Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
It should hurt my ego, but I expect she’s pissed Deandra kissed me. I’m going to have to make sure she admits that she saw me not kiss her back and even push her away.
Silly god.
Circe spreads her arms. “Are there any of our beloved demigods with urgent matters to report?”
I take my shot and step forward. “I would like to make a request.”
That gets Zora’s attention, and her head snaps my way.
Circe inclines her head. “What say you, Maddox?”
“I would like to make a formal request to our most benevolent deities to bring back my brother Lucien from the torment of the Crimson River. He’s suffered long enough.”
It’s a long shot. Since Amell won’t help me, and I won’t ask Zora—because you don’t ask such things of the woman you’re sleeping with—I figured I’d put the idea to the Council as a whole.
I glance at Carrick, and he’s shocked. I had not told him ahead of time that I was going to ask for our brother to be resurrected. It’s not that the request is forbidden, but it’s a huge ask and if granted will come not as a boon but as a favor that must be repaid.
Which is why I’m stunned when Carrick steps beside me and says, “I join in the request. I would hope after our dedicated service to you, as well as Lucien’s, you would be open to consideration.”
“As you know,” Cato says in a low voice, “such things are not taken lightly. It must also be by unanimous decision of the Council. I am personally against it. What say my sisters, yay or nay?”
Right down the line, the answers come.
“Nay,” says Circe.
Onyx lifts her chin. “Nay.”
Veda’s demeanor screams sympathy, but she shakes her head. “Nay.”
My eyes land on Zora, but she doesn’t look at me, instead choosing to cast a detached gaze out over the crowd. “Nay.”
“Son of a bitch,” I whisper and glance at Carrick. He merely shrugs. “Aren’t you pissed? That’s Finley’s sister, and she didn’t even stand up for your brother.”
“The Council was never going to do it, anyway,” he says in a low voice.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because they would have already done it by now.”
I grudgingly admit that actually crossed my mind when I decided to appeal to them. I figured they had some insider reasoning for not doing it which I know they’d never share with us.
“May I ask why not?” I call out, the longest shot by far.
Veda turns her attention my way. “Lucien had his time, and now it’s ended. We have plenty of other demigods to fill his shoes. He is not needed.”
I can tell this saddens Zora by the downward trend of her mouth, but I’m not surprised by Veda’s harsh words. The gods don’t care about any of us personally. At least not in my opinion.
“Who else has something to bring forward?” Veda calls out, effectively ending my inquiry.
A demigod steps forward, a fairly new one named Anton—I believe he’s only been around a few hundred years. He gives a slight bow of deference to the gods. “I have news from Calandria.”
Veda steps closer, her expression worried. “Tell us.”
Anton makes a circular motion in the air before him, and a large portal opens up so everyone can look through at what I’m guessing is an alternate dimension.
“It’s beyond destitute,” Anton says gravely. “Maybe a few more years of life, but the inhabitants are dying off quickly due to starvation. They are not procreating because they’re not healthy enough. Food and water resources are almost gone, and they refuse my help.”
The desertlike world we’re viewing is not much more than large hills of sand. There’s a small pond, more like a mud hole, where people are gathering the filthy water into jugs. Everyone is emaciated, and the children cry from hunger.
The picture changes to a dim cave where men dressed in rags kneel before a stone altar littered with bones and bowls of what look to be blood. They chant in a language I don’t recognize.
“It’s a lost cause,” Circe says in disgust. “Stupid people. Burn it to the ground and put them out of their misery.”
“Wait!” Zora exclaims, turning to Circe. “What does that mean? Who are these people, and why is this happening to them?”
Veda turns to Zora. “Calandria is a dimension formed by priests long ago using stone magic, except they didn’t do a very good job providing resources. And rather than evolve, they just kept praying to the gods and making sacrifices, believing the tide would turn in their favor. We’ve sent demigods to teach them ways to flourish, but they won’t listen. They’re too mired in their own religion to believe there’s any other way.”
“So you’re going to destroy them?” Zora asks, her fingers interlaced so tight, her knuckles are white. I can hear the distress in her voice and I curl my hands into fists. My inclination is to go to her, take her in my arms, but she’d probably turn me into a toad.