Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“I was expecting us to be alone for this,” I say, watching a crowd of beasts file in. “Why such a big audience?”
“History is subjective, so in order to gain an accurate picture of key events, several will listen to your story. We will each make our own record.”
“Each guy is going to write down what I say?” It’s a damned history cult.
“They are not guys. They are scholars. And yes.”
I look around at all the furry wolf faces. It’s standing room only. This is more than a few.
He points to a spot on the floor at the center. “Please stand there and begin.”
I’m supposed to tell this room of naked men with wolf heads about the sex I just had with Gabrio and Bard? I feel sick to my stomach.
I sigh in surrender because, honestly, I’ve been through worse. “Sure. Why not?” Anything to save my world.
The painful process is over in an hour, including their Q and A at the very end. They really went into detail, too, wanting to know approximately how much blood I drank from Gabrio and how long his “ejaculatory efforts” lasted.
The only thing I kept thinking was that these are the weirdest, most perverted “scholars” I’ve ever met. I expect some serious detail when my turn comes to interview their oldest scholar who, according to the redhead, knows the most about the wall and the bridges.
As for my other two topics—the addresses and my fake pregnancy—the redhead tells me along the way that there are zero records of a Blood woman giving birth.
“It has never happened once in our history,” he says.
The pregnancy was only a red herring, but hearing that is still a relief. As for the speeches, there were only three rulers since the Proxy Vow. Alwar’s father, Alwar, and Benicio. He read off all three speeches for me, and guess what? No help at all. They basically said they would kill anyone who defies them. Coming here just for that was a complete waste of time, so let’s hope my other reason for being here isn’t.
“Here we are,” says the redhead. “Wait for the Wall Scholar. Do not touch anything.”
I nod and enter the small room with shelved walls stuffed with yellowing scrolls. There are two stuffed armchairs and a table with a candle in the middle.
I take a seat, and my mind drifts back to seeing Grandma Rain in the tunnel. What did my hallucination mean? Gabrio said the poison in the thorns makes you see your worst nightmare. I suppose her telling me that I was worthless qualifies as a nightmare.
As a child, I remember always worrying about her turning on me. She was quick to hate anyone who crossed her because she didn’t need them. She only needed her hate to survive. It wasn’t the same for me. She was the only family I had left. Bard was always just some adult in the background I didn’t know or pay attention to.
When I got older, that changed. For me. Not for him. He always did the honorable thing and ignored the fuck out of me—the needy girl who had so many holes in her heart she would do anything to fill them.
When I finally went away to college, I realized that my fascination with him wasn’t so abnormal. In an environment where I was deprived of TV, the internet, and a robust social life, Bard was the equivalent of my teen idol, the rockstar of my sexual fantasies.
I never really shook my feeling for him, but I think that’s normal too. I mean, my best friend since college, Sunnie, still has an obsession with Liam Hemsworth that started in high school. Sure, she eventually accepted they weren’t going to get married and run away to Spain, but the lust never really died.
Damn, I miss her. What she must be going through. I was supposed to go to her house last Christmas and never showed up.
I run my hands through my hair and whoosh out a breath. “God, what month is it anyway?”
“March, by your calendar.”
A naked man covered in tattoos like mine enters the room. Like the other masterbeasts here, he’s half wolflike creature on the top, human male on the bottom. He’s shaved most of his upper torso but left the long mane and the fur all over his snout.
“Hello, I am the Wall Scholar. How may I be of assistance, my queen?”
I’m surprised by his politeness. “Why do you have those symbols all over your body?”
“We have record takers and record keepers. I am a keeper.”
I point to my arm covered in black geometric symbols. “So I’m not the only one with these?”
“Before we had paper or hide to write on, the creatures with a fascination for learning had to be resourceful. We used our bodies.”