Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Cleo’s eyes drink everything in. She finally speaks. “I thought it was a celebration.”
Inti barks out a laugh. “This is how we celebrate. Look, there’s a feast, booze, and screwing. What else did you think you were going to attend? A children’s fair?”
She looks up at me.
I just shrug and take a step away from her. “Eat first, then you will approach the immortal of your choosing.”
Her thankful exhale has to be so incredibly insulting to every god there.
I hide my smile behind my hand and look away. “Let’s eat.”
“Yes.” Inti eyes her up and down. “Let’s.
CHAPTER 34
CLEO
“Eyes cannot hide a woman’s love for a man.” – The Saga of Gunnlaugur the Worm-tongue, ch.13
My body is finally warm. I don’t need to stand close to Cyrus to feel it. I’m burning up from the inside out and every single person I look at seems to know I’m staring; their answering stares are complete invitations for me to join them. I know it in my soul.
My mouth waters for more than food; everywhere I look I see people dancing seductively with each other, laughing, enjoying life, reminding me of my impending death.
“Food.” Kratos comes up behind me as if to remind me I need to gain strength before I pick a god. “All of us, regardless of who you choose, need our stamina.”
“What?” I catch up with him and nearly stumble to the ground. He grips me by the arm, but no blue paint comes off on his hand.
“It won’t come off on me unless you choose me,” he says in a semi-annoyed voice. “And whoever isn’t chosen still has to do their godly duty and create.”
“Create?”
“You’re one of those, aren’t you? The repeaters?”
I roll my eyes.
“Oh and eye rolling, that’s new.”
I glare.
“You don’t scare me, tiny one.” He grabs a metal plate and starts piling it high with fruits, meats, cheeses, the list goes on and on. “We create more…how shall I sensitively say this?” His teeth rip apart some meat from a turkey leg. He chews and smiles while doing it. “We create more of you but better.”
“Me personally?”
“No small one, more gods so that the ones left behind in all of this can finally have their mates without creating an abomination by putting our power into them. In a way we continue to breed and continue to gain power the human way.”
I’m that. I’m the abomination. That’s all I can fixate on. I’m the one that’s half-human half-chaos, aren’t I? The one that needs to be extinguished while they purify the bloodlines out of what? Pity? Fear? A tear slides down my cheek. I didn’t ask to be created and yet, this is my destiny, maybe it was all for this, for this moment. I can live for a day and live the best life and know that maybe the reason I went through what I went through with my brother, with my mom all finally made sense. My sacrifice saves him the way it never saved her. I don’t belong here.
Okay. Okay.
My heart stops in my chest for a brief minute. “Was I created here?”
“You know, I thought Cyrus told you everything.” He shakes his head. “Where else would you have been created?” He waves the drumstick around. “Any guesses which god did it?”
“But, but—” I’m so grossed out right now. “That means I could be picking my dad!”
He spits out his turkey and starts to choke then pounds his chest with his hand and grabs a mug of ale. Once he has a drink and is done choking, he looks at me over the metal. “And again, I thought you were smart. You see, that’s where Game of Thrones really did us a disservice. Everyone just assumes it’s incest.”
“Because it is.”
“Tell me…” He starts eating again then rolls his eyes, grabs another plate, piles it high with food and hands it to me. “Sorry, but if you’re going to ask so many questions then I need you to eat while doing it. The immortals won’t wait forever, and you only get tonight.”
I bite into a roll that tastes like it’s been rolled in honey and groan. “Happy?”
“Thrilled.” He smirks and keeps eating. “If you know anything about our history it’s that immortals sleep with anything and everything, but just because we create more immortals doesn’t mean we are in any way blood related. Boom, the minute you’re born all ties to that immortal disappear except for the fact that you get a portion of their powers coursing through your blood. It’s silver by the way, just in case you were curious why you keep seeing it, but for you, once exposed to the air, poof, back to red, unless that is, you’re a true god and then you’re screwed.”
He keeps chewing off his drumstick, and I swear I nearly drop my roll.