Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Suddenly, my dream comes back to me. The one I was having before the knock on the door. I saw them all come here. One by one. “What happened to the others, Anneeta? What happened to Marlowe, and Mabel P., and Lucy, and Mabel S., and Piper, and Brooke? Did you eat them too?”
Anneeta lets out a long sigh. “I didn’t know they were your friends. I didn’t even know it was wrong. All I knew is that I needed the spark.”
“What about Haryet, Anneeta? What happened to Haryet?”
Anneeta shrugs. “I don’t know. She didn’t come to me like the others.”
“The others came to you?” Tyse bends down and places his hands on her shoulders. “Tell the truth now, Anneeta. There are no secrets if we’re friends. You can’t lie and you can’t hide things. We need to know everything.”
Anneeta nods. But then she looks up at me. “They just came to me. They were sleeping when they arrived. And it’s not even like I had a choice. When I need the spark, I need the spark.” She shrugs with her hands.
“You didn’t eat me, though. How come?”
“Because I’m not hungry for it. I don’t need it yet.”
Tyse stands back up and paces the room, rubbing his hands down his face. Both Anneeta and I stay quiet as he does this, but I’m just starting to get impatient when Tyse looks at me. “Pack a bag. We’re leaving.”
“What?”
“No!” Anneeta squeals again. But this time, there is no spark display. She respects him. Maybe even fears him. Because she has her emotions under control. “You can’t go!”
“We have to.” Tyse isn’t looking at Anneeta. “I didn’t tell you last night because we were… having a good night, ya know? You were happy, and you had fun, and I didn’t want to spoil it. But they know a Spark Maiden came through.”
“It wasn’t me!” Anneeta yells. “I swear on myself that I didn’t tell them!”
I’m confused for a moment, but then I figure it out and look at Tyse. “She’s the god?”
He nods. “She’s the god. A new one, I guess. They’re trying to grow a new god for the tower and they needed Spark Maidens to get her to mature.”
“That’s why they kept ringing the bells.” I look at Anneeta. “They were feeding you.”
“And when you say ‘they,’ Clara,” Tyse continues, “you understand that the ‘they’ is Stayn and all those men who were at the party last night? They let some things slip. They don’t know it’s you, not yet. But they’ve been thinking about it all night now. And I’ve got a nine AM meeting on Monday morning. What do you think he wants to talk to me about? We need to get the fuck out of this city today. Like right now.”
“You can’t leave!” All of Anneeta’s bravery disappears with these words. And part of me understands that she’s not a child, she’s some kind of god. And she’s very in control and not at all confused and conflicted. She knows what she needs—the spark. And she knows the tower is the only place to get it, so she’s stuck here.
At least she was, until I showed up.
But she plays this part of innocent child very well.
“Tyse!” Anneeta walks over to him, looking up. He is a tower compared to her. “You don’t understand. We are something together.” She points to me, then herself, then Tyse. “We are the Looking Glass.”
“What?” That’s Tyse.
“What?” That’s me.
Tyse bends down again, placing both hands on her shoulders. “What do you know about it?”
She looks him in the eyes. “I know everything. I’m a god, remember?”
“Then explain.”
“The Looking Glass is a way to see things. It covers all worlds at once. That’s where you come in. You’re the overlay, Tyse. Because you’re the augment.”
Anneeta directs her gaze to me. “But the overlay is only visible inside the spark. That’s you. You’re the spark.”
Then she points to herself. “But you have to have a god to interpret the symbols. I’m the only one who can read it. So you see, to have a Looking Glass you need all three of us. Once those men figure out that we’re the Looking Glass, they’ll come for you. For both of you. Because they will already have me. I’m trapped here. It’s much easier to find an augment and a Spark Maiden than it is to grow a god. They will never let you go if they have me. They will always have hope. They will hunt you until the ends of the world and they will never stop.”
Tyse and I are both silent. Because we understand this is probably true.
“But if you take me,” Anneeta continues, “to the right place, then they will lose all hope and they will give up.”
Tyse sneers. “Right place, huh? And where, exactly, is this right place?”