The sun didn’t shine. The stars no longer appeared. Minutes turned into hours and hours into days, perhaps even weeks. This nightmare became our new reality.

I tripped over a dead body in the hall. Orest swiftly caught me without missing a beat. My nostrils flared, but I didn’t dare look at who was dead on the floor, which other soldier we lost today.

We lost so many. But I didn’t have the time to grieve. Didn’t have time to pause.

I stepped down the curved stairs, holding on to the mossy walls of the cellar.

I fumbled for the brass door handle as I reached the basement. Icy air sent a dreadful chill down my spine. Nine bodies wrapped in sheets, tied with thick ropes, hung from the ceiling. Their feminine screams were muffled by the cloth tightly covering their mouth. I shut the pain that rippled through my heart.

Salvation wouldn’t come this time. We had to claw out of this hell on our own.

“You do not have to do this, Zora,” Orest finally spoke up near me. “Let me do it for you,” he offered. I clenched the whip in my hands, forcing the lump in my throat to dissolve.

“I am their Commander. The Ten are my unit, Orest.” I bit my tongue, tasting the iron tang. “Fight those nightmares, ladies. Fight them as you fight me,” I whispered into the darkness and then my whip flew free.

I squeezed the stained cloth clean. The water dripping into the metal bowl was murky from the layers of blood rinsed as Orest and I cared for the Ten’s wounds. I was glad it was dark, less I’d see my bloodstained hands violently shake. But in this moment, the chamber we were in was silent. Each of their minds momentarily free of the haunted nightmares, as the Ten fixated on the real pain inflicted by my hands.

Physical pain was the only link between this world and whatever reality their minds were stuck in. Pain that I had now mercilessly inflicted day in and out, relying on only a flicker of hope that they’d be able to make their way back to us. That they would fight the nightmares and win.

“Why didn’t the Black Shadows touch you?” I asked Orest the question that had been lingering deep in my mind.

“They have. Many moons ago. The master that made me didn’t believe in simple physical torture; he believed that true Truth Tellers must conquer all terrors to instill one. Using Black Shadows on me was a way for him to ensure that.”

“And you survived?”

Orest paused and though I couldn’t see him through the blinding darkness, I felt his piercing gaze on me.

“I lived,” he replied against the misty fog.

The Ten as if asleep were quiet but their screams still rang in my ears, scars etched into my soul.

“Why did you save me, Orest?” I whispered in the void, fighting the suffocating guilt. “You should’ve saved them. You should’ve saved anyone else but me.” I was not worthy. I should be the one drowning in that wrathful agony. “I should be suffering, not them. There are people far more deserving of saving than me.”

“No. There aren’t. And you know why I saved you.”

I let his words settle before responding in the all-encompassing darkness. “Whatever feelings you are harboring towards me, Orest, they are foolish. You know that. And if you think they will last, I assure you they will not.”

I couldn’t see him, but I felt his persistent gaze on me, vigilant, longing, needful.

“No, Zora.” His deep voice sounded calm and velvety, a gentle whisper. “I saved you because when you’ve walked amid the shadows and lived in darkness for so long, when you finally see the only light—you do not let go.”