Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
The maturity level of the group has digressed—we’ve decided that once you’ve been alive so long you simply no longer measure up to your old level of maturity, or at least that’s the excuse I keep getting.
Once they’re gone, the barstools are all empty except for one. He sits there in his cop uniform staring straight into his glass of whiskey like he does every day, like he always has since he failed his trials. This is his only safe space; he lashes out often but he’s harmless. Sometimes I wish he knew that those who are most broken the have greatest power. I take a deep breath and stare back at Cleo. “All right, let’s get you settled and then we can start your training. It won’t be difficult to pick up considering your previous experience.”
“Um, yeah.” Her smile seems forced, she grabs her rolling suitcase and pulls it out of the way, but one wheel catches on a floor board and snags, tripping her.
I grip her shoulders to steady her. My fingers burn with the need to immediately incinerate her. It would be so easy, almost effortless to end her life. But she surprises me by looking up directly into my eyes and smiles. “Sorry.”
So trusting.
And I’m still holding her. I drop my hands and clench them by my sides. Normally, fear leaves a bitter flavor in the air—but her truth smells like sweetness and purity, like something you want to inhale and taste. I don’t jerk back, but I want to. Everything that was normal about her is suddenly blanketed in light—blanketed in my sun, my entire body begs to see that smile again.
That’s what Chaos does, though; it confuses even the strongest of gods. Well done, Chaos. This final chess piece of her life and I won’t be distracted.
Besides, desire for a human, especially one like her, is a line even I do not cross. Ever.
The minute she finds out the truth she’ll open those pretty little eyes after a deep sleep and realize that the nightmare is her reality—reality will always be more terrifying than even your most evil dreams. I used to wonder why people couldn’t grasp concept—that when you’re sleeping, you’re safe.
When you’re awake?
Chaos thrives.
Apep chooses that perfectly calculated moment to walk by my door. I can smell him before I can see him. He’s like a damp spring night with a slight chill in the air, where he walks goosebumps of trepidation follow.
I loathe him, but we’re connected and right now I can’t kill him, so I tolerate him as much as I can and when the time comes, I’ll pick up my spear and strike.
It’s what we always did, until now. At least while he’s stuck here for an eternity, I get to give him his final resting place and leave. I think I’ll wear white to his funeral.
Everything he does has a purpose—to irritate, to demand, to make me crack, and push me past my realm of control only to bring me back again. He wants me trapped like he is.
It’s been that way since the beginning. One day he knows I’ll kill him, drown him in the sea and beg the gods to steal his soul and carry it into the darkest depths of the Nile.
That day, sadly, is not today.
The door to the bar opens. He walks in and goes to his usual table and tosses back a shot, one I always keep ready for him so he doesn’t come in further. Silver-blond hair and bright green eyes that never seem to blink, stare back at me—soulless and empty. He never ages, and nobody ever seems to care. They look right past the wrongs in all of us; it’s always been that way, and it always will be.
His fists clench at his sides, his long blue leather coat wraps around him tightly, his black scarf nearly chokes him, I wish it would. His jaw flinches, and without even being close to him I can sense him grinding his teeth in both annoyance and excitement. He inclines his head and walks out. As quickly as he arrives, he leaves. Probably just wanting to see her, the last daughter of Chaos.
“So,” I clear my throat. “Your apartment is just upstairs, shall we?” I notice her attention on my face, as if she’s been watching me during my short inner monologue. Perceptive, this one.
“Oh.” She nods. “Crazy, okay, I thought I was staying at a hotel until I could find an apartment.”
“Things change.” I say through clenched teeth. I don’t understand why she feels different. The rest of them were irritating, this one feels strangely normal. She feels…human. “Here, I’ll take that.” I grasp her luggage, not wanting to risk touching her again, and lead on.
She follows me through the bar and up the stairs to where we house several apartments above the bar, one of them belonging to her allegedly missing brother.