Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
But he pats the couch again and, well, I think throwing a fit over this right now would probably be the wrong move.
So I sit and Myer places the book on the table in front of us.
I glance down and read the title out loud. “Good. Dog. Good?” I look back up at Myer. “What the hell? I didn’t come here to read a picture book about a dog, Myer. I’m looking for secrets, and history, and… and… illumination.”
He raises a single finger. “Hold that thought.” Then he reaches for the book and with that one single finger, he opens the front cover.
In this same instant the brightest, most glorious gold light spills out of the book. Illuminating the room in a brilliant glow—like the sun just rose inside the room with us.
It takes me several seconds of open-mouthed staring to actually look back up at Myer. “What is that?”
But before he can answer, the light becomes a mist and the room is gone.
We are somewhere else.
In front of us is a cartoon dog, white with black spots, wagging his tail and looking up at me with a goofy cartoon smile.
Myer shifts closer to me until we are bumping shoulders. Then he pans a hand down at the dog. “We don’t read books, Syrsee. We go inside them.”
He says more, but I’m lost now. Lost in the possibilities before me.
Lost in all the ways in which my life just changed.
Lost in all the ways in which I was misled, as well.
But none of that matters. Because I suddenly realize I’ve done this before. I’ve been inside the story before. And then I’m there. Back, under the water with Lucia, watching the aquis equī in all its tentacled glory, and I shiver.
Not from the lingering memory of the ice and cold, but from the sudden realization that the Guild is going to keep their promise and that I am going to learn things. And that I will finally understand my place in this world.
And all this understanding will come to me, not by reading about it, but by living it.
In this moment I forget.
I forget about the unfairness of my time here at the Guild the way a mother forgets the pain of childbirth. Every complaint I had about my life before this moment with Myer is wiped away.
I let out a breath and meet Myer’s gaze straight on. “Does every book do this? Does every book in the library contain the light?”
Myer is shaking his head before I finish. “No, Syrsee. It’s not the books who have the light. It’s… you.”
And just as he says this, the light disappears and we’re back on the couch.
He closed the cover.
Myer gets up, walks over to the bookshelf, and chooses another book. Then another. And another. Until there is a stack of them on the coffee table in front of us. They are all children’s books, simple things meant to ease me into the world of living stories, but I don’t even care that I am starting out at Level One.
I don’t even care because finally, I’m starting.
I forget about Zusi’s betrayal, and Paul’s obsession, and Josep, and the Darkness, and how I am carrying its demon seed inside me, and all the ways in which my life fell apart over the last two months.
I even forget about my addiction to the blood, and how I drink my boyfriend for dinner, and how none of this is going to save my doomed, severed soul.
I forget because even though the price was high, it was worth it.