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’s another reason why we are so few. It’s not like they’ll come out looking like me. Or Madeline, for that matter. She’s a genetic anomaly and I’ve already lived through all the life stages these little beasts will be presented with.
We’re hard to hide once we’re born.
And the sanctuary is crumbling. Even Pell had to admit it. It’s not going to last much longer.
Which means we can’t stay here. Not if we want to live. And despite Madeline’s desperate threat to harm herself, if she can just hang in there long enough to get past this beast stage, she will see that…
But even I can’t muster up that level of delusion.
Will she become like me?
I don’t know.
It’s just as likely that she will be a beast forever, with no concept whatsoever that there is any other way to exist.
And if this is what happens to her, won’t this happen to the children too?
Maybe she’s right? Maybe this is not a place to raise a family.
Which means… I must take us somewhere safe.
And, of course, that was always my reasoning for asking for a door. But I hadn’t actually thought it through when I made that request to Pie. I just knew I had to leave.
I walk back over to the door and this is when I notice something weird.
The doorknob has fallen off and is sitting on the dungeon floor. It’s glowing a soft shade of pink. My eyes track up to the walls, where the gemstones are also glowing a soft shade of pink.
Then I look back down at the doorknob. “No. It can’t be.”
I walk over to the wall, grab the nearest gemstone, and pluck it right out.
And do you know what it is?
A doorknob!
I go back over to the door, push it inside the hole where the doorknob goes, and then turn it.
2
The door opens and—on the other side is a little girl.
She’s got long, blonde hair, a sweet, sweet face, and a fancy light-green dress that looks like Eyebrows made it from royal fabrics and that falls all the way to the floor. There’s a golden-yellow sash around her waist.
Atop her head is a crown of flowers, on her wrists are bracelets that clink, and around her neck is a gemstone that looks suspiciously like a dragon-dungeon doorknob.
She’s playing with a dollhouse. And she’s got little dolls that look like monsters. There’s one like Pell, and one like Pie, and there’s even a dragon. And that’s when I notice that it’s not a dollhouse at all.
It’s Saint Mark’s Sanctuary. In miniature.
Her head tilts in my direction and she squints. I haven’t walked through the door, so I don’t think she can see me. But she certainly can sense me. “Are you going to hurt me?”
I step through and smile. “Never.”
She giggles. “I already knew that.” Then she holds up the dragon doll. “It’s you, right?”
I shrug. “Where am I?”
“You’re at the palace.”
“What am I doing here?” I don’t know why I’m asking her, she’s a child from another realm. And, of course, I know why I’m here. I came through the door.
“I think you’re looking for something.”
“I am, actually. A safe place to take my family.”
She frowns. “Well, that wouldn’t be here.”
“No. I suppose not.”
She points to my hand, which is still holding the doorknob. “Do you have more of those?” Then her fingers go to her neck. “Or did you come to ask for mine?”
“Oh.” I let go of the doorknob. “No. I have plenty. Hundreds, actually.”
“Really?”
“Truly.”
“Where did you get them?”
“Pie.”
“Pie?”
“My friend. She gave me the door too. Well, she gave me the knobs first, then the door. But I didn’t ask for the knobs. She just sputtered out a spelling and, well”—I throw up my arms—“there they were.”
“Lucky. I don’t have a door for this one.” She points to the gemstone around her neck. “But I know it can take me somewhere.”
I look back at my door. My one and only door. Then I look back at the little girl. “Do you need to leave?”
“Not yet. But probably soon.”
“Where would you go?”
She bits her lip, then looks at her dollhouse. “There.” She points at it too.
“That’s where I come from.”
“Really?”
“You can come back with me, if you want. But I have to warn you, it’s not safe there anymore. We have to leave too.”
“Well, thank you for the offer, but I can’t. Not yet. Someone is coming to see me and I have to be here when he arrives.”
“Is he good?”
“I think he is. But I can’t know for sure.”
“Well…” I don’t know what else to do. This is the wrong doorknob, obviously. “I guess I should be going.”
“Can you leave me the door?”
I wince, looking at my door. My one and only door. “I don’t know how to do that.”
“Can you just… tell it stay when you leave?”