Page 58 of A Rising Hope

She marched towards the edge of the cliff. The rage spilling from her was palpable. Her copper eyes pierced the largest eyeless creature of them all.

“Tell the Mad Queen she picked a fight with the wrong bitch!” Priya roared against the winds. A blink and the creature bellowed. Its gigantic body swayed, plummeting from the sky straight into the waters below. The cliffs crumbled, and the ocean boomed, engulfing the creature’s body.

Every single creature that was around us swarmed with only one goal—kill Priya. The sound of their wings was muffled by their loud screeching as they all dove towards us from the sky.

My fiery dragon rushed to protect us.

“Priya!” I warned as my shields heated at the clouds of the creatures trying to force their way through. “Priya . . . ” I murmured under my breath, while I cut and slashed everything my dagger could reach. Priya stood still, only a few steps away from me. I sliced the throat of the small creature pushing towards the shield, before twisting back on my feet to Priya.

My stomach knotted, and my heart froze mid beat.

“Fuck!” I snarled. Priya stood motionless, a little trickle of blood ran down from her nose and ears. The crimson prominent against the black tar-like blood smudged across her face. “What happened to you not dying today?” I dropped my daggers just in time to catch her as her body swayed. “Fuck. Shit. Fuck!” I roared. The creatures clawed at my shield, piling on top of it. Their black oozing saliva seeped through the almost invisible membrane of heat keeping us alive.

I pulled her eyelids open, but her eyes were rolled far back; I shook her shoulders. Panic suffocated me from within. Thoughts jumbled. She was breathing, but just barely. Her skin paled.

“For the love of all that’s holy, wake up.” I begged, not letting go of her body. “Wake up, Priya, I am fucking begging you,” I cried out, no longer caring about the creatures above me, as I held her unresponsive body tight. “If you fucking die, then I die and then the Mad Queen will live forever. She wins. Think on that. You lose. You hate losing. All your plans ruined and you hate when your plans are ruined. And . . . and . . . your snobby neighbors will be so excited to get someone else to live in your house . . . and Ratika will have to go work in some grimy kitchen for someone else. So wake up, Priya, right fucking now!” I barked, slapping her across the cheek, but she didn’t move.

The first creature made it past the barrier, pushing through the layers of the burning creatures. I sent a fiery spear through its body. Another one made its way through. Another spear. And another. The bodies of the dead creatures crowded us. Their gnarly features inched closer and closer, as my shield shrunk until it was mere inches away from squashing us under their weight.

Devastation—an endless pit—swirled within me, like a whirlpool, yanking all my thoughts away when Death appeared. Though I didn’t see her, I could feel her here, lingering, watching. Ready to drag my soul to whatever hell I had deserved.

My cheeks flushed. The heat from my shields itching at my skin.

I closed my eyes for a moment. At first, ready to face the truth of our defeat. And yet, as the calm darkness soothed me, I let rage take over. I might have lost, but I would never fucking surrender.

I dove deep into the pool of my fire. The previously endless oceans of raw fire had turned into streams and swamps. I knew there was one way to end this.

I’d burn and so would all the creatures around me as I let the flames take hold of me, using me to source enough fire to explode like a bursting star. Tears didn’t roll down my cheeks, my hands didn’t tremble. I took a steadying deep breath. My lungs expanded with as much air as they could contain.

“Burn in fucking hell.” I opened my eyes, ready to explode.

“Already fucking there.” Priya’s voice, like a cold bucket of water, yanked me out of the scorching wave of fire that was ready to destroy me. With a wicked and bloody smile on her lips, she raised her hand up in the air. “Too bad your boyfriend can’t do this.” She snapped her fingers. And the creatures fell.

Every. Single one of them.

Thousands upon thousands. All of them at once. Like hail in a horrifying storm, they dropped to the ground. Their heavy bodies quaked the earth on impact. I clenched my teeth, holding the shield steady and strong enough to protect us from the claws and bones raining on us.

She had killed them all. Mapped their minds one by one with her powers until she’d reached them all, turning their minds into a liquid mush. Not a single one lived. Not a single one even so much as flinched as she destroyed them.

“For the record, Freckles, I am never, ever, fucking flying again,” she mumbled, slurring her speech, as her eyes rolled, and hands dropped from her sides to the ground.

“Shit, shit, shit . . . ” I feverishly checked all her pockets, praying she had hidden any bits of candy or sugar in her leathers. I found a small caramel, swearing all kinds of profanities as it slipped out of my blackened fingers covered in the creatures’ blood. “Here.” My hands trembled as I fought with the most stubborn wrapper. My heart raced against my chest as Ivictoriously shoved the sticky candy inside her mouth. I propped her body against mine, sitting her up as I forced her jaw to move. My mind loudly counted seconds.

A few seconds passed, Priya choked, coughing, spitting the bits of candy out. She blinked away sharply, just to give me a threatening look.

“I fucking saved us, and now you are trying to kill me? With candy?” Priya hissed, her voice no more than an angry whisper, lacking its usual bite and energy, as her paled head rested against my chest. I wrapped my arms tight around her, holding her up.

We surveyed the piles of leathery forms like black boulders surrounding us for miles. All of them were dead.

“I told you I’d always save your droopy ass, Freckles. No man needed.”

Yes, many things had changed between us. And yet that truth hadn’t.

It never would.

A loud echo of horns sounded through the islands, one by one signaling their survival. And I realized I had never heard a more beautiful sound. Tears of relief flooded me, and I let myself cry.

“Gods, I’d rather have you throw up than cry,” Priya grumbled, as my chest trembled, full of unleashed sobs.

---