Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Maybe things were different for the demons who’d been on Earth for a long time, though. I was hoping not to stick around long enough to find out.
That was what was on my mind as I made my way downstairs.
“Fucking finally,” Ace grumbled as he warmed his hands with his coffee cup. “Are you ever planning on going to see Arick, or should I send someone else?” he asked.
“I’ll go today,” I told him as I went toward the coffee machine.
Minos was right.
It didn’t feel any better.
But I was almost somehow… acclimating to the pain. It was becoming less shocking and more expected. That didn’t mean it hurt any less. I was just learning to be able to get up and move around a little while it constantly punched a hole through my chest.
“I need your head in the game if you’re talking to Arick. We probably won’t get a second chance as more and more humans and supernaturals start waking up to what is going on.”
“I’m as in the…” I started, trailing off when I felt something strange happen.
That tightened string sensation in my chest that kept pulling me? Yeah, all the tension suddenly disappeared.
“What?” Ace asked, watching my face.
“I don’t know,” I admitted, but even so, I was rushing through the house, making my way toward the front door, and yanking it open.
Then there she was.
Standing next to Dale in a pair of tight jeans and a massive sweater, her hair left around her shoulders, kicking up in the light breeze, and making that familiar strawberry scent dance its way over to me.
I never knew relief like I felt it then.
It washed through me like a wave.
She was here.
That had to account for something, right?
That tug, maybe she’d been feeling it too. Maybe she’d been following it toward me.
“Bael.”
My name exhaled out of her, and the way her lips parted and her eyes widened made me think that she hadn’t exactly been expecting me.
“This lovely woman doesn’t know why she is here,” Dale said, giving me a raised brow look. “Maybe it’s about time you explain that to her,” she added, tone a little sharp, pointed, as she moved past me and into the house, leaving us alone in the front.
“Bael? Why am I here?” Charlotte asked, voice small.
“You felt it, didn’t you?” I asked. When her gaze dipped, I realized I’d been pressing a hand to the center of my chest where the tug had been pulling at me.
“I, ah, I guess so. It was like I was pulled here. Why was I pulled her? Did you, uhm, cast a spell on me or something?”
There was no stopping the snorting sound that escaped me at that. “I’m a demon, not a witch,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well excuse me, but up until a few days ago, I didn’t even think demons existed. Until the whole…” she said, curling her hands up like claws like I was some sort of monster from a horror movie.
“I think Dale is right. I need to explain everything,” I said, moving back a little so she had room to pass me if she wanted to.
“This is all real, isn’t it?” she asked. “Demons. The gods. The weird feelings I’ve been having. I’m not… insane.”
“You’re not insane. It’s all happening. When I first heard about the gods waking up, I was sure it was all bullshit too,” I admitted.
“It’s not. I, ah, I know one,” she admitted. “She’s been the one laughing. Remember how I said that—“
“I remember,” I cut her off. “Every time you knocked shit over.”
“As it turns out, I wasn’t knocking it over. Atë was. She is at the university to screw with her ‘boss,’ but she wanted to toy with me since I was the expert on her and her kind. She was actually who told me to leave.”
“What do you mean?”
“She said because of who I am and what I know, that I might have a target on my back from some of the other gods. She told me I should leave and disappear. So…” she said, waving an arm out.
That was why she left.
Not because she wanted to see me.
Not because she knew that the pulling sensation would lead her to me.
Because a god told her to go.
And because she was lost and confused, she followed the pulling sensation, likely thinking of it as some sort of gut instinct.
There was no way to describe the disappointment as it worked its way through me, as it intensified the pain that I’d just started to think I could manage, figuring it couldn’t get worse.
How wrong was I?
“Are you going to be sick?” Charlotte asked, eyeing me.
“We don’t get sick,” I told her, wincing a bit at the sharpness in my tone, at the way she jerked back from it.
From the burning sensation on my back, I could tell that my damn wings were trying to shoot outward, to reach toward her again.