Page 36 of A Simple Truth (the Freckled Fate #2)

35

FINNLEAH

“ H ello, Cursed One…” A terribly scratchy voice called out, far too close to my ears.

“I prefer Promised One, nowadays.” The General’s calm voice sounded next. I sharply opened my eyes, only to see a giant, serpent-like creature rising high above us. But it wasn’t a snake—the creature resembled a centipede, with a multitude of long legs all down its insect-like body. My scream caught in my lungs, as terror cut to my bones.

My body was here and yet, it wasn’t. My mind and soul felt like they were stuck, as if outside of my form. Gideon turned to me a second later.

Are you okay? he asked silently with his eyes.

Are you? My eyes asked back.

I need an actual answer, Finnleah.

Yes. I gave him inconspicuous nod.

Good. Fire?

No, I shook my head, attempting to control the boiling panic. Because not only did it feel like the blood in my body was being churned, I also couldn’t feel even a spark of the previously raging ocean of fire.

Gideon didn’t say anything else to me, as he turned back to the creature.

“Well then, hello, Promised One.” The creature tilted his head, curiously observing us with his black, bulging eyes. My ears felt like they were being brutally cut by the nonstop screeching coming out of his mouth, which was layered with rows of rotting pointy teeth.

“Hello, Soul Eater,” Gideon replied, suddenly sitting on a wicker chair that had appeared out of nowhere. He casually rested his arms on the armrest not even remotely bothered by the obscure situation we were in. I glanced around the dirt room, the large, black roots of what I assumed was a huge tree, intertwined above us, creating somewhat of a ceiling and walls and, apparently, our chairs too, as I lowered my eyes down to where I was now sitting.

“Not afraid to lose your soul, General?” the creature inquisitively asked. And gods, that shrieking. I was going to turn blind and deaf at the sound.

“Hard to lose something that’s been gone for so long. Though, I must say, if you do find it, please let me know,” the General casually replied, even managing to lift a corner of his mouth in an arrogant smirk. But his words somehow felt so raw and honest, making my heart ache at that truth.

“And for the Dreamcatcher here? Not afraid to lose hers?” This time it was the creature who smirked with his creepy mouth. Yet, Gideon sat entirely unbothered, eyeing the Soul Eater without a note of concern, as if reminding the creature that he was in the presence of the Lord of Death himself.

“You take souls for answers, and it seems I’m the only one asking questions,” the General replied, his body relaxed, not a breath or even a blink out of order. The Soul Eater didn’t like his answer, but he obediently nodded.

“Then ask away, Cursed One,” he screeched once more, lowering the centipede-like figure until his head was finally at the same level as ours.

“We know the stone is lost. How do we destroy Insanaria?” Gideon didn’t beat around the bush, asking the one question we needed the answer to.

“What you know of is very little, Lord of Death, because the stone is destroyed, not lost. And perhaps the question you should be asking is not how to destroy Insanaria, but how to win the war you’ve been waging,” the creature replied.

“No. You and I are both aware that I already know how to win the war,” the General countered, stretching out his legs and crossing his ankles. The creature’s countless legs twitched at the movement, and I carefully observed it as the Soul Eater retreated further in the shadows. “But I have no interest in being the only one left standing.”

“That darkness within you truly has no end, does it?” Their eyes locked on each other.

“What some might call a weakness, I see it as no restraint.” The General motioned with his hand in the air with a carless gesture, but I could swear his eyes darkened with a warning to the creature, marking a line in the sand.

In that moment, it dawned on me that perhaps I was wrong about who was the scarier being here, because even the Soul Eater nodded in submission to him.

“To answer your question, General, you don’t need anything that you don’t already have,” he spoke. “And as far as how , each war has a price, so the true question is what are you willing to pay?” The creature skittishly glanced over in my direction. Now, there was no doubt that the entire whites of the General’s eyes darkened as if filled with blood, blending with his irises at the sight. The creature shrieked loudly but turned his eyes away from me.

“I’ve come to the point in my life where I no longer like to bargain,” the General said.

“Then it seems that you are the one with the answer, General,” the Soul Eater screeched.

I don’t think I took a single breath the entire time they spoke, warily watching each one of them.

I felt the pull then, my consciousness blurred, and shadows crept up in my mind.

“When you see her , Dreamcatcher, come find me,” the creature whispered only for me to hear, just before the darkness swallowed me whole.

See who? I wanted to ask, but couldn’t, as I opened my eyes a second later, welcomed by the dark sky, sparkling with stars and the familiar humidity of the elven jungle. The General was on his feet by my side. Though his hand was stretched out to help me up, his eyes weren’t on me.

His lip curled in annoyance as he stared at a garrison of armored Elves, fully surrounding us.