Page 28 of A Rising Hope

PRIYA

“Fucking hell,” I hissed amid the wailing crowds of people. “Does no one have a decent match in this town?” My voice was loud, but nobody listened. “City of fuckingLightand not a single flicker of actual light?!” The muscle in my jaw tensed, and I angrily chucked another useless pack of matches on the ground.

I shoved the wondering bodies out of my way, marching through the thick, misty darkness, forcing my eyes to distinguish between outlines and the murky shapes in this lightless world.

I wasn’t sure if it was day or night. No sun, moon, or stars appeared through the endless black fog.

Women, men, children and even animals had all gone insane.

A screaming man raced past me, and I shoved a dagger in his throat just to shut him up. My lip curled as his useless blood stained my blade.

Insane. Everyone was fucking insane.

The entire world seemed to have completely shattered in the dark. And It irked me so damn much. There was nothing working in the city anymore. The pastry shops looted, theFashion District was no different from the Svitar Slums, the piers and docks turned into a wet graveyard.

The sun died and apparently the entire world had lost its mind with it. Shadows like poison tortured all the citizens with their worst fears. Potent hallucinations blinded the little reason they might have possessed before.

I stopped in my tracks. A large man in front of me swung an axe, mumbling something intangible. He lunged for me. His boots splashed whatever fluid was on the street onto my shins. “Fuck you,” I hissed. A blink from me and I moved just in time before he thumped onto the ground, dead.

His mind’s worst fear was getting attacked? Getting killed? How pathetic.

No.

None of these people knew true fear. They were so easily destroyed by their minds playing terrible tricks. So useless. So weak. So despicable.

I let my Truth Telling powers scatter further ahead of me, piercing human minds like a precise needle. My powers painted a map across the darkness, their minds like stars lighting up in the dark sky at my touch, guiding me further through the fallen city towards the docks.

Soon, I strode along the wooden pier. Drowned, swollen bodies crashed into the long planks. The old, slippery wood creaking under my boots as I searched for a particular boat.

I shut my eyes for a moment. My powers, like hungry hounds, sniffed out the person I was looking for. A single probe, and I reached his thoughts—so gullible, so unprotected and frail.

My lip curled, and annoyance reached the very depth of my feeble patience, stirring up my heart for violence.

His mind was like a dry biscuit, crumbling with panic from a little darkness. Was he truly terrified of the creatures lurking in the shadows? Terrified from simplevisionsof his worstnightmares?Wretched.He deserved death simply for that. But I held in my rage, my nails scraping the hilt of my dagger as I walked aboard the small boat.

Take me to the Cursed Lands,I ordered in his mind, blocking out the nightmares so his simple head could function.

Who are you?the aged, mute captain thought. Shocked, surprised, appalled.

I didn’t care. Before he could think another useless thought, my blade was already pointed at his throat.

“The worst nightmare of all.”

19

FINNLEAH

“Who are you?” I asked sharply, jolting upright. My hands instinctively reached for my daggers, ignoring the screaming panic when they weren’t there.

“Whoa . . . slow down,” the man staggered at my movement. There was something familiar about him, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Where am I?” I snapped next, noticing the room. I was in a spacious old log cabin, a couple of small square windows covered with curtains let a dim light through. Long wooden shelves covered the majority of the walls. All of them cluttered with so many little bottles and boxes, disorganized and shoved between odd tools and packages.

I was sitting on a worn-out divan, a few patched up blankets on top of me.

Memories cluttered in my mind, bits and pieces like shattered glass, all mismatched and unclear.

A lightning-like sensation ran through my body, and my eyes opened wide as I moved my hands.

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