Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Maybe she’s really not worth the trouble?
I might think that. But she talked to me last night. Nearly a real conversation. We were talking about her nightmare and then we got off track because of Pressia.
Typical.
“You were gonna say something last night.” I look her in the eyes using the mirror. “About your nightmare. You said…” I have to think for a moment to play it back. “You said it wasn’t so much that Vinca was destroyed, because we knew that already when Pell came back with Tarq’s skull and crown. But then you never finished your thought about why it bothered you enough to come up to the roof.”
She only meets my gaze in the mirror for a moment, then goes back to ignoring me. Tying the string that holds her antlers on under her chin.
I’m really getting frustrated now. But I can do this. I can get her to talk. To be sane. To give me answers. Answers she has and I need.
But a new tactic is required. So I say, “OK. Fine. You be you, Callie. Can I call you Callie?”
“You shall call me queen.” She’s not angry though. The words are calm and a little bit soft.
“Don’t you want a second chance, Callie? Wouldn’t you like a do-over? A fresh start? Pie got one. Two, actually, if you count her life in the Realm of Pennsylvania. And now look, she’s probably married by now.”
This gets Callistina’s attention. Her eyes flick up to meet mine in the mirror just as she pulls the bow tight under her chin, then quickly return to their previous focus.
Still, I got a reaction with the Pie thing. So I keep going in this direction. Because I know she’s faking. And she knows I know she’s faking. “That’s right. I bet they got married. Maybe even having kids by now—”
Those words are barely out of my mouth when she turns, eyes blazing, and slaps me across the face. “YOU SHALL CALL ME QUEEN!” She screams this at the top of her lungs.
And when she does this, I feel like the world blinks. Like the sun just shuddered, or something. Going pale, then dark, then bright again. And I’m so stunned, I take several steps backwards and look around, trying to find the source of the interference. Which offers Callistina a way around me and she does not miss her chance.
The next thing I know she’s cloppin’ her wooden-block feet across the floor and down the stairs to the bar.
Well. That was an unexpected turn of events.
What it means, I’m not sure.
But I’ll take it.
All change is good, isn’t it?
CHAPTER FOUR - CALLISTINA
Everything in the room is buzzing and my head is pounding to the beat of my heart. I know my face is flushed red because just looking down at my arms, I see that they are flushed red.
And the anger! I want to kill him. I want to go back upstairs, open my mouth as wide as I can, and tear. His. Throat. Out.
And this urge shocks me. Utterly shocks. Yes, I was a bitch of a queen. I understand that. But I have never wanted someone dead. I have never wanted to kill someone with my teeth.
Until now.
There are more people in the bar now. Several of Eros’s townspeople and nearly two dozen monsters and nymphs. There is an air of easiness in the bar. Friendship, even. But as soon as I am noticed they all stare at me and go quiet.
I pass by them without a word, but just as I get to the front door and my hand is reaching for the doorknob, someone behind me—a wood nymph, I think—says, “That’s right, bitch. Just keep going. You’re not welcome here.”
Everything that happens next is just instinct. I turn. I glare. And then I growl, “You shall call me QUEEN!”, snarling my teeth like a lioness in the wild.
There are some snickers from the back, but then… then the lights crackle. And all the hairs on my body—few that they are—go stiff and prickle up. At the same time the filaments inside the lightbulbs brighten and dim, giving off a bit of a blue glow. A glow that’s very much akin to the color of my prom dress. It doesn’t last long. It only stops what’s happening between me and the wood nymph for the briefest of moments. But it’s enough.
I don’t know what it means. Do I have voice power, the way Pell did? The way Eros does?
Doubtful. I think I would’ve found that out before now, if it were the case.
But it is interesting that my anger and frustration has such an effect on light. Because the light dimmed upstairs as well when I yelled at Eros. Only that time it was the sunshine, not the electricity. Which has to have been a coincidence. A cloud, perhaps? Meandering its way across the sky? Just so happening to pass in front of the sun at just the right moment?