Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 125020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Ah, Tzósoua mou, I have named the snakes after my life. Did you not listen to my words?”
I knit my brows in thought. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Good boy. No, this isn’t a lie I tell. They’ve been placing poison in my food for months.” He winks at me. “Your pappoús is just a lot smarter than they are. However, I needed you here to see the entire picture and because I do believe an attempt on your life is next.”
“Not if I get to them first. Listen, I need a shower and to think over all you have said. Hold the rest for tomorrow. We will talk then.”
“Yes, you must be exhausted from your flight. I must see to Zeus’s burial anyway.”
“Zeus?”
“Yes, you know he ate what I ate. Odin always fed him first. Zeus stopped eating about two months ago and he wouldn’t allow me to eat anything placed before me either. I started to feed us myself in the evenings when everyone went to sleep.
“Somehow, the poison was mixed into his food without him detecting it the day before yesterday. He whimpered throughout the day.”
“How do you know it was poison?”
“I had Helios take his food to a lab. Odin has been on vacation for three months. His substitutes were sent by my youngest daughter.
“Let’s just say Zeus’s arrangements aren’t the only things I’m going to tend to,” he replies, causing me to fume even more.
Shawna
“Thanks for stopping by, Blake,” my mother’s voice carries from her office as I walk through the hall.
I move closer to her office. I hope this is the end of a meeting and not the beginning. I want her advice on what I should do about Joshua. Danny seems nice enough, he’s been texting all day, but I can’t help wondering if I overreacted last night.
“Thanks for seeing me, Monica. I wanted to check in in person. How are things coming along? Is there anything you need?”
I guess it’s not the end. I back away and turn to head up to my room. Maybe I’ll start looking at apartments. Joshua was supposed to tag along with me, but I’m an adult. I can do this on my own.
Or maybe I should find another travel assignment. Bridge Lake just doesn’t feel like home like it used to. Home has been where my camera is.
My phone buzzes with a text. I pull it from my pocket and smile. It’s Danny again.
Danny: Have dinner with me. I would love to see that smile.
I chew on my lip and debate on if I really want to entertain this guy. He seems nice enough. I don’t think he’s going to sit across from me texting the entire date.
I shrug.
Me: Okay.
Chapter 29
Kalinýchta, Xadérfia
Kelex
I step from the shower and walk into the bedroom my grandfather keeps here for me. Every time I think of his dead dog Zeus, I see red. That rage that lives inside me starts to boil to the surface.
I grab my phone to call Shawna. I need to hear her voice so I can pull myself from where I know I’m headed. I dial her number, and this time, there’s a single ring before it goes to voice mail.
“What the fuck? She did block me,” I bite out and toss the phone down.
Moving to stand before the floor-length mirror, I take myself in. That darkness starts to seep through. All I see before me is a monster.
Looking into my eyes, all the blue has faded. They are completely gray. Reaching up, I push my wet locks back. The dark roots reveal my natural color while the blond ends expose the lie I’m trying so hard to hold on to.
The truth is, that possibility… that life is long gone. Standing before me is who I’m destined to be. I drop my gaze to my asshole tattoo.
The smoke and flames that billow up my chest and left side speak to this darkness that’s always brewing and now has stoked a flame and is bellowing its way up through me.
Lowering my gaze to my burns, my vision blurs. I don’t know what I see anymore. My skin could be completely healed, but I wouldn’t know. All I see in my reflection is damage, inside and out.
“So be it,” I say and dial a different number.
“Hello.”
“Helios, I want to throw a party in my cousin’s honor. Do you think you can get them there?”
“I’m sure I can.”
“Good. You will arrive with me. I think we should fly in,” I say coldly.
“Got it. See you tonight.”
I’ve had time to think about what I plan to do. It’s the fact that my idiot cousins thought it okay to try to off our grandfather and then turn around and try to target me that’s caused this monster to wake.
Here’s a fact about me, I don’t wait for anyone to come to me. I bring that shit right to your door and make sure you find out. Adrian and Constantine want to see me. Here I am.