Page 60 of A Rising Hope (The Freckled Fate #3)

60

ZORA

I leaned my head against the dirt wall. My arms wrapped around my bent knees; my body shivered from the frigid air in the cellar. I stayed quiet, not uttering a word.

Tori, Cori, Ashe, and Motra piled in on the other side of the door.

“We need you, Zora,” Tori’s voice shook. “Gia is gone, we can’t lose you too.” She swallowed. And though I couldn’t see her, I heard her sister comforting her nearby.

“Orest is summoning whatever is left of the armies to head west towards the Dniar River on the morrow. If we take Svitar, we can still win the war.” Ashe’s voice was dull, the usual playful spark turned dark. “Yanush and Ioanna are staying behind with Cass and Lulu, with a small battalion of the wounded. In a few days, we are arranging transportation north.”

“Cass lost both of her legs, Zora,” Tori mumbled. “And Ioanna lost her eye. And Lulu’s arms are shattered, we are not sure she’ll ever be able to use her hands again. And Broderick hasn’t spoken a word since he learned of Gia’s death.”

“Snap out of it, Zora,” Ashe urged. “Orest is?—”

“I don’t want to hear anything about him,” I scowled.

“You’ve rotted in this hole for four days now, Zora,” Motra started warily.

“Orest sent a note to Xentar, but we have yet to hear from him either,” Tori quietly added.

“You have to fight it. If not for yourself, then for us,” Motra pleaded.

“Everyone knows we don’t have Justice Wielders anymore. Every Destroyer is now making a claim to the throne. The Ten are broken. The world is literally falling apart right now, Zora, while you’re rotting here,” Tori’s voice shook, she sniffled the tears away.

“I don’t know how you are going to fix this, but fucking fix it,” Ashe retorted.

But I stayed silent, not replying to them, ignoring their pleas as I drowned in the void within.

“We leave tomorrow,” Ashe said. “And you’ll be left behind.”

“I do not care,” I scolded, even as tears rolled down my cheeks, each drop scolding me like acid against my skin.

“Goodbye Zora,” Motra whispered as their steps echoed through the rock.

The dugout cellar that I was locked in felt even smaller now. But I deserved it.

I only hoped it’d cave in on me, burying me alive.