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)
“What if I prefer that to this?” she asks, lips trembling with cold, tears frozen on her pretty cheeks.
“Trust me when I say death is preferable to the life I’ve seen.” I don’t tell her she has good moments, beautiful moments, soul crushing moments that would maybe make it worth it. I’m selfish. I want nothing more than to leave and finish my task. “In the end, you get everything you think you want and then you lose it, there is nothing for you here. I’m doing you a kindness.”
I leave out the birth of her daughter.
I leave out the soccer games and late-night ice cream with her police officer husband.
I leave it all because I refuse to face emotion.
It is dead.
So am I.
I start to leave again.
The panther still sleeps, damn it, Bast.
And then Cleo’s chasing after me, grabbing me by the arm and trying to pull me against her. I don’t move, but I am curious. “What now?”
“What happened to you?”
I falter a bit and then answer, “Blood. War. Death.”
“But you were nice earlier. You kissed me, and you don’t seem—”
“All an act to get what I want. After thousands of years, believe me when I say I’m used to it, and all of you”—I turn and stare at her— “taste the same.” I grin and lean in, capturing her lips with mine. My tongue slides past her lips, I grip her by the neck and lightly shove her into the rock wall, grinding my hips against hers.
She gasps in my mouth, her hands push against me. I feel nothing but the heat of her mouth and the softness of her lips.
And then I do something I haven’t done in my entire life.
I lie.
“You taste like everyone else.” I jerk back. “See? Nothing special. Just a pretty little human with a ticking time bomb.” I wipe my mouth like I’m disgusted, then spit on the floor. “Tick. Tock.”
She shrieks when I leave.
Bast wakes up and hisses.
I keep walking. I walk until I’m at the water and then just because I can, I blow toward the moon and create a flame with my mouth that reaches to the sky where I belong. I stop the solar flare, look over my shoulder, and wink.
CHAPTER 24
CLEO
“The error is the result of letting fear rule your actions.” – The Saga of Harald Hardrada, ch.46
He’s an asshole.
And he doesn’t come back for the next few hours. I stare at the quill on the paper and can’t will myself to do anything but just continue to stare.
After another hour, Enki finally makes his way toward the mouth of the cave. He takes one look at me and sighs. “You didn’t even use your amulet against him, I’m impressed.”
I snort. “Would it even work?”
“Um, The Eye of Horus? Trust me, it wouldn’t feel good or sound like a parade.”
I pause and then laugh bitterly. “You aren’t a god.”
He just smiles. “Whatever you say.” His reddish-brown hair is pulled into a low ponytail that spills over one shoulder when he leans in; his smile’s more of a smirk. “Hungry?” He holds up a plate of sandwiches.
I glare. “I’m not stupid.”
“They’re turkey.” He frowns. “Fine, I’ll eat them, but here’s the thing,” he sets them on the table then jumps back onto the bed and pats it for me to sit.
Bast looks annoyed and curls into the far corner and starts to snore, so clearly I’m not in harm’s way.
“Sit, sit.”
I begrudgingly sit down on the bed and stare straight ahead.
“So, your world is real and yet it isn’t. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but all of this was created by the very man who’s going to kill you. Think of it as a really scary story you tell kids at night to freak them out, but it’s, you know, actually true. That’s Cyrus. He’s the boogeyman, but he keeps balance from day to night and on top of that he kind of has to do this in order to keep that balance before he’s done with his trials.
My sigh feels like it’s coming from my soul. “Say I believe you, what do you mean he has to keep the balance with his trials?”
Enki goes very still. “Chaos will always chase Ra. Always. He toils day and night and now his only job is to sacrifice one last person in order to go to Olympus and rule. He’s all powerful, and he has to prove he can still connect as a human and a god. Only twelve high gods remain. The rest of us failed, he wants to be the next to ascend.”
I meet his gaze, interest piqued. “Twelve? From Egypt?”
He shakes his head. “Remember what you read, remember the stories, all of the worlds collided, Roman, Greek, Egyptian—we are all tested, some of us fail, some of us succeed and up on Olympus we still rule.” He shrugs. “In their own way at least. This is Ra’s test, you are Ra’s test, he needs you to be willing to sacrifice so he can save others, so he can save you.”