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)
I press a kiss to her forehead and keep walking. “Now, we exist for a few hours.”
“And die later?” she asks.
I don’t respond.
I keep walking.
And as we make our way down the icy walkway towards the beach. I look over my shoulder and whisper, “Ken, I’ll owe you a favor, nobody leaves the island until the sacrifice.”
Even saying it has my body filled with rage. Why this? Why now?
Water rises up over the walkway crashing against it, slowly one black tentacle lifts into the air, followed by another, and another until all eight tentacles surround the island in a tumultuous wave of water.
Once my feet hit the sand on the beach I turn around with Cleo still in my arms, and I see Ken’s face for the first time in a thousand years.
His blue eyes lock on mine, his round head has sharp spears shoved into it from the battles he’s faced with sailors, he wears them the way a soldier wears armor.
Black, silver, and gold spears, all form around his chin and shoulders, and while his mouth stays shut, I know what he’s saying, I can read his thoughts the way he can read mine.
Of course he’s always grumpy considering he’s always in pain, but today—he’s sad.
My heart pains me.
“Thank you, old friend,” I whisper.
He nods his head once and turns toward the island, lifting all his tentacles to create a barrier.
I walk back carrying a shocked Cleo, knowing I have less than twenty-four hours before her screams go from ecstasy to death.
CHAPTER 36
CYRUS
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”― C.S. Lewis
“Did I just see a kraken?” Cleo asks in a terrified voice.
“You just saw a kraken.” I’m torn between wanting to grip her tighter and hold her softly because she’s so precious. “He’ll guard the island and prevent any intruders from crossing the path.”
She’s warm in my arms, I don’t look down at her. I’m afraid that I won’t make it. I don’t understand my own body’s reaction to her or the warmth that continues to spread from my chest outwards, tingling that spirals down my arms to my fingertips.
I know she’s in shock, her pulse is wild when I step into the cave with her and set her down on the bed.
I lie to myself and say just one more time. I’ll hold her one more time, then I’ll worship her with my mouth, and then I’ll leave.
I’ll be able to break away from her and do my job, just one more taste, one more act. It’s the best for both of us.
Cleo wrings her hands together and looks up at me, her mismatched eyes glow under the moonlight. I did that. My essence flows through her now.
The stars sparkle up and down her skin as if drinking it in.
I can’t do it. I back away from her, one foot after another, until I’m at the mouth of the cave.
“You’re leaving?” Her face falls.
“I must,” I whisper. “Before I can’t.”
“And here I thought I was going to get worshiped.” She makes it sound like she’s getting rejected, when this is all new. “What’s the point of Ken guarding the island if you’re just going to abandon me the night before my impending death?”
I want to roar. Instead, I calmly take off my mask and set it on a nearby table. “To keep any other immortal from having what’s mine, that’s the point.”
A grimace briefly mars her loveliness. Then, “You had me for fifteen seconds, Cyrus, that’s hardly a claiming.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Why do you care?”
“It was longer than fifteen seconds!” I stomp over to where she’s sitting and jerk her to her feet. “And it wasn’t supposed to happen in the first place.”
“Because you’re Ra?”
“Because I am going to destroy you!” I shove her away. “Do you really want to create with me tonight only to look into my eyes tomorrow while I tie you to The Tree of the Underworld? Do you even know the pain I’ll experience? You’ll experience?”
Something’s wrong with me. I don’t know what it is, but power’s surging through my body at an alarming rate. It’s difficult to control, like I’ve been drugged in the best of ways, and the more she talks the harder it gets, the harder I get.
We can’t do more than we’ve done. There’s a reason I was a virgin deity, a reason I haven’t been with a human and I’ve never realized how important that reason was until this very moment as my body pulses with the power only the female twin can give.
Twin lights.
Fate.
One full of godliness, one full of evil.
I want them both.
“Knew that tree was different.” She sighs, distracting me. “Didn’t realize I’d be going out next to the grumpy squirrel or mean cow and descending to the underworld itself.”