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)
Well, that escalated quickly.
The rest of the gods and goddesses have now all arrived and have formed a ring around me, Saturn, and Eros. These gods and goddesses all join hands.
And that’s not a good sign, either.
“Get out, Eros. You have been stripped.”
This comes from Zeus. But it’s not very effective. I’m going to assume that he’s insinuating that Eros no longer has power. But he’s here, inside this exclusive slave auction, looking pretty damn powerful with those wings.
Plus, he’s just so beautiful. I get weak knees at the sight of him.
Fuck’s sake, Pie. That’s the magic! Snap out of it! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. The final piece of your puzzle. Do not miss it because of some magical swooning!
I blink and shake my head, trying to overcome the spell of his arrow, or his face, or whatever.
It works. A little. My head clears just enough to hear his threat.
No. Not a threat.
A spell.
“A little girl, made of gods.
A debt comes due,
The perfect time.
All agreed this girl is mine!”
But just as these words come out of his mouth, all the alchemists—including Ostanes—come together with lips moving as they conjure up balls of light in their hands. And together, as they manipulate the fire in their palms, they say—
“A banished nobody in the hall.
A man with wings dares to call.
A god he was, no longer true.
If he wins, he loses too!”
And then everyone is yelling. The gods and goddesses, the royal beasts, the other lionesses waiting to be sold, and even the people on the floor pressed up flat against the outer rim of the wall.
They yell the spell in a chorus.
And then they start making up new spells. There are so many words, so many commands, it’s almost too much to comprehend. But I hear things that catch my attention. Just fleeting sounds. Not even passages. I have no idea which words belong to which spell, belong to which god or goddess, or royal beast, or lioness, or alchemist.
All I know is that all of these spellings are directed at me and Eros. They are closing in on us. Making a circle around us like they are a bunch of fucking witches. Hands out as they cast their doom and despair up on me.
The whole room is now filled with words. They float there, in the air in front of me, like real things. In color, even. Blue, and orange, and red, and green. I see the word ‘moth’ spelled out. ‘Monsters.’ ‘Slave,’ ‘insanity,’ ‘woods,’ ‘hooves,’ ‘horns,’ ‘nymph,’ ‘saints.’ I see ‘despair,’ and ‘poverty,’ and ‘orphan.’
Suddenly my whole body begins to vibrate. It’s intense, and scary, and then, in this chorus of curses and spellings, I am screaming. Because when I look down at myself, I am changing.
Flickering between all the different ways I can be Pie. The lioness, the wood nymph chimera, the human. And more. Many, many more that I don’t even have words to describe.
This is when a bit of truth hits me.
It’s all moves and countermoves, just like Pell said.
Only it didn’t happen the way he said and it’s not about some stupid book.
It’s about me, and these vengeful and forgotten gods, and the alchemist who made me, and this banished Eros who wants revenge for being discarded. And all these floating and colorful words are my life foretold. I was to be bought by the Vincans and promised to Tarq. And even though no one here mentioned a godling, I already know about the godling. Because Tarq told me himself. These gods and goddesses had a plan for me and it was big magic.
A new line of gods, maybe.
A new line of rulers.
One with more power, perhaps.
One with no chance of being superseded at the whims of the humans who bow to them.
No chance of being discarded like an eros on Judgement Day.
Because I was something… terrible.
I am something terrible.
I am some purposeful genetic engineering with the bloodline of all the gods, across all time, running through my veins.
They were up to something when they made me. Up to something no good, something so big that the only way to set it right was to ruin me before this magic ended up in the wrong hands.
They chose to ruin me to save themselves.
What a bunch of assholes.
And then, just when I think it can’t possibly get any more fucked up, out of literally nowhere a door appears in front of me. Mere inches away. From the door comes a hand. A hand that grabs onto my leg, pulling me through, screaming, as I gaze upon the smiling, excited face of my mother.
I look behind me, reaching out for someone to save me from the terrible fate I’ve just been sentenced to, but it is Eros who takes my hand and I pull him through the door with me.