Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156945 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
A small scratch Gray must have made on his arm was a signal that Shadow’s safe time out of the body was running out.
He looked to the vault, then back at the wall where he’d come from. Was the Pigeon Heart even in the building?
Frustrated, he started signalling Gray back by tapping the coded letters.
NO PH I WILL FIND
As he rushed back into the ventilation shaft, trying to track the faint aroma of the jewel, Gray was already messaging him back in protest.
NO RISK, and then WHERE.
Shadow wouldn’t say it to anyone, but the fact that Gray valued him just as much as the future of his world made Shadow all warm inside.
He realized the air was artificially pumped through the ventilation system, so he left the pipes at the earliest chance. In the room he entered, dark green walls were decorated with animal skins and heads, but he was all alone, free to roam, and could finally make out the general direction of the ruby. It was definitely above him. When he left the interior through the slit under the door, he tapped to Gray, NORTH.
He was moving farther away from the gazebo and toward the other end of the elongated building, but if he didn’t take a risk now, their future might be gone. He would be back with his swarm, once again devoid of his own thoughts and feelings. Gray—consumed by Baal and lost forever along with their friends and all the other living beings of this world.
He would do this now. For Gray. If he couldn’t save himself, then at the very least he could ensure his lover’s continuous existence. And if going off-plan meant that he would permanently disconnect from his Earthly body, then so be it. The happiness he’d tasted in Gray’s embrace was more than some people got in a lifetime. As he climbed up a grand staircase, chasing the sweet scent of the gem, the edges of him felt tight, like skin that had been washed with bad soap, but then the sensation was gone, and he felt the presence of his body again, coming closer with every moment. Gray and Beast must have followed him along Lowe’s house.
THX, he tapped before moving with new vigor.
The scent of the Pigeon Heart was intense on the second floor, and he had to hold in a groan when six men with guns stampeded over him and down the corridor. Each foot dropping onto him was like a kick, but in this form, he had no bones to be broken, so he endured it in silence.
Somewhere outside the house, gunshots tore through the commotion, and a part of Shadow yelled for him to check on Gray, but he was too close to his goal to lose focus. He needed to trust Gray.
The world around him turned into a blur, but when he finally entered the place that smelled like roses and rubies, his entire being pulsed with excitement and relief.
Tracking the aroma farther, he climbed up a pink canopied bed, and to a small table next to it. Right by a lamp stood a small box, which pulsed with raw energy.
Shadow trembled with excitement, but when he lifted the lid, and it revealed a small figurine dancing to a slow melody, he was confused. The motion hypnotized him, the scent penetrated his senses so intensely it felt like he could survive for a hundred years on the ruby fumes alone, but then Gray started tapping again, and when Shadow recognized the code for NOW, he smashed the box against the wall.
The Pigeon Heart fell out of a secret compartment in the music box and rolled over the wooden floor, but Shadow’s current form couldn’t carry the gem outside. In need of hands, he rose in the shape he’d been predestined to take when out of the body, filling it with his essence.
And just as he was about to grab the jewel and follow the rest of the plan, something inside him told him to stay still. He should’ve been moving, and yet instead, he took his time marveling at the perfection of the treasure that could permanently block Baal and his swarm from entering this beautiful world. Only that same piece of glass-like rock could also offer him a lifetime with Gray.
There was no one here to stop him.
He could just take it. Make it take root deep inside his body and think about his own interest only.
But what kind of future would he and Gray have if in a few months’ time Baal expanded his domain and poured out of the Other Side? Shadow’s friends depended on him bringing the Pigeon Heart, and so did Gray.
Shadow shook his head, trying to cast off the hypnotizing power the ruby briefly had over him. He didn’t have to do anything this selfish. Mr. Magpie promised to reveal the location of a ruby that he’d staked no claim on. It would be all right. Shadow still had time.