Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
She crashed against the ground and then slowly crept up into my lap.
I remember feeling real warmth for the first time as I petted her head and watched the skies. My job had never felt so fulfilling.
The peaceful vision fades, but my sense of peace somehow remains.
I smile while she argues with Alex over the proper feeding of plants and animals, no clue where that actual argument came from, but he’s clearly upset, he’s not full god, but his eyes do go a complete white.
Everyone around the table laughs.
What a weird group.
Werewolves. Vampires. Sirens. Gods. Angels. Demons.
Life is never what you think.
I slowly excuse myself, scooting my chair back. It’s loud. It’s final. Everyone stops and looks over at me.
I smile, but it’s sad. I can’t meet my brother’s eyes. I’ll see too much in their eyes, loss, despair, hope, anger, sadness. I’ll feel it all, and I might lose my nerve. Immortals are said to be good at shielding our emotions, but only from humans, not from each other. No, they may as well be screaming right now. I can feel it in the tension around the room, in the way the stars press down even onto that house, ready to shove me into the ground to keep me from taking the first step.
So I continue not to meet their eyes.
I choose not to meet hers.
I lower my head and bow, cross my arms, press my palms to my chest, and then extend them toward the sky. Slowly stardust appears around the room, falling in small tiny pieces of colorful ice around the table. My final blessing to my family and friends, to her, a piece of stardust, a piece of the sky.
A piece of me.
When I finally look up, it’s to see Alex and Timber offering the same gesture back to me. I finally look into my brother’s eyes and know what I see there. He is, after all, the god of the underworld. If I was braver, I’d walk up to him and say. “Anubis, tell me what you see. Weigh my soul.”
And I’m positive he wouldn’t do it unless I fought him, and even then, he’d reach into my chest and pull out a flickering flame, one that knows it’s about to be sacrificed, and I wouldn’t make a different choice. I need answers, and the more I think about it, the more I realize this is something I should have done a long time ago. I learned how to sacrifice for others rather than expect them to offer themselves to me. Is this what happens when a god wakes up? When he realizes how selfish he has been? Is this love? And why do I keep asking the same question over and over again, what’s love? It’s like I’m desperate to find it and know the only way to do so—is to die for it.
Cassius stands, his multi-colored wings fan around him. His hair glows white, along with his eyes. His whisper is full of pain that I feel down to my bones. “I’ll take you as far as I can.”
“But wait!” Kit yells.
I wave my hand in front of her face. “Sleep.”
Her eyes are filled with rage before they close. Then she collapses against Timber’s chest.
He stares down at her and then up at me. “Come back alive, you stupid god.”
“Please, it’s just the Abyss,” I tease.
He nods. “You know what gods face down there.”
“Everything.” My whisper becomes a resigned sigh. “But I was god of the skies. I’ve seen stars reborn, and I’ve watched the heavens celebrate every single time a life was born, every time a life dies and ascends. I’ve watched the horror. I’ve watched the glory. I’ve made sure the sun sets and rises. What could I possibly face in the Abyss that I haven’t faced while watching humans suffer?”
Timber’s sigh echoes mine. “There is so much more darkness in the deep than you know. The things I’ve seen—”
“Maybe it’s my turn to see those things.” I grip him behind the neck and pull him in for a hug. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
His eyes fill with tears. “Okay.”
They reflect nothing but darkness.
Mine reflect the light of the skies.
Opposites yet blood. Maybe I was brought to this timeline for this very purpose; who knows the true meaning of destiny?
“Okay.” It feels like goodbye because a small part of me recognizes that it is. I don’t want it to be over, but can I not celebrate that it happened? That I existed here, that I’ll at least be able to save parts of a person that was, at one point, my North Star? I turn toward her sleeping form and press a kiss to her forehead. She mumbles in her sleep and reaches for my face.
“You promised,” she whispers. “You promised you’d come back.”