Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
I look back at Pressia, but she’s gone. Then I look back at Pell just as Tomas walks in to stand next to him.
“Pie?” Pell says, coming over to me. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I snort-laugh. “Well…” But I don’t have the words right now. So I just sigh, then walk over to the couch on the side of the room and sit down. I stare at my feet for a moment, trying to process everything that has happened to me today.
“Pie?” Tomas comes over to the couch and sits down on one side of me. “Are you all right?”
Pell sits down on the other side of me. “What happened?”
I take a breath and then the words all spill out. “I met Pressia.” I wave at the room. “She was just here.”
“Where?” Both Tomas and Pell say this at the same time. And even though it’s just a single word, the eagerness in their tone is evident.
“She was a ghost. She couldn’t see or hear me, but I could see and hear her. She was sad, you guys.”
“Oh, the poor thing.” Tomas utterly deflates.
“That sucks,” Pell says. “I wanted to save her, but I was drugged. And then…”
“It’s OK,” Tomas says. “I gave her a door. My door.” He nudges me with his shoulder. “Your door, actually.”
“Well.” I snort-laugh again. “I’m pretty sure it’s always been her door. I’m pretty sure this place actually belongs to her.”
All three of us look around the apothecary and then silently nod our heads in agreement.
Pell sighs. “She made the curse.”
“I think we all made the curse,” Tomas adds.
And I think he’s right.
I haven’t gotten Pell’s story yet. And he hasn’t gotten mine. And maybe we’ll never talk about it again, but we don’t need to.
They fucked with us.
Maybe Tomas too.
These damn gods ruined our lives. And Pressia’s as well. She had to spend her entire existence here, alone, and I’m so fucking over this.
I stand up, plant my hands on my hips, and look straight at Pell. “OK. Let’s do this. Let’s get that fucking Eros, save my Jacqueline, and the eggs, and Madeline, and you know what?” I point at Pell, furious. “We’re not giving him Tarq, either. Eros gets nothing! These stupid gods are the real monsters, and they get nothing!”
I expect a little rah-rah from my teammates. This was a pep talk, after all. But they both just stare at me, frowning.
“What? Why are you both looking at me that way?”
“My eggs are dead.”
My mouth drops open as I stare at Tomas. “What?”
“And so is Tarq.”
I look over at Pell. “What? But… he can’t be dead! He’s how we get out of this!”
“I thought you just said we weren’t going to give him Tarq?” Tomas looks at Pell, confused. “Didn’t she just say that?”
“Tomas,” Pell growls.
“What? I’m going for clarity here. Madeline is missing, my dungeon is in ruins, my eggs are dead, and the curse is broken! My entire world has fallen apart!”
Pell narrows his eyes at him. “Everyone’s world has fallen apart. Vinca is in ruins too. Did you forget?” And that’s when I notice he’s holding a skull with a single horn and crown nailed to the forehead.
“Oh, God.” I feel nauseated. “Is that—”
Pell nods. “Yep. This is all that’s left of Tarq.” He looks around the room. “Where is Nysta? I should be the one to tell her.”
“Welll…” I sigh and sit back down between them, then flop all the way back into the cushions. “She’s dead too. I think. I didn’t find a skull. I didn’t find anything, actually. The Bottoms was empty. They were all gone.”
“All of them?” Tomas turns to look at me. “But they were prisoners.”
“Well, not anymore, apparently.”
Pell squints at Tomas. “This is all your fault.”
“My fault? That makes no sense at all. I’m the victim here!”
“And Callistina.” I start to sniffle. “And… I know I hated her, and put her in prison with a Book of Debt, and she killed my Pia—but she did it to break my curse!” I look at Pell, pleading with him to understand. “I was cursed! The god Ptah gave me a bag of rings and—”
“Wait.” Pell puts up a hand. “Did you just say Ptah?”
“Yeah.” I sniffle again. “Apparently, I’m a lion from the House of Fire, or some shit like that. And I really was supposed to marry Tarq. He was there. We were gonna have a godling.”
“Huh.” Pell takes a moment to appear thoughtful. “Interesting. I was supposed to marry Pressia and we were supposed to have a godling too. But then… the eros pulled you through a door and you disappeared. And all the plans were ruined.”
“Yeah.” I look at him. “How do you know that?”
“That fucking Apis bull.”
“Who?” Tomas and I say this at the same time.