Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I get up and pace the room, sad and unsettled. “Nothing is what it seems.”
“It never is, brother. I’m just going to say one more thing and then…” He throws up his hands. “That’s it. The rest is all you.”
“Fine. Say it.”
“I don’t want your door. I mean”—he laughs—“I really, really do want your door. But I’m not going to take it. I want those books, too. But I’m not going to make you deliver them.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want to be done. Like you.”
“You want to die?”
“Oh, I’ve wanted to die for millennia. But it’s not going to happen, is it? Gods don’t die. They simply… fade. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve created my own sanctuary here in Savage Falls. And this is where I will stay. Forever. Fading away.”
I’m annoyed. I have already been the cause of my best friend’s death, annihilated a whole realm, and sentenced a little girl to a life of something that is beyond my comprehension. Soul-crushing loneliness, at the very least. And now I have to end myself, the love of my life, and my new best friend by sending us back in time to smooth out the bumps in the fucking timeline and he’s moaning about some self-imposed imprisonment? “I’ve got to be honest with you, Eros. I don’t feel like I’m winning here.”
“Maybe you should have higher expectations of yourself?”
“Why have you been chasing us then? Why the sudden change of mind? You ordered me to bring you Tarq so you could make Pie—”
“Stop.” And for the second time tonight, he uses that voice. But he’s not trying to stop me so much as stop hearing what I’m saying.
Stop hearing the truth.
Pie is his trigger. He is guilty and he knows it. She is his weakness because he is in debt to her.
And this is the moment when I believe him.
Everything he’s said is true.
He just stares at me for many moments. I wait, because I don’t know what else to do. Everything is falling apart. Or, in the words of Pressia, ‘No horn, or hoof, or magic spell will save the life of the monster Pell.’
Finally, he says, “I have learned things. Recently. Very recently.”
“What kind of things?”
“About Pie.”
“Like what?”
“Like…” He sighs, then snaps his fingers. “Jacqueline!” I look over at his throne in time to see Jacqueline’s head snap to attention. “Get out.”
She smiles and nods as she gets to her feet, then floats her way over to the door and does as she’s told.
I look back at Eros.
“Jacqueline told me…” He pauses. “I don’t know how much you know…” He gives up. “I just changed my mind, that’s all.”
And now I want to know what Jacqueline knows. “What were you gonna say? Tell me.”
“This is Pie’s story. Her recent story. And it’s not my place to tell you. But I will say this.” His whole face softens. “Pie didn’t deserve the life she had. You’re right about that. Even if Jacqueline had told me nothing about the things that really happened to Pie while she was in the human foster system, I would still owe her that apology. And as I said, I saw a little of her life. The outlines of it. But it was Jacqueline who colored in all the shapes.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” He stares at me. “You know what I’m saying.”
“No. Pie’s life was bad, but it wasn’t—”
“Wasn’t it?”
“How could it have been? She’s… delightful. People with tragic pasts don’t come out the other end delightful.”
His only response is a sad, sad smile.
What the hell could’ve happened to Pie that would alter this god’s whole purpose in life once he heard about it?
“I wouldn’t ask her about it, if I were you. Either she’s purposefully repressed it or she’s gotten past it. There is no point in making her revisit.”
I can’t actually talk right now. I want to call him a liar. Yes, Pie got fucked over. She got shit on. But that’s all it was. Just bad luck.
Wasn’t it?
“So.” Eros ends my train of thought by putting a little voice in his word. “Are we in agreement? You three will return to your tomb, return the monsters who want to go home, and that will be that.”
Could he be lying about everything? He could, couldn’t he? Might this just be a convenient way to get rid of me? The one guy in the room who might offer up a challenge?
“What happens if we don’t do it?”
Eros shrugs with his hands. “It just keeps going, I suppose. You will live, but you will be running.”
“From who? You?”
“No. It took me a while, but I have made my final choice. Those gods will never let you be. You got the better of them, both of you. The war will go on. If that’s the future you fancy, then by all means, stick around and fight. But you won’t be able to hide behind those walls anymore. And Saturn has been practicing his magic in this human realm for thousands of years now. He will get you. And then what will he do? Breed Pie? You? Use Tomas to burn the world? I couldn’t imagine the guilt of living with those consequences, can you?”