A Princess for the Witch Doctor (Legends of Rahasia Book 3)

Chapter Seventy-Nine

The potions and salves the healers provided for me were life-savers.

They also put you to sleep faster than warm milk did for children.

But my dreams weren't peaceful.

They rarely ever were these days.

***

One moment, I was in Zahra's arms, both of us laughing as we sparred in the training yards, her helping me up from where I'd fallen on the earth. The next, I was tossed to the sultan's embrace, lost in the moonlight of his garden.

And finally, I'm dancing with Rangda. I try to break away from her grip, but her fingernails only tighten, digging into my skin. I scream and bite and kick at her, but her flesh is rotten. Aside from her bones clashing against mine, she couldn't be in pain.

A demon indeed.

"You're afraid." I snarl, fighting the only way I can against her. Trying to hurt her that way. To weaken her mentally. "You're afraid of time."

She laughs, but I don't give up. I let her dig her claws into me. I let her watch me bleed. I hold my chin up higher and screech. "You're afraid as all of us are. You're afraid of ingatan,of memory. Your greatest fear is that nobody will fear you."

She stops laughing, snarling and lashing and her tendrils of hair flick against my face like whips. They bite into my skin. I scream in pain, but still, I speak.

"You find worship in their fear. You find worship in their sacrifices to you, giving their souls so you can give them golden trinkets, precious coins. You revel in their blood. You bathe in their terror." It's my turn to laugh now, no matter how much she attacks me. No matter that her flesh sags off her bones. No matter how many nightmares or horrors she flings at me.

I was given gifts by the gods.

And now, I don't need them to be stronger.

I'm strong enough.

"You're afraid of being forgotten!" I scream. "And you will be once I'm through with you. I'm stealing him away. His soul is mine."

She lifts a knife and presses it against my neck.

"Then die." She hisses. "So you'll be forgotten too."

***

In the dream, I die.

But when I awake...

I've never felt more alive.

***

Readers,

So, what do you think of Rangda's greatest fear?

-Sophia