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)
“Yeah.” I put up a hand. “Just stop there.” Saturn worship is infamous for child sacrifice.
“I was going to do that too. Not the godling, of course. I would’ve needed Tarq. And after my little stunt at the House of Fire, they put him in the palace at Vinca and gave him Callistina. They have produced many children—”
“I don’t care about this shit.”
“Well, you should. Because Pie’s power is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You’re driving the gods crazy, Pell. You know that right?”
“No.”
“Saturn. How many times has he broken into your sanctuary?”
“Once.”
“Once?” Eros laughs. “Who do you think all those caretakers were?”
I make a face. “All of them?”
“All of them.”
“How is that possible? I thought they were all eros?”
“They were. My people, of course. But he’s powerful. It’s an easy thing to possess a half-breed eros. He corrupted every single one of them. Why do you think they never just… pointed to the gate and doors where your stupid curse was written?”
“Huh. Wow. But… why? Why did he go through all that? Why didn’t he just kill me?”
“I’m sure he tried. Probably thousands of times. But that stupid curse of yours—probably in combination with mine, since they literally happened simultaneously—was very protective. And, of course, he was waiting for Pie to show up. He knew you and Pie were in the same world, but not the same time. So he just had to wait it out, didn’t he? The timeline is super fucked up.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard. So what?” I’m talking to him, but also Pressia. Because she practically ordered me to set this right in that spelling. And I’m not sure I need to listen to her. I’m not sure I need to listen to any of these people.
“Since your meddling caused it, you need to fix it. You and Pie, of course. You need to go back and take those monsters with you.”
I already know this, of course. But now that I get a conversation with someone who is actually in the know, I feel like asking questions. “We go back, and then what happens? They just get to kill us?”
“It’s your fate, isn’t it?”
I shake my head.
“She’s gonna die anyway, Pell. You both are. And if you get to your end by cheating…well.” He throws up his hands. “Cheaters never win. Not in the end.”
“I’m not cheating.”
“Your whole life is one long cheat! You’ve spent thousands of years using the magic of that sanctuary to cheat.”
He’s right. I know he’s right. But this feels like an extra loss.
“You won’t have to live through it, if that’s what you’re worried about. It will just… be over.”
I don’t even have words. I just huff.
“You will say your goodbyes—you, and Pie, and that dragon of yours—and you will walk through a door, and when it closes, it’s done. Everything is fixed. You already know this is your path forward. You came here demanding that I allow you to take the monsters home. It’s a good first step, but they’re just innocent bystanders. You. Pie. The dragon. You three are the guilty parties.”
“What’s Tomas got to do with anything?”
Eros smiles big. “He’s your real caretaker.”
I will need to think about this revelation. For like… maybe a lifetime. But later. “You keep saying ‘we.’ But you’re not going to set this right, even though it was your fault too. You did that spell when I did mine. It was you who fucked things up, not me. And you took Pie! You brought her here.”
“It was us. I already said that. I asked you what you wanted and you said an apology. And for your information, I have been paying my penance for my cheat.”
“How?”
“By staying here in this human realm.”
“Big fucking deal.”
“I can’t go back, Pell. I’ve been banished. You’ve seen my bloodline. It’s a mess. That poor Madeline.” He shakes his head. “A rogue dragon gene. This is the end of me. I’m done. The only way to fix it was to kill Pie and take her power. And I didn’t do that. I walked away from her nineteen years ago. I’ve been living my own version of hell for nineteen years. And she can be mad at me all she wants. I don’t care.”
But he pauses to sigh here, so he does care.
“I’m not her father. But…” Another pause. “But she sees me as one. She thinks of me that way. At least, in the primitive part of her brain. Lisa isn’t a bad person, she was just… in love with an eros and when the love spell wore off, she realized that Pie wasn’t even hers. She did the best she could. And I’m sorry about everything that happened to Pie. I really am. I stayed away as much as possible, but every now and then I would drift into her sphere, wondering if I made the wrong choice by not stealing her power. So I saw a little of what was happening, but I was powerless to change it. I would’ve killed her, Pell. If I had stayed, I would’ve killed her. And I didn’t.”