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)
I blink, then snap out of it just like the dog-man did. “OK,” I say, for some reason breathless. Then I go over to the table and get the topper for the bottle. The godsmetal is heavy in my hand and for a moment, it feels foreign. Different. When I look down, I understand why. It’s shaped like wings. This is how it looked in the shop, but these wings I’m looking at right now are not those same wings I was looking at in the shop.
Slowly I rotate my head to look at Eros. He’s pacing the room, talking to himself. I catch a few rhyming words and realize he’s practicing his spelling.
He catches my gaze and snaps at me. “What? What’s the problem?”
The sound of marching chimera soldiers grows louder in two seconds that I hesitate before answering. “There’s something wrong here.”
“No shit. We’re about to be arrested by the Army of the Gods.”
“No, that’s not it. I mean, yes. For sure, we’re going to get arrested. But something is very wrong here, Eros.” I hold up the topper. “This isn’t a quicksilver bottle.”
“What? What is it then?”
“I… I’m not sure.”
“You’re not making any sense, Callistina. And we don’t have time for riddles.”
“I’m not trying to make a riddle, I’m trying to explain that using this bottle might be a mistake.”
He stares at me, blinking. “Are you telling me we have options?”
“No. We don’t have options. But these wings on this topper, I think they belong to you. And I… I don’t know how to explain it, but I think I’m part of the original bloodline for the royal beasts.”
I see the doubt on his face, but it doesn’t last long. In fact, the belief sinks in right before my eyes in a matter of seconds.
“We’re not getting out of here, Eros.”
“Don’t say that. Just get the bottle ready. Let’s do this!”
“It’s already been done! We’re not changing anything. Don’t you see? We’re just watching it play out before our eyes. It’s done.”
“No!” He comes towards me, rips the topper from my hand, and shoves it onto the bottle. Then he shakes it up for good measure and sets it down in a beam of sunlight.
I open my mouth to protest, rushing forward to grab it out of the sun before some kind of chemical reaction can start, but Eros catches me by the waist. Swinging me behind him.
Then, out of his mouth, comes the spelling…
“There is a time and place for me
within the hallway boundary
the god of love, to thee we plea
through doors we travel, set us free
to be the people meant to be.
Two doors we seek, through yore and fate
the passage narrow, slim, and straight
it opens wide for our escape
and through we go, our fate replaced
hate is my soulmate, my soulmate is hate.”
I make a face at him as the last line slides past his lips and we both know it’s a big mistake.
But it’s done, it’s too late.
Hate is his soulmate, his soulmate is hate.
And for some reason, I feel like I’m hate and none of this is really about him at all.
It’s all about me.
The bloodline that came back in time?
The mother of the royal beasts?
The one who starts a war?
I wish I had time to think harder about this, but I don’t. Because the moment this last question manifests in my head there is a great explosion from the bottle. But it’s not a bomb, it’s light. Two beams of light coming directly from the inside of the quicksilver-stained glass and shining onto the wall in front of us.
Eros stares at it and so do I. Because this projection of light has created our doors.
We look at each other. And I don’t know what he’s feeling exactly, but I’m afraid to stay and afraid to go. And there is no way I can walk into that light. Even though I can now hear the pounding footsteps of the Army of the Gods as they come up the stairs to our room.
“Run,” Eros says. “Let’s go!” He reaches for my hand, but for some reason, I pull away.
If I go… what happens to everyone who comes after me?
Will there be Pie? No House of Fire? No… me?
Eros grabs me around the middle, rushes forward, and tosses me into one of the two doors.
I enter a blinding light of nothingness just as the door to the room crashes open.
And then… I am in the hallway facing a door. I have only enough time to look to my right and see this is the middle door, the second in the set of three options—the next in the ordered list.
I fall through it before I can even make a decision to do that.
Or… not to do that. Because I would not have gone through the door if I had a choice. Something is wrong with this hallway and I want it to be over.