Page 71 of A Rising Hope

I didn’t look to see if he got up, didn’t check if he lived. He was just one of the many, wounded, living and dead.

“Push forward!” Gia boomed near me.

“Keep moving forward!” I followed her. “The tree line. Push!” One by one, soldiers moved, coming together into a lineas they fought for each step, each yard costing more life as we progressed towards the trees, approaching them closer and closer.

“Archers! Incoming!” Gia hollered. “Shields up!” The bleak heat shields went up and whoever couldn’t summon the heat shields raised metal ones. “Charge,” Gia commanded near me. “Shields up!” she shouted as another wave of arrows rained closer. We pushed towards the trees.

My eyes stayed on the tree line ahead, searching, looking for the one person I knew stood there.

I knew he was there.

He’d come to observe.

He’d be here to assess Gideon’s armies in the battle.

His armies weren’t here. But he would be.

I searched, scanning the riders on the white war horses near the familiar banners until I found the matching set of eyes to mine.

Father.

He met my hateful glare with his own. Always disappointed, always with that poisonous disdain on his face. He shook his head just so slightly, and I snarled, yanking the chains from the wings of a creature.

“Shields up!” Gia commanded as we held the line.

When I returned, he was gone. The white feathers of his helm flickering in between the trees as he rode away.

He left. I knew he did not care whether I, his only child, lived or died. I knew that. And yet, after so many years, I wished that the truth wouldn’t pierce my beating heart. I wished I could shrug it off and not care. But now, even after all these years, my soul ached and the wounds he left open bled.

In a way, I had already been dead to him for so many years. This was just a final confirmation.

When he wished for so long for my existence to never be, it was of no difference to him whether I lived or died now. Perhaps even a relieving validation.

“Fight!” I roared at the fumbling soldier near me. “Get up and fight! They are sending arrows because they know we are coming for their souls next. These creatures are passing us! Look!” I jerked his head up. The closer we moved to the tree line, the more creatures ignored us, flying towards the carnage beyond to feast on the bodies of the fallen. “They will die. We will fight through this!” I shouted to the soldiers.

I pushed to the very front. The first one to lead the armies.

The first one to reach those trees and begin killing them all.

Soon. The clash of metal would soon replace the claws and teeth and wings. And the rage, the anger I carried, would be worse than any death they’d face.

There wasn’t a single muscle in my body that wasn’t screaming at me in protest as I lassoed my blades again and again. I held my glare on the enemy’s soldiers rallying, readying to fight us.

“CHARGE!” I shouted the moment we were out of the archers’ reach. We ran. Blades, swords, teeth and nails, we’d fight with everything we had. “Die bastards! Die!” My knives found their first victim, then another.

“Killing them with kindness, are we?” Gia smirked near me as her own sword twisted, striking with killer precision. Her encouraging smile stoked the ember of hope that was dying within me.

I smirked back.

“Always!”

“Good, let’s teach them some manners.” She let out a wicked laugh, and we dove into the clash of metal and fire.

And I hoped. I prayed. I truly begged that we would last long enough for the rest of our armies to make it to the forestthreshold before the enemy spears and swords would find our hearts.

48

FINNLEAH

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