Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“She doesn’t want you to open her.” Gray moved into the room, and his eyes had changed from their glorious violet to what I liked to call midnight prophet. He loses his irises, and pure black takes over his eyes. “She’s interested in me. She’s talking to me. Trent and Fenrir, stay away.”
Gray started to walk toward the book, but I had some reservations. “She doesn’t like men. She sometimes goes blank when a man tries to open her. I kind of need her whole today. I don’t think Evan’s finished documenting what we need.”
I didn’t have Alvis anymore, but I was hoping someone else could help us. There was a whole library down here, and surely someone knew how to navigate it.
Gray smoothed back my hair with a soothing smile. “She’s trained to hide her secrets around men, but we share powers. Our magic comes from the same well, so she’ll…suffer me.” He frowned toward the book. “You know that’s quite rude. I’m nice most of the time.”
Was my demon honey actually talking to the book? “Do you have some kind of psychic connection with her?”
“I do. It’s similar to the one I have with Jacob,” Gray explained. “She can’t read my mind or anything, but she can let me know what she thinks. She can open herself to me and I to her.”
“Hey, ask her if she wants to be more specific about where this weapon thing is.” I was a woman willing to use my connections. If my honey had a direct line to something I needed, I would work that hard.
I would use any trick I could to get around the whole figure-it-out-yourself thing. I usually figured it out by some bad shit happening to me and going, oh yeah that’s what it meant.
Gray turned those endless eyes on me, shifting from my husband to the dark prophet with an ease that took my breath away. “You know she can’t do that.”
“Well, apparently she can talk to you,” I pointed out. “You know what she’s never done with me? Opened up a line to my brain and said ‘hey, girl, let’s hang.’”
Gray’s lips kicked up in a grin. “Yes, she’s extremely amusing. She’s my wife, you know.”
Okay, that part was weird. It was probably how the queen felt when her faery prince hubby talked to the ancient god who lived inside him. I moved back and let Gray get close to The Path, worry still playing through me since I couldn’t feel her intentions. I really wished I’d had Gladys. Gladys could try to kick the book’s… She didn’t have an ass, so we’d have to go for her spine or something if she did anything wrong. It could be an Earth plane sentient weapon versus a witch plane sentient weapon thing.
Two seemingly inanimate objects enter the ring. One leaves.
Gray turned his head my way. “She’s not going to hurt anyone. She merely wants to share some magic, and she’s been patient. She sensed me the moment I entered the Under, but she also felt I wasn’t ready to be approached.”
So she wasn’t a cock blocker. Good for her. “And you are now?”
“Yes. I’m calmer and much more open to what she needs to tell me,” Gray agreed. “From the information she’s sending me, she’s Arete’s version of what we would call a true prophet. Instead of placing all the burden on one being, the witches spread the power around, and The Path collects prophecies for the plane. When you think about it, it’s much kinder. She doesn’t get headaches the way I do, and she does not try to figure out her own destiny. But she does give papercuts to beings she doesn’t like. All in all, a pretty nice life for her.”
“Can you ask her why she hates men?” Fen asked.
“Because the men of Arete were such barbarians, the only way the women could protect themselves was to develop their magic,” Gray intoned in a voice that almost didn’t seem to be his. “They killed and raped and tortured with glee. Men took women’s sons from their arms moments after birth and taught them to do the same, to see women as objects. The women of Arete lived millennia in pain and fear, each generation learning a bit more until they were able to overthrow their captors and build a new world where their daughters could live freely.”
“Okay. Well, I understand then.” Fen took a step back. My wolfy son had gone pale. “The truth is I’m not much of a reader, so I won’t bother you further. Sorry about the torture and stuff.”
“She understands it’s different on this plane, but she was created in a certain way and cannot break those bindings. Men on her plane are allowed no magic for fear that they would turn it on the women, and they are not allowed prophecy. The witches of Arete will not submit to the bonds of their slavery again.” Gray turned back and placed a hand on the book. “I’m different because of the magic we share. I’m going to let her know she can trust me. I sent my wife to find you, you know.”