Page 50 of A Rising Hope

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 thatpersistent 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. Ihadto 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 gettingmarriedto 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 meantI’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.

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