Page 19 of A Simple Truth (the Freckled Fate #2)

18

GIDEON

I ran through the embers of what was previously an overgrown forest, my heart pounding hard against my chest.

“Where is she?” I seethed, pushing through the lines of exhausted Creators and Destroyers.

“Oh, thank the fucking gods! Took you long enough!” Zora shouted, calling me to her. The Ten were encircling the giant, burning sphere. Their heat shields were raised at full strength as they pushed against the raw fire, yet, step by step, they were losing ground as the flames devoured their surroundings.

I crossed the small ravine, the only indication of the previously wild river, flinching as I passed the threshold into Finn’s fiery cocoon. A copper inferno slithered down to my bones curiously peeking at my own powers holding it at bay.

“Finn?” I shouted through the blazing heat.

Fuck.

There laid her body, convulsing amidst the flames. She was unconscious, her mind burning up.

Unresponsive.

Fuck!

I ripped off my cape with one swift motion, wrapping her bare body, her skin now covered in a million blood-filled blisters.

I extinguished the flames with a single blink. The exhausted Ten dropped to the ground, catching their feverish breaths. But I was already marching down to the trail back to camp, carrying Finn’s limp body in my arms.

“How long?” I asked Zora, who was trailing me.

“Two days, Gideon. Two fucking days!”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah. We called for you the moment we saw her. We tried everything. Everything. Her shields wouldn’t let anything through. Meanwhile, the fire wouldn’t stop coming out either. And…we’ve been rotating, non-stop; Creators have been helping and…and…I... I tried to find the Basalt Glass…but it wasn’t there, and she completely fucking evaporated the damn river and…and...” Zora was crumbling behind me.

“I got it from here, Zora. Get your unit some rest.” My voice conveyed nothing but calmness and control while my mind was flooded with flustering anger.

My tent was untouched, as if I had never left almost a month ago. I placed her down on my cot, adjusting her body to the side as the shaking subsided into shivers. My black cape draped around her lifeless body stood out against her burnt skin.

Gone were the playful freckles, replaced by blisters and blood.

A string of profanities swamped my mind as I lowered my ear to her chest, anxiously listening to the faint, barely distinguishable beat.

Thud... Thud…Thud…

Thud. Thud. Thud. This time it was a bit stronger.

A shiver went down my back. She was still there, fighting.

“Come on, little wildfire,” I whispered, collapsing to the ground next to her, not allowing myself to remove my heavy armor, not having any strength to do anything other than just sit there and wait. Wait, to see if her body would make it through the burn out. If her mind would recover from the complete shattering and come, unharmed, back to me.

I warily traced circles on her hand. The skin would heal, I knew that. Yet, it wasn’t the painful blisters, but the knowledge of the internal pain that she was living through right now, that made my heart shudder. There wasn’t a way to pull her out of it now. The only person who could bring her back was her.

All I had left was hope.

But fuck that, too.

I didn’t hope for things. I just did them.

There was never a maybe or a perhaps for things that I put my mind to.

At least, not until now. Not until today.

Now, everything was left at the hands of hope.

Fuck …fuck.

A small groan escaped my mouth as I leaned against the nightstand by my bed, resting my heavy head. My eyes remained, watching over her like a hawk, counting each second between breaths, unwilling to even blink.

“How is she?” Xentar walked in, bringing me a plate of food. It must have been dinner time. A few hours had to have gone by since my arrival. But I didn’t pay attention to anything but the seconds between her exhale and inhale.

I shook my head, not feeling even the slightest inclination to eat. A slimy feeling gripped my stomach, courtesy of the pointless thoughts swarming in my head. Xentar empathetically set the plate on the table, taking a seat on a small couch not too far away from me.

“She is alive,” I said out loud, more for my own benefit than anything.

“That’s a good sign, right?” Xentar said, as he took a bite of his own food.

“Yep,” I dryly replied, rubbing my sore jaw in frustration.

“You need to rest, you know that,” Xentar added after taking a long look at me. “How long have you been up?”

“I don’t know. Three days, maybe?” I replied, aware of the pure exhaustion clouding my mind. “I left the moment Liriya brought the letter.”

‘ Left… ’ More like abandoned my armies, my men, my post. And a part of me, the soldier part of me, should’ve probably given more consideration to that. But the moment I had read the letter, I simply no longer cared what that soldier part of me valued.

“How did the generals take that?” Xentar stretched out his legs, crossing his ankles.

“They didn’t. Orest took the battalion right after I left at midnight, so it looked like we all left at the same time.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good move,” Xentar continued as he finished his dinner.

“Probably.” I folded my arms, adjusting just a bit as my heavy armor clunked against itself.

Zora walked in, also carrying a second plate in her hands.

“Oh. Good. We seemed to share the same thought.” She chuckled while putting the plate she grabbed for me down next to the plate from Xentar.

“Refusing to eat?” She asked Xentar, folding her legs in a lotus position on the small, cushioned sofa across from my desk.

Xentar nodded, adding. “Or sleep.”

“Gideon…” Zora started, “There is nothing you can do at this point to help her.”

“Do you think I enjoy a reminder of that, Zorianna?” I hissed, sending her a glare from underneath my brows. She moved on, pointedly ignoring my heated tone.

“How did the meeting go?” Zora asked, changing the subject.

“Lachlan will join.” I rolled my head back, closing my eyes.

“Well, that’s good news, Gideon,” Zora supposed, but before she could ask more questions, I opened my eyes, giving Xentar a heavy look.

“How many?” I didn’t have to finish the rest of the sentence, as Xentar answered,

“Less than a hundred...”

I pinched the narrow of my nose, somehow suddenly aware of how dry my mouth had become.

“We tried to get more, Gid. But they didn’t believe their whole town was going to be burned to embers in just a few hours, and we couldn’t do anything to prove it either without them sounding the alarm and compromising you. We could only take those who agreed to come willingly.”

My chest felt heavy as if the air within it had turned to lead.

Less than a hundred…

I knew we were short on time when I sent the message. I knew we couldn’t save them all. And yet, that number still stung painfully.

That was the thing about destruction that I had to learn quickly. It took years to build something that you could ruin within seconds.

“Most of them were mothers that believed us and left with their kids, a few elderly too. They are all in recovery right now with the De Villiars,” Xentar reported.

Perhaps it was dehydration, perhaps it was the lack of food, or sheer devastation for the lives forever lost, but I had found myself with a sudden throbbing headache.

“Is Orest on his way?” Zora asked nonchalantly, stealing a roll off my plate.

“Yes, he is taking a shortcut through Kinderby River, straight through Svitar, so he will be back in a few days,” I replied, and Zora nodded in appreciation.

We sat in complete silence as late dusk settled into the comforting darkness. None of us cared enough to light the lamps, the minutes weaving into hours. My body went numb under the weight of my heavy armor as I sat unmoving, still counting the seconds between her breaths.

After a while, Xentar nudged Zora, who was dozing off on the side of the couch.

“We are going to head out.” He patted me on the shoulder. “Get some sleep, brother.”

“She will make it, Gideon,” Zora softly reassured. “Gods, she might be more stubborn than you are. And that's saying something.” My cousin smiled gently before linking arms with Xentar and walking into the night.

“Zora, Xentar. Thank you,” I offered as they said their goodbyes.

I fought the darkness as it laid thick on my eyes, drawing me toward sleep. Each blink grew heavier than the next, pushing me until I fell into the black abyss of nothingness.

“You are back...” A soft whisper sounded just a few inches away from my face, sending lightning through my body, pulling me abruptly from my slumber. I turned sharply to the side as my eyes met hers, the greenish tint in them a bit murky, as if still shrouded in smoke.

“Missed me?” I smiled, not able to hide the huge relief that flooded my heart as I took another look at her.

“Not even in the slightest.” She shook her head too enthusiastically for my liking, but I couldn’t resist a soft smile.

She was okay.

“I didn’t stab anyone,” she mumbled deliriously. And it took me a minute to realize what she was referring to.

“Good girl,” I whispered, moving a few pieces of her hair away from her blistered face. Her eyes slowly closed as she mumbled a few other things I couldn’t comprehend. “Get some rest, Finn. You have a lot to recover from,” I said as she tried to sit up all of a sudden, my eyes shooting up to the ceiling as the covers slipped, exposing her striking, bare body. “Let’s keep you covered up for now, okay?” I swallowed tightly, pulling the blanket over her again. She was still mumbling gibberish and dread turned my soul inside out, at the thought that her mind was forever lost. But then, I saw the familiar glare of defiance she directed at me as I pulled the cover over her shoulder. A glare that eased my soul and body all at once.

She was going to be okay.

I adjusted the pillows and blankets for her and she finally nestled in.

“I can wield it,” she said with less than a whisper. “I can turn them all to ash now.” My brows rose in amusement as she added a “whoosh” sound before falling back asleep.

“I cannot wait, little wildfire,” I whispered to myself, listening to her steady breaths. After a while, I cautiously pulled one of the pillows from her side, laying it down on the ground. Even though the couch would’ve been more comfortable to sleep on, it was all the way across the room, and that, in the moment, felt too far of a distance to be away from her.