Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
We were not formally introduced when I was here last time to collect Amell, but there’s no doubt in my mind she knows who I am.
Inclining her head, she’s polite. “Greetings.”
Bastien hands her Amell’s letter. “He’s here at Amell’s behest.”
She unfurls it, scanning quickly before she rolls it back up. Thalia doesn’t question me why her father wants the book the way her husband did.
Instead, she asks, “How is my father?”
“He’s very well. Quite happy following his nuptials to Nyssa.”
Thalia’s smile is tight. “Yes, she’s wonderful and it makes me happy beyond measure that she has him. He’d be happier yet if he were allowed to visit his only daughter.”
I tip my head. “You make it sound as if it’s my fault he’s stuck in the Underworld. That was his punishment for defying a god’s orders.”
“And yet I can’t help but feel that you take pleasure in his penance,” she says, accusation clear in her tone. “I know all about your complicated triangle between my father and the god of Life.”
I swivel my jaw in agitation. It’s really beneath me to engage in this as I’m getting that book one way or the other. But I decide to ease her mind, despite the fact I rarely give benevolence. “Your father and I have made peace, Thalia. The gods hold him hostage there, not me.”
She lets out a heavy sigh, and for some reason, I feel a little bad that father and daughter are being kept apart. Sure, Thalia can come visit him, but what happens when she has children? They’re not going to bring her baby into the Underworld for Amell to see.
“I’ll speak to Zora about rescinding the restriction on him, or maybe making some travel allowances.”
Thalia blinks in surprise. “You would?”
“You have my word. But I have no sway with her so I’m not sure it will be much help.”
“Oh, you have sway,” Thalia says knowingly, and that tells me Amell has confided in his daughter the entire history both of us share with the god of Life. Thalia motions with her hand. “It is what it is. Come, let’s go get the book for you.”
Bastien and Thalia walk side by side, hands clasped. I follow them out of the gardens and again through a maze of corridors through the great stone castle until we come to a set of doors of solid wood behind a grate of steel bars. Two guards fully armed with spears and swords stand at the ready. They don’t move a muscle as Thalia approaches, and it’s not until she says, “At ease, gentlemen” that they step to the side.
Thalia reaches into a pocket in her jeans and pulls out a set of keys. She thumbs through them before finding the one that opens the steel-barred doors. They swing outward and then another key opens the wooden doors.
They creak open and I’m shocked that this is the only protection offered—two guards and two doors.
But I’m reminded appearances aren’t always what they seem as a glistening mist appears in the open doorway. At first, I think it’s sunlight filtering through dust, and I reach my hand toward it.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Thalia warns, and I draw back. “It will melt human flesh. While it wouldn’t kill a demigod, I’d hate for you to have to regrow that hand.”
With a wave, Thalia magically makes the lethal mist disappear. “An added precaution. Not many people will risk tangling with the guards, both members of my elite force, trained not only in physical combat but magical as well.”
We enter through the doors behind Thalia. Glowing sconces hang along the walls, powered by magic, not fire. They illuminate the large room nicely. Rows of shelves hold various objects made of gold and silver, encrusted with gems. Goblets, crowns, scepters, and religious symbols. Along the walls are chests that I’m sure hold coins and probably expensive fabrics. I smell spices in the air—most likely the rarest from other dimensions, and which would be very valuable. One whole wall is covered in various paintings that must be of considerable worth.
Thalia ignores it all, walking to the third row of shelving and cutting left. Bastien and I wait, but when Thalia gives a cry of distress, we bolt that way.
Bastien reaches his wife first where she stares blankly at an empty shelf.
She turns to look at me with horror etched all over her face. “The Book of Shadows is gone.”
CHAPTER 8
Zora
The smell of death and sickness shouldn’t bother me.
Yet, as I walk among the cots of diseased humans, some staring with blank eyes and others crying out in pain, my stomach rolls with nausea. It’s not a malady a god should feel, but right now, I could vomit at any time.
An old woman blinks through a haze of pain as I walk by and reaches a shaking hand out to me. I’m compelled to stop and watch her for a long time as I soak in her suffering.