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)
“That doesn’t explain what happened to Frecks.”
“So the voice came out, and the whole place trembled, and then the spire fell down off the cathedral and… Frecks ended up underneath it.”
“Oh, no.” She pouts her sexy lips again. “He was the one who made me all the portal door dragon-scale jewelry.”
“Good thing we don’t need those anymore.”
“Pell!”
“Sorry. But… but they’re getting on my nerves, OK? I’m tired of them.” This comes out too loud and with too much anger, so the world around us flashes and then…
Pie’s eyes go wide when she looks up at the sky. Which is… now a sky. She points to it. “What the hell is that?”
“A sun?”
She looks at me. “What’s it doing here?”
I just shrug. “Dunno.”
Her eyebrows crinkle and she stares at me. She glances up, and around, and her eyes land back on me. “You… lit up the world.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm? That’s all you have to say about that?”
“I doubt it was me, Pie. It’s the hallways. They’re fucking with us.”
“I don’t think so, mister. Do it again.”
“Do what again? I’m not doing anything. I’m just talking.” And the moment the word ‘talking’ comes out, the sky turns blue. A very pale, gorgeous shade of robin’s egg blue.
Pie’s eyes go wide and a smile creeps up her face. “You’re doing that.”
She might be right. I test it out. “I’m doing that!” I say it loud, and add some growl as we both stare up at the sky. But nothing happens. I look at Pie and shrug. “I guess that’s that.”
But she points to the ground and whispers, “Look.”
Well. I stand corrected. “Is that grass?”
She steps lightly, her hooves sinking into the lush green as she walks a few paces away, then turns, beaming a smile at me. “You’re… creating something, Pell! Do more.”
“No. I don’t want to. I want to get rid of the monsters.” The grass grows longer. Right in front of our eyes. “I want them out of my tomb!” A little tree pops up from the earth.
“Say more. What else do you want?”
“Umm… I want that devil to go away. I want you—” I let out a long breath and whatever is happening around us pauses. “I want you, Pie. You and me. I even made you a ring.”
“What?” Her eyes go blinky and wide. It’s a cute look. “Do you have it on you?” She’s eyeballing my pockets. “Let me see it.”
“No. It’s a surprise. You can’t see it. And besides, I have to make a spelling for it. To give us good luck and long love.”
Now her face goes all melty and soft. Like I’m making her swoon. I like to make Pie swoon, not only because she’s more likely to say yes to sex when she’s all swoony, but also because she’s just… cute.
She steps towards me, reaching for my shoulders. She leans up on her tiptoes, bringing us nearly eye to eye. And then she kisses me right on the lips. Words pass between us in a whisper. Her words.
“A love, a life, a world, a sun
You and I are meant to run.
Make the forest our place to roam
And we will have a forever home.”
We pull apart and all the tiny trees around us are now saplings.
“Did you mean to do that?”
She lets out a sigh. “No. It just came out. It’s been doing that all day. That’s how Tomas got his door. I didn’t really agree to that, the words just tumbled out and there it was.”
“New powers.”
She agrees with a nod. “For both of us, Pell. Your voice makes worlds.”
“Not really. Only in here. And this place isn’t real. Outside, Pie, the sanctuary crumbles when I use the voice. And at first, I didn’t think this was a big deal. Wouldn’t be the first time it fell down, right? But then I noticed it wasn’t repairing itself.”
We stare at each other for a long moment.
Finally, Pie says, “What does that mean?”
But she’s not slow or dumb. She knows what it means. She just wants me to say it out loud. “I think… I think the curse is breaking.”
“Really? Well, that’s great!”
I’m not displaying the same excitement.
“What?” she says. “Why do you look that way?”
“You said we can’t break the curse because this is where we’re safe. Remember?”
“I do. But”—she smiles—“everything ends eventually, right? No one is very happy with the sanctuary right now. And it’s not even impenetrable. Batty flies over the walls.”
“Batty. He’s on my shit list.” The voice rumbles again and now the saplings are grown.
Pie pats my chest. “Yeah. But that’s OK. Because I don’t think they’re supposed to be here.”
Now she’s frowning so I frown too. “Where are they supposed to be?”
“Well.” She makes one of those clenched-teeth smiles. “I think they might belong in the Bottoms.”
“In the prison?”
“Yep. I think they go down there. That’s another reason I need to get to that library. I haven’t been down there since… you know, that whole ‘enslaving Callistina’ thing. But I’ve made a mess of things.” These words make her pause and look sad for a moment. I’m just about to ask what that’s all about when she continues. “I need to face what I’ve done. I can’t run from it forever.”