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’m getting close. I’m bringing light with me, I think.” And then I see her off in the distance. Right where the gray meets the black. She’s wearing her slutty schoolgirl outfit, but instead of being human—which she often is when she’s in this outfit—she’s still her wood nymph self.
“Pell!” She sees me. Then she’s running, her hooves making a soft tapping on the ground. When she reaches me, she leaps, jumping into my arms and wrapping her long legs around me. “You found me.”
“I never had any doubt.”
She buries her head in my neck and lets out a long sigh as I put her down. “The devil got me, Pell.”
“I think you should explain that.”
She pulls away from my neck so she can look me in the eyes. “I went through the door to Granite Springs”—she points at me—“just like you told me to.”
“I didn’t tell you to go visit Tomas. Or give him a door. What was that about?”
“Would you like to hear my devil story? Or do you want to complain about my spontaneous and uncontrollable generosity?”
“Spontaneous and uncontrollable?”
“So you don’t want to hear my devil story?”
“I do. Tell me the devil story.”
The words spill out of her mouth and she describes the devil as an even more handsome version of Russ Roth.
“Handsome?”
“You do have to admit he’s hot, Pell. There’s no getting around that.”
I wave my hand in the air, telling her to continue.
“Anyway, he did something to me.”
“What kind of something?” I growl these words out in my new rumbling voice. And as I do that pinpricks of light appear above us.
Pie looks up. “What’s that?”
“Finish the story of the devil.”
She sighs. “Is it stars?”
“Pie! Focus!”
“Fine.” She pouts a little. I really like it when she pouts. Her lips get all plump and sexy. “He put some kind of spell on me.”
“What kind of spell?”
“Like a… one-track-mind spell. He wants me to go to Vinca and bring Tarq to him.”
“Tarq? Why?”
“The devil says Tarq is not the king, he is. And blah, blah, blah… he controls the royal beasts. Also, he says I belong to him too.”
“What?” Again, I roar this. And the voice is loud, and commanding, and reverberates around in the space. This makes the pinpricks of light glow.
Pie points up. “I think we should talk about that.”
“How could you belong to him when you belong to me?” There’s no stopping the voice. I’m getting hot about this fucking devil and this time the rumble produces a flash in the air. Then the grayness all around us takes on a yellow-orange glow.
Pie side-eyes me. “Are you doing that?”
“How. Can you belong to him? When you belong to me?”
And again, the world around us brightens.
“I think you’re doing that, Pell. And I’m not trying to change the subject or whatever. The short answer to your question is that I don’t know. I need to go down into the Bottoms and find the library. Tomas says there’s a library down there. You can come with. Now”—she lets out a breath and twirls her finger in a circle above her head—“what’s going on with this?”
I look up. There’s nothing to see up there. The only thing that has changed is the light. The pinpricks must’ve expanded into the glow, because I can’t see them anymore. “I don’t know.”
And now I’m confused too. Because the anger has left me, but the rumble in my voice continues and the glow around us grows.
“You’re doing that.”
I shrug. “Maybe.” And at the same time that word comes out of my mouth, the world brightens again.
“No ‘maybe’ about it, Pell. You’re making… light.”
“Well. That’s weird.”
“Yeah.” She chuckles a little, then lets out a long sigh, like she’s relaxing. “What is this place? Where the hell are we? And how did we get here?”
“I was down in the dungeon with Tomas.” Then I let out an exasperated breath because I momentarily forgot about the whole scene from the sanctuary and now it comes rushing back. “The monsters and nymphs are pissed off at me. So I had to make a run for it. I ran to the dungeon and the hallways rearranged so they couldn’t follow me. Then I needed to check up on you, but I didn’t want to go back out there. They’re really pissed. So Tomas suggested I use the hallways to…” I don’t know what happened, so I just throw up my hands. “Make a door or something. And then I ended up here.”
“Huh.”
“What’s that ‘huh’ mean?”
She puts up a hand. “Hold on a second, mister. Why are the monsters and nymphs all mad at you?”
“Well, you’re not gonna like this—and it was not on purpose—but Frecks is dead.”
“What? How?”
“My stupid voice.” And when I say this, the rumble comes back and the world flickers. “See? I don’t know what’s going on but this voice is… destroying things out there.”