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)
Oooooooohh. Yeah. The devil.
I think he put a spell on me. Wait. If he’s an eros, then he doesn’t have to put a spell on me. I’m just going to be attracted to him the same way I was Russ Roth.
That’s a really creepy power.
And then more of my little visit comes back to me. Not only did he entrance me, but he sent me on a mission. I am supposed to go find Tarq and bring him to Granite Springs. Which isn’t even called Granite Springs anymore. It’s called Savage Falls.
Kinda ominous, if you ask me.
Well. I have lots of opinions about what just happened.
One. No. No, no, no. I will not be fetching Tarq for the Devil of Savage Falls.
Two. Where the fuck are Jacqueline and her monster kids? My heart palpitates a little when the obvious answer manifests in my mind. Either the devil and I were in some kind of in-between, magical-dimension door world, and this was not the real…-ish world where Pell and I left Jacqueline, or the devil really does have her and now she’s locked in a fog curse. Or something.
I sigh, so tired of other worlds. They were kinda cool at first. A little bit scary, but cool. Now, though? I don’t see the point. It’s too much magic for a girl like me. It’s too much power.
Back to my list.
Three. Royal beasts. That’s what he called… well, us. All of us monsters, I guess. Royal beasts. And I know that name. I know this name because it’s written on the cover of the book down in the Bottoms.
Four. The fuckin’ Bottoms.
I have not been back down to see Callistina since that day Tomas burned the town. There is a part of me that feels guilty about this because what if I’m supposed to feed them or something?
But then there’s another part that really hopes she’s starving to death.
She killed my Pia. And I get it. Pia wasn’t… something else. She was me. But that’s even worse. If Callistina really is my sister—and I have my doubts. I didn’t see any proof. But even if she is, what kind of bitch kills off her sister’s… like… essence, or whatever?
I hope she’s starving. I hope she’s miserable. I hope… all kinds of very bad things for her.
And now Nysta’s down there too.
You’re making a mess of things, Pie.
When those words manifest in my head, they come through in another voice.
My mother’s voice.
You’re making a mess of things, Pie. Of all the things I can remember about the woman who dropped me off at Child Protective Services when I was nine, this phrase is right up there at the top. One of the most familiar things about her memory.
You’re making a mess of things, Pie. And that’s why I’m doing this!
A door slams closed in my head and I’m startled for a moment. Because I had forgotten about that. I had forgot how she would lock me inside things. Hotel rooms. Cars. Apartments. Gas station bathrooms.
Everything was my fault. Everything. And her solution to my interference was to leave me behind. To just shove me through a door, close it behind me, and walk away.
A sudden sense of loss fills me up and makes me weak. Because isn’t this exactly what I’m doing to Callistina? I shoved her through a door, closed it behind her, and walked away.
And now I’m doing it to Nysta. And I don’t even know Nysta. She got on my nerves and my first instinct was to use my power to shut her up.
Nice, Pie. Way to be just like your mother.
“OK.” I put up a hand as I say this out loud. “Enough of the Memory Lane bullshit, Pie. Focus. You’re in the middle of the devil’s mission.”
Right. Five. Either the devil put me in some kind of trance when we met, or it was just his natural eros sex appeal working its magic on me. And that trance followed me through the door, but then wore off immediately once I was inside the door.
I’m still here in the not-trance standing in the not-door.
And now, conveniently, my earlier musing about the doors comes back to me. They are like hallways. I don’t know why I just heard a conversation between Pell and me, but it really does feel like a hallway thing. So I think I’m right about this. The doors are like hallways.
Which means they might even be connected.
No. They are connected. And I’m in a hallway right now.
Somehow, some way, I walked through a door and ended up in a hallway.
“Welp.” I throw up my hands. “There’s only one way out of a hallway. You keep walking until you find a door.”
So that’s what I do.
I walk through the fog and hope for a door…
CHAPTER TEN – PELL