Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“Here I was thinking the portal was hidden,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee as we walk. “But I’ve underestimated Lovia too many times.”
“So, when we get back, maybe Tapio’s son really should be the one taking over their duties.”
He glances at me with a solemn look. “When we get back, my children can have whatever the damn hell they want. I don’t want to be a father who denies them anything anymore, especially not their happiness. I don’t know what kind of world we’re going to walk back in to, but it’s not one where I have no faults. Things will change, in many ways, and for the better, when all is said and done.”
“When all is said and done,” I agree, tapping my cup against his.
We head toward my uncle’s apartment, walking down a fir-tree lined path, Christmas lights still up on the branches. With the hot drinks in our hands and the snow gently falling around us, gathering on Tuoni’s furs, the whole place looks absolutely magical.
Our boots crunch pleasingly in the snow as we carefully make our way up a slight hill, stopping in front of what should be my uncle’s place, a four-story yellow building on Fabianinkatu.
“This must be it,” I say, looking at the apartment directory for his name. My finger hovers on the button as I look at Tuoni. “Do you know what you’re going to say?”
He arches a dark brow. “Do you?”
“I’m going to wing it,” I say, pressing the buzzer.
Death scoffs under his breath. “Why am I not surprised?”
The buzzer rings and then crackles, and a man’s voice comes through.
“Mitä?” he asks.
“Hi,” I say in English before Tuoni leans in and says something quickly in Finnish that I don’t catch.
Suddenly, the buzzer goes click, and the door opens.
“What did you say to him?” I ask incredulously as we step inside the building’s dim foyer.
“I said I was his god and needed to speak with him immediately,” he says, looking around. “What floor does this relative live on?”
I’m about to say the second floor when suddenly, a balding man with glasses and a kind face I recognize as my uncle pokes his head over the side of the staircase railing.
He says something in Finnish and waves at us to come up the stairs.
I’m still marveling at the fact that Tuoni was able to magic him through the intercom, and when we get to my uncle’s side, I can see his eyes are glazed. He glances at me, but I can tell he doesn’t really see me.
I’m tempted to say, “Hey Uncle Osmo, it’s me Hanna, guess what, I’m not dead, I’m not a ghost, I didn’t join a cult, I’m actually fine, long story”, or however it would have turned out if I had winged it. But whatever Tuoni has done to him, he doesn’t really see me for me, and anyway, when was the last time I physically saw my uncle? I would have been a child. I don’t think he’d recognize me even if Tuoni didn’t have him entranced.
I decide to keep my mouth shut and let the magic god do all the talking. My poor Finnish skills can only pick up a word here and there, but as we stand in the hallway of this old building, I get the impression that Tuoni is asking him about my father’s whereabouts.
They talk for a few minutes before my uncle nods and disappears inside his apartment, leaving the door open.
I nudge Tuoni with my foot. “What’s happening?”
He gives me a side-long glance and smirks just as my uncle returns and drops a pair of car keys in Tuoni’s hand.
“Kiitos,” Tuoni thanks him, and my uncle pats his hand and the keys a few times, nodding like Tuoni has done him some gracious favor before he goes back inside his apartment and closes his door.
“What the hell just happened?” I ask as I follow Tuoni back down the steps.
“I got ourselves a vehicle to your father’s place.”
“He knows where he is? Wait—we’re stealing my uncle’s car?”
“Clearly not. We’re borrowing it. I told him he can pick it up from there in a couple of days. He thinks he’s securing a place in Amaranthus by doing this.”
I smack his chest. “Please tell me you’re going to grant him that. You can’t play with people’s afterlife like that.”
“It’s as if you don’t know who I am,” he croons as we step out of the building and back into the cold, dark street. He nods at a red Saab across the street. “That’s the one.”
“So, wait,” I say to him as we hurry across the road, “he told you where my father was?”
“Yes. He’s up north. Not as far as he was before, but at a lake in the middle of a forest, living off some grid, in hiding.”