[The Tempest trilogy: Book 2] After the incident in Ostrava's Neoclash arena, Zoya faces dangerous challenges. Nightingale's uprising threatens to destroy the whole Europe, the racist Yeomen movement steps up their campaing against Castaways and Rya...
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My sleep is rather restless this night. My dreams are full of the Yeomen trio who wanted to hurt me in Prague. The place on my head where the icy snowball landed still hurts. I wanted to talk about it with Ryan, but he decided to spend rest of the day alone. I already got used to it.
I also keep seeing the taxi driver. Not for Castaways.
Dammit, what did I do to them? They just can't be explained that not every Castaway is a member of Nightingale's army. The people hate us and there's nothing I can do about it. I try to endure the judging gazes and hateful remarks wherever I go, but I'm just too sensitive to ignore it completely.
A few tears drench the pillow under my head. Finally, I can vent my emotions without anyone knowing. I'm not used to being hated, the less for something I didn't even do. However, generalization is the easiest thing to do. It's simpler to just hate all members of a community which caused you harm - it doesn't involve too much thinking and it helps with fitting in into a mass.
Caring about the feelings of the people they hate? Once again, it involves too much thinking.
I look at the digital clock by my bed. 02:16. If I don't fall asleep within an hour, I can just as well get up and do something useful. However, I'm plagued by mild, persistent headache, probably caused by the icy snowball. I don't feel like doing anything.
Finally, my eyes start to get heavy. Maybe I'll get a sleep until morning after all.
But then, I sit on the bed and scream - it was a sound of shattering glass which woke me up. I want to make sure it wasn't just a dream, so I keep listening. No. I hear noise in the neighboring room.
Someone's inside.
A second later, I hear AVIA's voice repeating the same sentences over and over again: "A burglary has been noticed. The police will appear shortly." It doesn't seem to discourage the intruders, though. It seems that everything is in my hands again.
Wearing only my pyjamas, I jump out of the bed and burst into the living room. Several shadows are scavenging the darkened room - there are more of them than I expected, five at least. "Hey! Stop what you're doing right now and leave!" I shout.
The shadows pause and some of them look at me. Castaways. Nightingale's rogue Champions.
"Look, it's Tempest," one of them cackles.
"Let's stick to the plan," another voice, female, replies with bigger seriousness. "Take care of her. We will go for the objective. Do it!"
"AVIA, turn on the lights!" I shout. The light strips on the ceiling activate, revealing what has been hidden. There are three Castaways standing against me, two males and one female. I recognize one of the men and the woman - I've fought them in tournaments. The third one is in the early stages of Flicker.
I look at the woman who ordered them to attack me. The sight of long, orange hair is enough to tell it's Julia, Chairman Havel's faithful employee. She disappears deeper into the house. I go after her, but the flickering thug blocks my way. "Where do you think you're going, Little White?"
