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)
I glance over my shoulder at the opening that leads to the woods, and decide it’s time to go. My best, and only, friend on the outside has been kidnapped by the devil of Savage Falls. He did some kind of magic on me to make me want to bring him Tarq. Which… I’m maybe not entirely against. I just don’t trust him. But I wouldn’t ever hand Tarq over to the devil without telling Pell first.
And when I left the devil and stepped back through that door, I wasn’t going to look for Pell and get his permission. I was going back to Vinca to get Tarq.
He spelled me. And he didn’t even use a spelling to do it.
But the hallway-slash-doorway gods stopped this by putting me in a fog and showing me Pell.
Yep. We’ve got a mystery on our hands. And normally, I might complain about this. Maybe even do a little monkey-walking. But I’m not really upset about a new mystery. I’m actually looking forward to figuring things out. Because I’m sick of this shit. I’m sick of always being a victim of circumstance.
And if the gods of Saint Mark’s Sanctuary want me to solve their little mystery, then it’s the least I can do. Because before I came here, I was just floating. No purpose. No future.
And now look at me. I can spell the fuck out of things. And I can do magic. It’s maybe not typical of how witches do it—or alchemists, for that matter—but I can do magic.
Pretty cool stuff, too.
I’m kind of a big deal. And I owe it all to Saint Mark’s.
But I know my limits. There are a lot of gods, and monsters, and maybe even demons involved in this whole curse thing. There are magic books at stake. And prisoners. And debts.
Including mine.
Not to mention Pell and Tomas.
So I need to tread carefully.
And isn’t it convenient that I have hooves now? Hooves that are very good at stepping carefully.
I snicker as I enter the woods, a little bit proud of myself for being so positive—even though Pia isn’t here to prod me into that kind of thinking.
But the woods do not take me to the big tree that Pell and I sleep under. In fact, this doesn’t look like our woods at all. It starts off thick and lush, but as I travel down the path the trees, and shrubs, and ferns become fewer and fewer until there’s nothing but a gray wasteland.
“Now what the hell? Why does the freaking world have to shift around so much?”
The last part of my sentence echoes off in the distance.
And then the whole place goes dark.
CHAPTER TWELVE – PELL
I come out of the door and find myself in… nothingness. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s not even darkness, it’s just gray, blah nothing. “Hello?” This one word echoes through the space, repeating itself over and over again until my ‘hello’ is just a hum.
“Hello?” Again, I listen for the echo.
I’m no expert in echoes, but I’m pretty sure that repeating echoes bouncing into one another mean that this is not an open space, but a confined one.
“OK, hallway gods.” My words come out weary. “I don’t know what this is, or what I’m doing here, or if this has a point. But I’m looking for Pie!”
I yell the last part.
It echoes. And echoes. And echoes.
And then… a faint voice in the distance. “Pell? Pell, is that you?”
“Pie? Pie, can you hear me?”
“I can hear you.”
But she sounds so far away. “Pie! Where are you?”
“I don’t know. It’s dark! I can’t see anything!”
“Follow my voice, Pie. And I’ll follow yours.”
“I’ll try, but—”
She cuts off. I think she’s scared. I hate it when Pie is scared. “You’re OK, Pie. Don’t worry. We can’t be that far away.”
“Oh, Pell. Don’t say things like that. It’s like tempting fate.”
She really is scared. I can hear it in her voice. “Talk to me, Pie. Where did you come from?”
“What? I can barely hear you! Pell! Can you hear me?”
“You’re going the wrong way. Turn around. Follow my voice.”
“I can’t see anything, Pell. Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“OK. I’ll come to you. Just keep talking. Tell me what happened. How did you get here? Did you get lost leaving Tomas’s dungeon?”
“How did you know I was in the dungeon?”
“I went to see Tomas too.”
“Hey, I can hear you better now.”
“I’m coming to get you, that’s why. Just stay where you are.”
“Don’t worry about that, I’m not going anywhere. There’s nowhere to go.”
“So did you get lost leaving his dungeon?”
“No. I went back to the tomb and then I went to check on Jacqueline.”
Her voice is getting louder and louder as I walk. “And what happened?”
“The devil, Pell. The devil got me.”
“What?”
“Oh, hey! It’s getting lighter. I can see… well, nothing. But it’s not black anymore.”