Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
But then, I realize what I’m actually looking at.
A road.
And not just any road.
A paved road with a blue SUV driving down the middle of it, exhaust rising from it and hanging in the air.
Oh. My. God.
“Tuoni,” I say slowly, watching as the car drives off into the distance. “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”
Chapter 8
Death
The Volvo
“Kansas?” I repeat absently, staring down at a kingdom that’s not mine. It sure looks the same in some ways: the tall pine trees, the thick snow. But the air has a different smell, not as pure, and the cold feels, well, cold. Even the faint sounds of birds and animals are muffled, as if they are hiding themselves from us, and no animal of the dead has ever hidden themselves from their king.
“I’d joke about you not getting a Wizard of Oz reference,” Hanna says breathlessly, her voice filled with awe, “but I don’t think we’d find it funny.”
I make a noise of agreement because for once, she’s right. Not about the Wizard of Oz—I’ve seen that film—but because there’s nothing funny about any of this, the fact that I am a stranger in a strange land, that I am watching a blue automobile drive along a road before disappearing around the corner of a hill.
I am in the Upper World.
We are in the Upper World.
A place I’ve always secretly yearned to go, a place that has fascinated me since I was a young lad. A place where I’ve sent my servants in my stead, and I’ve sat back in jealously as they recounted their tales of where they’d been and what they saw. A place I could only visit through the grainy screens of the movies I’ve played or in the fresh cups of roasted coffee.
I should be thrilled that I am finally here.
But instead, all I feel is fear.
Because I am no king here.
I am merely a god with no power, a god that this world has no idea they serve.
And it’s fucking cold.
“What do we do?” Hanna asks me, her body starting to shiver the same way mine is. “Do we try to find a way back in through the rocks? Maybe there’s another tunnel.”
I stare at her for a long moment; the wildness of her brown eyes, the furrow in her brow. “Curious,” I say. “How fucking curious.”
“What?” she asks, slightly aghast.
“You would rather turn around and try to find a door so you could take a tunnel straight back into the place you know as Hell instead of taking another step in the world you know as your own.”
She blinks at me as snow starts to fall from the sky, gathering in her hair and on her lashes. “How do we know this is my world? What if it’s another universe?”
“It’s your world, fairy girl. Only one in the universe looks like this.”
A knowing look comes over her face, and she rubs her lips together. “Okay, but we need to get back into Tuonela. We need to find another portal to the Underworld. Maybe not to Inmost, but we need to get back to stop Louhi. You know that if that world descends into chaos, this world does too.”
My Goddess. I don’t think she knows what she’s doing to me, hearing those words from her lips, her devotion to my kingdom, to me. It makes my heart do strange things, swelling and simmering in my chest, like it’s caught on fire, my ribs barely strong enough to contain it.
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” she asks, her eyes searching mine.
“At the moment, yes,” I tell her, taking her face in my hands. “Luckily, we’re a match made in Amaranthus.”
I kiss her deeply, her lips cold against mine. She shivers again, and while I can’t tell if it’s from the weather or my kiss, I know we need to figure out the next steps.
I pull away. “Since this is your world, I’m leaving you in charge. I was the king there. You are the queen here. I have no idea what to do or what to expect, other than what the movies have taught me. I guess our first mission would be to go to the road. I make a car stop, then we take the driver hostage with our swords and tell him to take us some place where we can buy warm clothes.”
Hanna eyes widen, and she breaks out into a laugh. “You want to take someone hostage? What movies have you been watching? If we do that, we’re going straight to jail. Then what?”
“Will they clothe and feed us in jail?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“I don’t see the issue. Solves one part of our problem.”
She shakes her head, looking incredulous. I don’t know why; it seems fairly sound to me. Eventually, I’d find a way out of jail, I’m sure of it. That one guy did it with a poster of Rita Hayworth on his wall.