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 need a bath. And a change of clothes. I don’t stay in the cottage anymore. Batty, Eyebrows, Cookie and a few others have taken it over, anyway. So I just moved my clothes and stuff here to the tomb. Pell has a makeshift bathroom here in the forest. It’s got a shower. Well, it’s actually a bag hanging from a tree that he fills with water. But there’s no tub.
I was distressed about this at first, but then Pell suggested I just use the stream. It’s not hot water, but the season in these woods feels like perpetual June. So it’s cool water, but it’s very refreshing.
I spent a whole day in the apothecary last week making different kinds of soaps, and balms, and tonics, following recipes in an old book written by an ancient alchemist called Pressia. There were several to choose from, but this one was very nicely illustrated. There were even illustrations of her. In color, even.
Now I gather my little basket of homemade products, take a bath in the stream, and dress in an outfit Eyebrows made for me for my job in Vinca—a pair of tan leggings that end just above my first knee joint and a super-soft, cotton-eyelet crop top.
Then I walk over to the next door in the long line of them and pluck the ring floating in front of it from the air, looking at it carefully. There is a design on it. Leaves. Typical. But as I stare at it, the design begins to change. The gold rearranges until I can make out the head of a dragon.
“Well.” I smile and put the ring on. “That’s settled, I guess.” I will go see Tomas first. Because I have questions.
I open the door and stand there, staring into the shimmering, silver nothingness, trying to think up a spelling for a door to the dungeon. But a moment later the words are already spilling out of my mouth:
“A dragon’s lair, a prison cell
Scales, and blood, and fiery hell
Take me there, reunite
Keep this from the monsters’ sight.”
And then there I am, standing at the bottom of the stairs, kind of impressed with myself, if I’m being honest. Because I wasn’t thinking about keeping this little visit a secret, but now it will be.
Cool.
I smile, still pleasantly surprised that I’m actually good at this spelling shit.
“Tomas?” I say it quietly because it’s very quiet down here. “Are you awake?”
I don’t move forward. I might not be afraid of him, but it would be stupid to assume I’m safe down here. And if he’s not his usual self, I can just back up and get out quick.
“I’m here.” His voice is low and rumbly, like he was sleeping.
“Should I come back later?”
“No. I’m awake. Did you come through a door?”
“Yeah. Pell wants me to stay in the tomb. The monsters are… gettin’ weird.”
“Are they?” Tomas appears from the shadows looking like a dragon chimera who just woke up, which translates to… very sexy. Damn. His dark hair is all tousled, his cut muscles all tight so that your eyes just want to follow the ripple of his abs down to where his skin turns to red-orange scales. Even when he yawns, cavernously and without shame, stretching his arms high above his head, you can’t help but stare at him.
Tomas is hot. And he doesn’t even know it, which makes him even hotter.
I shake myself out of it. “Yeah. They are. They’re… restless. Maybe?” I would like this to be the answer, but it’s not. “I have a question.”
“Hit me with it, sunshine.” Tomas grins, unleashing dimples on me.
“OK. Well, when I was in Vinca with Tarq he came to my lab and showed me a book.”
“Did he?”
“He did.”
“What was in this book?”
“Pictures. Of the monsters.” I nod my head towards the ceiling. “They were all in there. It was some kind of perp book.”
“A what?”
“You know. Cops have books with pictures of known criminals. That’s what this was. Tarq wanted me to identify the monsters.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Was I in there?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
I smile. “Were you part of Vinca?”
“No. I’ve heard of it, but never been there.”
“Well, I think all these monsters are actually from Vinca.”
“Batty is, for sure. And Eyebrows.”
“And Cookie,” I add. “He was definitely from there.”
“But all the others, too?” Tomas asks. I nod. “So what’s the question?”
“Do you think…” I cringe. I don’t want this to be true, but I already know it is. I just want confirmation. “Do you think they were actually meant to be prisoners here, Tomas? Like… the whole reason they were brought here was so I could lock them up in the Bottoms the way I did Callistina?”
And Nysta, I don’t add. That wasn’t really thought out, obviously. But I’m not sorry about it.
Tomas just smiles at me. “What do you think, sunshine?”