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)
“Oh, shit.”
People start screaming.
“Oh, my God!” a wood nymph shrieks. “He killed him.”
“What?” I blink at the accusation and point to myself. “Me?”
She shrieks again. “He killed Freckles!”
Fuck. Freckles is one of Pie’s favorites. He was the one who made her all those tomb tokens. “I didn’t—” But I can’t even defend myself. Because now all the nearby monsters are yelling and no one can hear me.
Things begin to devolve almost immediately. Dozens of monsters crowd the little patio area, looking down at the feet of Freckles. That’s the only thing you can see of his body. Just his hooves sticking out from under the enormous spire, cracked into three pieces.
It takes them like two heartbeats to process what they’re seeing. And then every set of eyes finds me. I begin to back up towards the cathedral. “I didn’t—”
“He killed him!” This is Isla. She screams it again. “He killed one of us!”
Us? So that’s how it is.
I decide now would be a really great time to use the voice and crumble some more shit so I can get back to my tomb, but when I say, “I didn’t kill him!” in my biggest, most powerful monster-Pell voice, there is no rumble. Nothing crumbles. In fact, I don’t even think they hear me, because now they’re rushing towards me like villagers with pitchforks storming a castle.
I turn, and I run.
I burst through the cathedral doors, take the center stairs seven at a time, and in twenty-six leaps, I’m in the grand hall. There are a handful of monsters and nymphs milling around the food on the dining tables. Food I brought them, I want to growl.
They look at me with wide, surprised eyes as my hooves skid to a stop on the polished marble floors. But then from behind me comes the yelling and the screaming.
“Murderer!”
“He killed Frecks!”
“Get him!”
And then those wide surprised eyes narrow down into slits and I know I need to get the fuck out of here. I could leave through the front door, which is a nice option, I’m not gonna lie. But Pie is still in my tomb and there’s no way I’m leaving her here with these psychopaths.
One of the bigger monsters comes at me and I just barely skirt out of the way of his clawed hand as it reaches for my arm. And now I’m pointing in the direction of the real dining room and the variable hallways that lead to Tomas’s dungeon.
I go that way, and then I have to make a choice—dungeon or dining room?
I choose dungeon.
Thankfully, the hallways don’t shift in front of me, but I think they do shift behind me, because the yelling and screaming turns to confusion. And then all the voices get fainter and further away.
When I come to the winding dungeon staircase, I pause to check behind me, leaning on the stone wall with one hand, panting hard in the stuffy darkness.
But there is no sound. None at all.
I turn back to the stairs, grab a torch off the wall, and descend.
The first surprise is the lack of smell. Pie said there were eggs down there, so I was expecting the smell to be worse, not better.
But not only is it better, it’s… kind of sweet. Like flowers.
“Tomas!” I yell it loud because I don’t want to surprise him. I’m not sure what he is these days. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever been sure of Tomas. “Tomas, can you hear me?”
“Pell? Is that you? Are you coming for a chat?” And then I see his handsome, smiling face peering from around the turn of the stairwell. “I wasn’t expecting you. I would’ve tidied. Madeline is sleeping, of course, so she can’t visit. But come. I’m wide awake, as you can see.”
He beckons me with his hand to follow, then disappears around the corner.
I take a deep breath and let it out, look over my shoulder one more time, then follow him into the dungeon. “Tomas. The monsters upstairs, they think I—” But I stop because… “What the… is that a door?”
Tomas beams at me. “Can you believe it?”
“Where did it come from?”
“Pie gave it to me. She was just here.”
“What?”
“Yeah. She came for a visit. And now you. I feel special.” Then he glances at Madeline. “Don’t we, love? Don’t we feel special?”
My eyes narrow, trying to see into the shadows. And then, after a moment of adjustment, there she is. Madeline. Her body is covered in red scales, even her face, just like Pie said. She is stretched out across some large boulders. But then I realize those aren’t boulders, those are dragon eggs. “Fucking hell, Tomas. What are you doing down here?”
“What do you mean?”
“And that door?” I turn to look at it. It’s shimmery and blank so there’s not much to see. “How did Pie give you a door?”