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)
Then he reaches up, and places his hands on my cheeks, and urges me to lower my lips down to his.
Which I do. And then he kisses me until I fall in love.
I know what this is. I know it’s his magic. I know I don’t love him and he doesn’t love me.
But I want to believe it. Because I have nothing and no one left.
And so I do.
I believe it.
I wake up screaming like a raging lunatic. Reaching for something.
The nightmare is still fresh, convincing me I’m still there. But this time, the face of this destruction is what dominates my illusion. He’s so real I want to reach out and touch him. Apis. The bull. The god. The one who never dies. The One Who Lives. Those words are on my lips and then they are spilling out of my mouth, and I am reaching for him…
Only it’s not him at the end of my fingertips.
It’s Eros. God of nothing. “What’s wrong?” His eyes are wide and he’s shaking me. “Why are you screaming?”
I wish that the illusion would shatter with his words, but they only make it stronger. In fact, I’m not in the apartment over the bar in Savage Falls with Eros, I’m still there. In Vinca City. Standing on the riverbanks as fireballs rain down. People burning all around me. Charred bodies and otherworldly shrieking.
When I look up, there she is. Madeline. It’s Madeline up there, her blood-red scales tinged with an orange glow that is a direct reflection of the flames gushing out of her mouth like an ancient geyser as she burns my city to cinders.
And then I see him too. Not Apis, but Tarq. He’s a skeleton. Nothing but horns, and hooves, and bones with a magnificent golden crown on his head.
The Skull King.
“What?” Eros is shaking me harder now. “What? Callistina! What are you doing?”
I think it’s fairly obvious that I’m having a nightmare, but considering the fact that I’m awake, with my eyes open, looking at him as he looks at me, I suppose I can’t blame him for being confused.
I blink. And then they’re all gone. The One Who Lives. The Skull King. Madeline.
Vinca died the same way it started under my rule.
But why do I have to see it?
Better question is… who is sending me this message?
I push Eros away from me, get out of bed, and go searching for yesterday’s dress, which also happens to be the day-before-that’s dress as well.
I find it in the bathroom, but when I pick it up, it smells like the fog.
“Callistina?” Eros has followed me.
I ignore him. But I would like to borrow some of his clothes, so I drop the dress back onto the floor and go searching for a t-shirt. Which he doesn’t seem to have. And now that I think about it, he hasn’t been wearing shirts since I arrived.
Reluctantly, I put the stupid dress back on, then sit on a chair in the living room as I strap the wooden blocks onto my feet.
“Come on,” Eros says. He’s very annoyed with me right now. “You’re still gonna wear that shit? Callistina! You’re not insane. This is an act! Just stop.”
I stand up so I can look in the mirror as I attach my antlers. Eros is trying to make me meet his gaze with my reflection, but I don’t give in.
He was considerate last night. I’m… thankful, I suppose. But I don’t want to talk to him. I don’t think I will come back to this apartment, actually. I don’t think I want to see him again.
He’s talking to me this entire time. Blah, blah, blah—“you’re being dumb.” Blah, blah, blah—“I can see through you.” Blah, blah, blah—“Just stop.”
But I don’t respond to any of that.
I simply adjust my antlers one final time, then turn to the door.
“For fuck’s sake, Callistina. You’re really walking out?”
Well, if he was doubting me, those doubts probably disappear when I walk through the door and leave him standing there in the middle of his apartment, naked.
It’s late morning when I arrive at the feed store, so there are several other people inside. Local people. Human people. I pretend to peruse all the various things sitting on shelves as Madeline chats her people up and takes care of their needs.
Eros did not follow me out of the apartment. I think this really is the end of us.
I’m OK with that.
Madeline thanks her last customer, a farmer type, who leaves, jingling the little bell over the door as he goes. Then she walks over to me. “Good morning, my queen.”
She has always called me queen, so I never have anything to say to her.
“Are you out of bubble bath already?” Then she smiles at me, chuckling. “I’ll go get you another bottle. Be right back.”