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 find it comforting and strange at the same time, like I’ve worn it before but that it was used for something.
The boat rocks harder to the right, and within minutes I’m completely drenched. I stare down at my black dress and the hieroglyphics tattooed down my arms.
The dragon-shaped bow is nearly black, rising high into the sky with each wave like it’s meeting heaven.
Despite freezing, I feel at home. I welcome the salty water and the bitter air even though each breath hurts from the frozen storm.
Something is heavy around my waist. I steady myself against the side of the boat and feel something pressed to my right hip.
A sword.
My fingers itch to draw it even though nobody’s with me on the boat. The air has a strangely dark energy, like war’s about to break out. It feels necessary to grab the hilt of my sword and draw it. The enormous sword shimmers in the moonlight as I point to the sky and scream at the darkness.
Swells build up as the long wooden boat rocks sideways. I’m not afraid. I steady myself but the next wave crashes across the bow, sending me to my knees against the hard planks.
“You will always worship where you came from.” A man’s voice rumbles deeply behind me. “If you are born of the darkness, to the darkness you will return. You will sacrifice. You will live by it. Die by it.”
I turn around, and nobody’s there. When I look back toward the dragon, people suddenly appear, all clutching oars that are pushed out of the sides of the boat. They row in perfect cadence, against the waves, fighting them with each pull. The storm rages overhead while the darkness tries to overcome the sun ahead.
Thunder.
Lighting.
They were together, fighting for dominance and control. The sky is just as angry as the sea.
Who will win?
And is the battle just beginning?
I don’t know, but I watch. I grip the side of the boat and look up as if I know what’s going to happen, when I’m nothing. My fingers itch to grab an oar the way they itched to grab my sword. I steady myself as best I can and watch the people work.
The voice speaks again. “Worship is nothing next to sacrifice.”
I turn around, torrential rain pounds against my face. It’s nearly impossible to see let alone hold onto the side of the boat at this point.
“Sometimes,” the voice continues, “you have to drown to survive.”
“What?”
I’m still.
I feel nothing and everything all at once as fire burns around the boat in a massive circle above the water. The roll of thunder tries to take the boat down vibrating it and splintering it into pieces.
I scream.
A hooded figure watches from the bow of the boat. He’s huge as he stands over me, and then he flips his hood off and braces me against the boat. “I thought you wanted the burn. The truth.”
“Cyrus?” I ask.
“Ra,” he corrects with a wicked smile. His eyes are so bright, it’s almost painful to look into them. His inky hair sticks against his cheeks. “And now, you’ll start your lessons. You’re not ready. I was waiting, actually, for a few more days, but you’ve gotten too curious, too…” He turns toward me. “Stupid.”
“I’m not stupid.” I snap, tears welling in my eyes.
“Okay.” He shrugs like he didn’t just insult me. “So we’ll go with curious. Either way, you’re mine until the last drop of blood”—his grip around my wrist and twists. He presses a knife to the vein next to the very first rune on my wrist—“drains from your body, feeding everything it touches.” His forehead bangs against mine in a painful thud, his lips mouth the words against my own lips. “You’re mine.”
I exhale.
He inhales as the boat around us implodes to ash, everything happens in slow motion around me, the wood flying around us, the flames getting higher, and the sea allowing us to sink deeper.
“Now,” he whispers against my lips.
I taste him, I taste ash, I taste salt, I taste the earth. I taste fire.
“You can fully see…why.”
We look around.
Hundreds, no thousands of boats are burned from the scorch of the sun.
The earth is burning around us.
“The end”—he pulls me harder against his golden armor—“is always near. And to prevent that, I’ll sacrifice you.”
“Why me?”
“Because…” He leans in and kisses my ear then tugs it with his teeth. “…of what you are.”
“And what am I?”
“An abomination,” he finishes.
I jerk awake in my bed. The fire’s blazing in my room. I’m still shivering, and the cat’s completely out next to me.
What the hell was that?
A dream?
Reality?
He said he was Ra. Maybe it’s all a bad dream. That’s like saying you’re a Titan, or the Titan of old. I mean come on.
Did that all really happen?
I look at my wrists and see bruises. I’m actually sad that I don’t see the marks of the hieroglyphics.