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)
Eros doesn’t even look. Just says, “No, thank you,” and keeps walking.
But I look as I pass and get a quick glimpse before the dog-man shuts the door again.
He scurries to catch up with Eros, meeting him at the second set of stairs that will take us up to the terrace, but my mind is whirling with what I just saw.
Chimera. A dog-woman, a snake-woman, a horse-woman, and some kind of rodent with a face. I try to keep my face neutral as we climb the second set of stairs, and then, once we’re at the door to the rooftop terrace room and it has been opened, I walk in and leave Eros to handle things with the dog man, wondering if there is a horse-man and a rodent-man somewhere in this building. Because I would be willing to bet money that the snake-woman is married to the snake-man and the dog-woman is married to the dog-man.
I blow out a breath, trying to catch up with everything I’ve seen so far.
I want to hate this place for the way they treat the chimera and how they see them—us—as beasts of burden, but it’s such a magnificent city. I want to go explore all of it while I can.
It’s not that I’ve been sheltered. I’ve been all over the realm. But I have not been a door-traveler, nor have I been a time-traveler. And this is never going to happen again. It is possible we’ll go back to Savage Falls and wander into another set of doors, but I don’t think so. I don’t think Eros likes this trip and I very much doubt he’ll want to do another one once we get back.
So my options will be to stay in Savage Falls and be a prisoner in the fog or venture into the Realm of Pittsburgh where there is no magic at all.
I don’t want to think about either of those choices. Not now. Not while I’m here.
I sigh and walk over to the open wall that leads to the outdoor terrace just as the door closes and Eros joins me.
“Turn around, Callistina. I need to take your chains off.”
I look up at him. “But why?”
“Why?” He looks at me like I’m an idiot. “Why, Callistina? Because they are chains. And while they might be worth a large fortune, they are also a symbol of your… animalistic nature.”
I shrug. “So?”
“You’re not offended?”
“I don’t even live here. Why should I care what the people think?”
“Because they think you are an animal.”
I shrug again, kind of scoffing. “I mean… am I not?”
“You’re…” He is about to say ‘human,’ but it’s just not true, so the words don’t come.
And anyway, I don’t even mind being half animal. I’m half lion and I’m proud of it. There’s really no greater aspiration as far as chimera go. I’d never want to be a human. How mundane.
I could get used to the human body I have back in our time, but only because I know it’s a pretense. Nothing more than a trick. I am at peace with who and what I am, regardless of what people think of me or where my status lies in the grand scheme of things.
I was a queen of a very important realm. I ruled.
It’s not a small thing.
Though I really have no desire to go back to that role. I know that Vinca is in ruins. And while I’m not exactly happy about that, I’m not exactly not, either. That part of my life is over for good. On with the new.
“You’re not an animal, Callistina. None of the chimera are animals.”
“Not even satyrs? Do they even have a human side?”
“Of course they do. How do you think they get faces?”
He’s right. I have to admit that. “But they’re not… a cross. They’re a… whatever a triple combination is. It’s very dilute, don’t you think?”
“It’s called F2. Second-generation. Chimera bred to chimera.”
I feel stupid for not knowing this. Understanding genetics, breeding, and pedigrees would be something I’d be skilled in, if I had stayed in the House of Fire and become an alchemist. So it’s embarrassing that I have to ask, but I need to know, so I do. “Am I F2?”
“Certainly not. You come from the House of Fire.”
“Hmm.” I turn and walk out onto the terrace. The sun is beginning to set. It feels late, but yet the day is just starting its end. It actually feels like this one day has lasted for weeks, that’s how different this cityscape in front of me is from the empty mountain road Eros and I woke up on. “It’s so…”
“Ugly?”
I scoff and look up at Eros, who has joined me and stands next to my left shoulder. “No. It’s… magnificent.”
“It’s filled with evil.”
“Maybe. But it’s still pretty.”
He reaches around my back and takes the lock of silver in his hand. I pull away, and he lets go, glaring at me. “You’re taking it off.”