Page 18 of Hopeless Kingdom
“Where are we going?”
“We need to go to the Hopeless realm. We’ll be safe there.” Darrio’s voice is only a whisper but it carries in the cool wind.
“Safer, you mean,” Daxdyn adds from over my shoulder.
My stomach twists at the sound of his words.
What does he meansafer? As if the Hopeless realm has its own dangers I should be worried about.
Am I ready to go to the Hopeless realm? To change everything I’ve ever known about myself? What if I am the one the Traveler prophesied about? What if I am destined for greatness or destruction?
People know when they’re important, don’t they?
I’d know if I were anything more than just a thief …
“What about my sword?” I ask in a quiet tone.
Ryder glances back at me, his brows lowering over his pale eyes.
“We can’t get your sword, Kara. Tristan has it.”
Ryder pulls his attention away from me to look around the corner of the castle.
“It was her father’s,” Daxdyn adds and it warms me in a strange way that he remembered that.
“Well do you want your sword, or do you want your freedom?” Ryder asks as if I’m being childish.
My shoulders square and annoyance stings through me.
“I want both,” I say, anger tingeing my voice.
Ryder cocks a brow at me, but doesn’t reply.
My jaw clenches shut as I realize these people have taken the last little piece of my father that I had left. Tristan is prancing around this kingdom with a sword he isn’t good enough to hold.
Freedom. That’s what I crave. I’ll follow these fae. I’ll claim my power, whatever power that might be, in the Hopeless realm.
And then I’ll return for the sword my father left me as he died in these streets at the hands of a terrible queen.
Freedom and vengeance go hand in hand, after all.
Chapter Seven
The Eminence
Freedom isn’t at all what we find when we turn the corner.
A tower reaches up high into the gray sky. Brick after brick is stacked until it shadows over our small bodies.
“What the hell is that?” Ryder asks.
Darrio runs his hand along the foundation. “Looks like their way of controlling the borders.”
“They built a wall around the realm?” The line between Ryder’s brows is severe as he stares in disgust at the soot staining the tan brick.
On careful steps, we trail the perimeter of the circular building. It isn’t very large at all; the size of a room, maybe. But, once again, I’m very aware of the deep prints we’re leaving behind us.
A single door faces the castle and I begin to turn on my heels to look up at the grand but deteriorating castle. Little black flags flap in the wind and I can almost make out a faded white emblem in the center of them. There are posts set up at every corner, but no guards are in sight.
