Page 36 of A Rising Hope (The Freckled Fate #3)

36

FINNLEAH

P riya lounged on the chaise where I had left her a few hours prior. Legs up on the headrest, she tossed a vial of poison up in the air, recklessly catching it.

“Ugh, finally !” She almost dropped the minuscule glass ampoule on the floor, catching it just a hair away from hitting the ground.

“Is that wyg root poison?” I shook my head, walking towards her. I shoved her feet off the chair, taking a seat near her. “Doesn’t it take you a year just to make a single drop of it?” I raised my brow at her.

“Yes.” She begrudgingly adjusted her legs. “So much effort for such a perfect poison and no worthy victim for it.” She shook the tiny vial, looking at the gray liquid within. “So, Freckles, the mighty Empress ,” she mocked my title. “I leave you for like a minute and you get married to the first man you meet?” She sent me an all-knowing look, content to see a flash of surprise on my face. “Oh, Freckles, you didn’t think I’d just stick around in the tent all night waiting for you?”

“Priya . . . ” I gave her a stark look.

“When you said, ‘let’s go kill the bitch’ I thought you meant the Mad Queen and not me,” Priya drawled, “but I am starting to doubt it as you are literally killing me with boredom, all fucking night. So, I had to get creative.” She sat upright. “But before you go all Destroyer on me”—She rolled her eyes, clearly disliking the power imbalance—“I didn’t torture anyone. You are welcome. But I am deeply offended that you thought I wouldn’t find out. But do not fret, I am in a good mood after all, so I shall kill him for you free of charge.”

“How very generous of you,” I added. This time it was me who rolled their eyes.

“What can I say? I’ve turned my life around. Charity and all,” Priya said nonchalantly, flicking her long braid back. I observed her, still somehow in disbelief that it was actually her here, with me. Like it was just another adventure for two girls lost in the middle of nowhere. “You know, Freckles, if you stare too much, your eyes might fall out.” She shot me a snarky glare.

“I never thought I’d see you again,” I answered truthfully. “And here you are.”

“Hell, what can I say? I am a sucker for a sad apology note.” She sighed dramatically. “Gods, they’ve done a number on you.” She looked at me, disturbed, when she saw my eyes water. “Get yourself together, Freckles, we got a damn Queen to kill. Gods . . . ” She scooted away from me like my tears were infectious.

“I am just so tired,” I confessed to her in the moment, unsure why. Not much made sense to me anymore, my mind in a constant state of falling.

“For fuck’s sake, take a nap then.” She looked at me, exasperated.

“Can’t sleep,” I admitted.

“I got drugs for that,” Priya offered, a bit skittish at my reddened eyes and gray hue to my skin.

“I . . . drugs don’t keep the visions away,” I explained, and though I knew she wouldn’t quite understand the full truth, it felt good to confess.

“Whatever you say.” She eyed me up and down. A look on her face torn between aversion and concern. I rubbed my face, letting out a few short huffs. “Okay, well, now that that is out of your system, what is the actual plan you have?” She perked up her perfectly trimmed brow. I stood up, shaking my limbs a bit, fighting the grogginess. My legs were heavy, back sore from flying. I made it across the room towards the small bookshelf. A small sphere lit up near me as I roamed through the stacks of maps.

“This will do.” I grabbed one of the larger maps, dusting off the scroll.

“Gods, it was a lot fucking easier to just read your mind instead of playing one hundred questions with you.” Priya snarled from her seat, her words earning a piercing look from me. “Want to explain what you are doing?”

“Getting a map?” I grumped back, showing her the scroll.

“And you need the map, because . . . ?” Priya continued, mouthing one hundred and one to me.

“Because I am going to find the Mad Queen,” I responded, unrolling the map on the glass table. I grabbed a couple of cups, pinning its corners.

“But she’s a Shadow Walker, she moves between space at will,” Priya stated. At my glance, she added, “I’ve done my research on the bitch.” She crossed her ankles and folded her arms. “I hunt my prey. I don’t just randomly come across it,” she reasoned. I shrugged. Priya did have a point. This was going to be a hunt.

“Yes, she moves between space, but my husband doesn’t.” I chewed on my lip, thinking. If Gideon could find me with his magic, then surely I could find him with mine. With a determined inhale, I grabbed a small knife, pricking my fingertip for a tiny drop of blood. The crimson drip fell to the map, staining it. I closed my eyes. Letting go of my thoughts was easy. They scattered on their own as I called on my magic with all my might. And it obeyed.

A few slow and steady breaths and my mind woke up in the In-Between.

A blink and familiar darkness rushed within me. A blink and I was on the floor of the Mad Queen’s castle. I sat up, realizing my hands were in a pile of blood. Yet this time, I wasn’t dressed in my nightshirt. No, this time, I was dressed in my leathers. Heart Piercer near me.

Finnleah , Daughter of the Dead , her cold voice called me. An icy chill ran down my skin. Death. She was here.

I gasped a moment later. Feeling a painful zing across my cheek.

“What the actual fuck?” Priya hissed, letting go of the collar of my shirt as she shoved me back into the chair. She took a step back herself. I had never seen Priya frazzled before, but if I had, I imagined it would be similar to the look she had on her face now.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I grumbled, rubbing my cheek. My muscles were so stiff. I scanned the room, only then did my brain register the broken and scattered stuff around us. “What happened?” I asked, trying to make sense of what I had seen, what I had heard, what I now saw.

“That’s a question for you, Freckles.” Her eyes pierced me through as she scanned me up and down. “Stuff went floating up the air like it was weightless. What the hell were you doing?”

I rubbed the sides of my head. The taste of dread and decay was still fresh on my tongue.

“I am a Destroyer, but I also have minor Seer powers. Thus, the visions . . . ” I answered, hoping this would be enough. For her. And for me. Because I couldn’t quite deal with that persistent alarming thought in the back of my mind, buried, hidden and disregarded by me. And yet it still lingered there, insisting on existing, on reminding me, that something changed when I had died.

I’d deal with it later.

Today, I had to find Gideon, and today I’d find the Queen.

I looked at the map, the drop of my blood hadn’t moved. I scratched my chin.

“Most Seers can find things that are lost. In my case, I am trying to find my lost husband. We find him, we find the Queen,” I explained.

Priya’s eyes stayed on me, lips turned into thin lines, but she stayed quiet, not questioning further. I was grateful for that. As I closed my eyes, my heart beat faster, worry itching under my skin, but I slipped into the trance once again.

“What’s lost can be found when you are love bound,” I uttered a terrible rhyme.

“What are you, a poet now too?” Priya snarked near me. Her annoyed voice grounded me, helping me hold on to the weak thread that connected me to reality. “Let’s hope your Seer capabilities are better than your rhyming ones.”

“They actually overlap.” I let out a long huff, opening my eyes a moment later.

“Middle of the sea, huh? You sure your Seer magic compass is working right?” Priya tilted her head, checking the map, a bit cynical, as the drop of my blood hovered not on the islands, nor the land, but in the middle of the ocean.

“Yes, I am sure. Her castle is on a lonely cliff in the middle of the waters. I have been there before.”

Priya folded her arms, looking skeptically at the map. I did the same.

A single dot.

Gideon. He was there. I was sure of it. I had to be sure. Doubt was a weakness I could not afford.

“It’s not too late to change your mind, Priya. This is not going to be a simple journey,” I mumbled, returning my weighted look to her.

“Where was all that reason when you were getting married to a fucking Destroyer?” Priya scoffed. But she wouldn’t back down. I knew that. “Let’s just hope you don’t get sea sick, because if I have to deal with you puking your guts all day again, I swear to all the gods alive, Freckles, I will without a doubt murder you.”

“Actually, I have a better idea in mind.” I smirked. “How do you feel about heights?”

“Absolutely fucking not,” Priya uttered. “You have lost your godsdamned mind if you think I’ll ride that vile looking creature.” She glared at the dragonflies, their glass-like wings reflecting the disappearing stars far above us.

“We can’t take a carriage to the sea, Priya. It will take a lot longer for us to get there,” I reasoned, securing the last few daggers on to my belt.

“Dragonflies are not even considered long-living as typical insects,” Priya argued. “They can drop dread anytime mid-flight. And I ain’t saving you this time, Freckles.” She stared at them warily. “These creatures do not have a single intelligent thought. I am not planning on getting squished like a bug across the land when it crashes.” Priya placed her hands on her hips.

“Finn?” Zora called out, and I winced. When I told her I intended to find and free Gideon, I didn’t quite tell her it meant I’d leave today. Nor did I tell her I still didn’t have the answer on how to kill the Queen.

Her small figure appeared from the shadows near the row of smoldering torches.

“Get into the saddle, Priya, or stay behind,” I told Priya off. She opened her mouth to say something vile, but I turned to meet Zora.

“If this creature drops me, I will fry every single Destroyer’s brain,” Priya shouted in my wake.

“It’ll be hard to do that if your own brain is mashed against the earth when the creature drops you,” I shouted back, not granting a look at Priya as she swore a few more times.

“Sneaking out in the middle of the night? How very on par for you.” Zora met me, pausing far away from Priya’s ears.

“Patience is not my strongest quality.” I gave her a strenuous smile. “Besides, why wait?” I tried to laugh, but the sound fell flat.

“You don’t know how to disable the shields, nor how to kill the Queen without killing the world,” she stated. It was not a question, but rather a statement. I didn’t reply. “I counseled Gideon and now I feel the need to bring some reason to you too.” She didn’t beat around the bush. Her tone direct and yet also kind.

“Stay. Get some rest. Help us win the war. Afterward we will spend every moment finding a solution. There is no point in both of you dying,” she offered, and I knew, logically, she was right. But a heart lost to love knew no reason. She recognized that, too. “I wish to never know the rage, the pure fury that must be boiling within you at the thought of him being gone. The pain that you must feel must have no bounds . . . But think on it for a moment, Finn.” Zora paused mid breath. “Even if we’d never find a solution or answer, time is on our side. The Queen is old. She didn’t get immortality. She’ll still die in a few years. It might not be next year, lest Gideon helps, but soon enough time will pass and even the worst of the monsters will wither away. And he will be free. So stay, your people need you, Finn.”

Zora’s words were true, but I didn’t reply. Her eyes darted between mine. She saw the somber truth within.

I knew the risks, and I knew my chances, and I had made the reckless choice despite it all. The gods themselves could’ve appeared in front of me at this very moment and even they wouldn’t have the power to persuade me to not go after him.

“I’ve already lost him. Don’t make me lose you too, Finn,” Zora whispered, swallowing hard. My heart ached for Zora. Gideon was my husband, but he was her family, too.

A sad smile stretched on my lips, and I fought the lump in my throat at the realization that this was goodbye. Zora knew that too.

“Free my people, Commander,” I uttered, hugging her. She awkwardly squeezed me back, her brows furrowed, and lips turned downward in a thin line.

“Bring him home safe,” she murmured, a command to me. Zora straightened, masking her anxious heart with a menacing expression.

I adjusted the collar of my armored leathers and strode back into the night leaving Zora behind.