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)
“What’s happening? I think I lost time!”
“Just run, Pie. We need to get through the door!”
The devil roars again, and this time the entire dome ceiling comes tumbling down on top of everyone. Chunks of plaster hit me on the head and back, but I push Pie under me, protecting her from the worst of it.
The fireflies open the door for us and when we’re but ten feet away, we leap—the same way we did through the door on the mountainside of Granite Springs. We pass through and the door closes behind us as we crash to the ground.
But then, in the calm after the storm, I can hear the song. Faintly, but definitely there.
‘Ball and Chain.’
He’s following us.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - PIE
Pell and I both crash to the hard, slate floors on our knees and skid a good seven or eight feet across the new room.
Pell is frantic, his yellow eyes wide as he looks at me. “We can’t stay here.”
“What just happened?” My head is so foggy and every time I blink, I see a negative image of the devil on the back of my eyelids.
“The devil got you, Pie. He got into your head. Fuckin’ eros. Someone should’ve ended them long ago. But we don’t have time for that now. We need to keep going.” He points to the next door just a few few away across the small chamber, which appears to be a library.
I am momentarily distracted by the books. Well, more than momentarily. I have a compelling urge to go look at them. I even start crawling that way, not even bothering to get to my feet. But Pell pulls me back by an ankle. “Pie! Pay attention! Snap out of it!”
“What?” I turn to look at him, breathless and confused. “The books, Pell. I need to get to those books.”
“No! We have to keep going. Can’t you hear it?”
“Hear what?” I strain my ears.
“The song, Pie. Can’t you hear the song? It’s him. He’s gonna follow us. We need to go.”
“But the books! I think I might need some of these. Look! That one says Royal Beasts!”
“No time. We can’t. He’s coming.”
“How will he get through the door? It’s gone.”
Pell turns his head to look back the way we came. “Huh.”
“Yeah. We should stop here and—”
“No.” He cuts me off with a deep rumble of his voice. And this is a very firm ‘no.’ In fact, it’s so firm, it kinda clears my foggy head and wipes away most of my compulsion to get to those books. “No,” Pell says again, this time without the rumble. “He’s coming. I don’t know how his powers work, but he can change entire towns, Pie. And you’re under his spell. If these books are important the hallways will show them to us again. Now let’s go!”
He doesn’t give me a choice. Even if I wanted to resist, and I don’t—not really—I would not be able to because Pell stands up, pulls me to my feet, and uses all his strength to drag me across the room and pull me through the next door.
We crash into a hallway. Like… a legitimate hallway of what appears to be a mansion that lives in a world of gloomy light and cloudy shadows. It reminds me of romantic English literature.
“Fuck,” Pell murmurs.
And I get it. Because this hallway that lives in some historical Jane Eyre mansion is filled with doorways. All of them closed.
Pell looks at me, still holding my hand. We’re still wearing our ridiculous Eighties prom outfits. My puffy shoulders are a little bit deflated and his tie is very crooked, but my pumps are still on my feet and he still looks like a movie star about to save the world. “Which one do you think?” He pans his hand towards the line of doorways.
“Um.” I look them up and down and just shrug. “Does it matter?”
Pell gets distracted, tilting his head up like he’s listening to something. “Shit. The song is following us.”
“What song?”
“‘Ball and Chain.’ Remember?”
I shake my head. “I can’t hear it.”
“Well, I can. And it’s his calling card. I don’t know why, but it’s a signal that he’s not far behind. I think the hallways are protecting us, but they’re not really trustworthy, ya know?”
“Where are we? Like, I was coming through the door to your tomb when this all started. And you were…” I trail off because I can’t remember.
“Coming out of Tomas’s dungeon.”
“Right. So. Are we even in the hallways? How does it connect to your tomb?” But then I sigh, remembering my earlier thought exercise about doors and hallways. Then I look down the line of doors in this hallway and try to put the pieces together. “The doors and hallways are connected.” I look at Pell. “Don’t you think?”
He nods. “It has to be that way.”