Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
I nod. “Yes, Ryet. That’s exactly what I’m saying.” I look at Syrsee now. “But that’s not all of it.” She is too stunned to spit words at me, so I just continue. “You are pregnant. And the baby is growing inside both versions of you. It will be born. But in order for that baby to have the best possible outcome you must reunite with your body before giving birth. It can exist, theoretically, at least, split in half as a fetus. But it cannot be born that way.”
I’m not certain what that baby might be like if it was born split in half, but I do know that the one Syrsee would give birth to at the Guild would not be anything resembling a human.
None of us says anything for almost a minute.
Then Ryet sighs. “How do we get to the Guild, Paul? We’re in a dreamwalk.”
“It’s not a dreamwalk, Ryet. It’s just a mechanism of travel that we stay in for periods of time. To live a fantasy, to have conversations we otherwise cannot, to have sex with people and drink their blood when they are far away in distance. But we don’t have to stay. We can travel anywhere we want. You know this, Syrsee. You did it back at my resort when you came into the greenhouse building and joined in on the fun Ryet and I were having.” Ryet scoffs at my characterization of that particular morning. But I ignore him and look at Syrsee now. “This is all you. Ryet doesn’t control the purple. You do because you control the mist. You can be in the mist and have a dreamlike experience, a magical dreamlike experience that is completely real on another level. Where you can be anything you want and see anything you want. It’s part imagination, part dimensional skipping. But you can just wipe the mist away, Syrsee. And come back to reality at any time.”
“But if I wipe the mist away, won’t I end up as Syrsee in the tunnel?”
I hesitate.
It’s the wrong move because she snaps at me. “What? What aren’t you telling me?”
“That soul—your soul—it belongs to the Darkness now.”
Ryet takes a step forward. “You’re not making any sense, Paul. And that’s because, as usual, you’re leaving things out. What are you leaving out?” He’s glaring at me with narrowed eyes. So much like the man he was just a few short weeks ago. But then again, so very different.
He’s angrier, for one. He’s gotten angry with me plenty of times before this new birth, but I never saw the kind of malice in his eyes that I see now.
“I didn’t leave anything out.” I’m angrier now too. I think it’s the stress. We’re all under a lot of stress. “I already said she has been severed. This”—I pan my hand in the direction of Syrsee—“is the empty vessel. The soulless one.”
“My question was”—even Syrsee is angrier now—“if I can leave the dreamwalk any time I want, as you just said I could, why wouldn’t I just slip back into being Syrsee who has my soul?”
She’s smarter now too. Because this question of hers hit the bullseye. “I don’t think you understand the literal meaning of the word ‘severed.’” I say this to Syrsee, but then I look over at Ryet too. Just to make sure he understands as well. “The Darkness took your soul, Syrsee. You exist right now because you had access to the purple, which I gifted you at birth, and you’re a Black witch with a lineage that goes back to the Ice Maiden herself, so the gold mist you see is your birthright. But the point I’m making here, and the only thing that matters, is you have no soul.”
Ryet sighs. Rubbing both hands down his face like he’s very tired. “She’s dead.”
“She is not dead.”
“She’s dead. I’m dead. You’re dead. We’re all fucking dead.”
“Ryet—”
He puts up a hand, glaring at me. “Don’t. I’m not in the mood.”
“We’re not dead. We’re still in the game.”
“But it’s not good though, is it?” Syrsee’s tone is pragmatic and reasonable. “We’re in the game, but we’re losing, aren’t we?”
“Well, I’m not losing, Syrsee. My victory here is pretty much guaranteed. So. No. It’s not good. But it’s the best I could do.”
Ryet grabs his hair, like he’s losing his shit. “What. The fuck. Are you talking about? You did the best you could? You did all of this, Paul! This is your grand plan playing out! You’re the one I blame, not the fucking Darkness! You did this.”
“I did.” These words come out through clenched teeth. “But. I changed my mind. OK? And now I’m trying to fucking fix it. I’m trying to keep you alive, and her alive, and me alive. And, I might add, I’m betraying the one vampire I have counted on for centuries to do this. So calm the fuck down.”