Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
She’s so pretty.
I tell myself it’s because it’s been so long and because she’s a strong person whose identity I can’t figure out.
It’s curiosity.
She’s not human, and yet she is.
I’m completely clueless as a god, something that’s never happened. Maybe, it’s going to be fine, maybe I’ll just guard her the rest of my life, and she will live long and happy with someone other than me.
Oh hi, hello, nice to see you again, I’m Horus, and that girl’s really pretty, and I’ll never get to kiss her again.
Fuck.
I toss the rag against the counter and lean against it.
“Humans,” Tarek says. “Am I right?”
“Why are you here again?”
He frowns. “I work here?”
“Right, but why don’t you go home to Scotland and just… rule or do what werewolves do?”
“Ohhh, that.” He laughs. “I have a job outside of that, I’m currently doing it, but damn, my clients be hard to crack.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
”Did you say something?”
“I yawned?” He literally fakes a yawn. “Anyway, just keep going with it. Plus, you never know what might happen when you decide to save something other than yourself.”
He’s looking at Kit.
“She’s human,” I say. “She’ll be fine.”
“She’s both,” he corrects. “And she must be very tired. Exhausted actually. I wonder what you’re willing to sacrifice in order to save her.”
“What?”
“Figure it out, Horus, god of the sky.” He nods toward me.
And I spend the rest of the night wondering what the hell he’s talking about. The only person who truly would know what she is, is in the Abyss, and I’m not about to go against everything and travel down there to save some stranger who I don’t even know.
I laugh. Right. I would never do that. Ever. I’m a god. She’s clearly lesser, no matter what.
I’m not stupid.
I would never.
Ever.
Her laughter echoes around the bar.
Ever.
Ever.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
So why does it feel so familiar? The way her laugh carries around the room? And the way I crave it like my next breath.
CHAPTER TWELVE
酒は本心を表す
sake wa honshin wo arawasu
“Sake shows true feelings.”
~Japanese proverb
Kit
I hate taking out the trash. I don’t know if it’s because it’s heavy or if it’s just me being grumpy, but I do it anyway. I take the giant black trash bag out back and toss it in the enormous dumpster.
The lid slaps down with a thud. “There.”
I turn to go back into the door leading to the club and see someone standing there, smoking a cigarette. He takes another puff, then tosses it to the ground and steps on it. “You want to be free?
“No,” I answer immediately. “I want to go back to my job so I can make rent.”
He snickers. He’s wearing a green trench coat and black boots, he has no shirt on beneath his coat, and his head is covered in a black beanie; all I see are green eyes and a smirk.
“I think you should come back with me. I mean, if you don’t finish this last life, what really was the purpose of jumping?”
“Jumping?” I repeat. “When did I ever jump off anything?”
“Scared of heights,” he says. “Of the color blue.”
I’m instantly triggered.
“Hates loud noises but prefers them to silence.” He moves right in front of me. “But the worst, the very worst, is when someone touches your ear, and you want to know why?”
I stumble back. My ears have always been sensitive to the point that even doctors couldn’t check them.
“Because…” He takes a step toward me. “The ears can’t forget what they hear and if what they hear is so painful and sensitive to the psyche, they bleed, they break, they mourn, over and over again, to the point of forcing the eyes and the brain to forget. Your ears are your savior, and yours have been doing it for a very long time. I think I might take them now. It’s time. You’ve been given three, four isn’t heard of, so let me take them.”
“Take my ears,” I repeat. “And wh-what would you do with them?”
“Use them, of course.” He grins. “I would give them to her because, at the end of the day, you have to give a token in order to gain a favor, and she’s been dying for your ears for a very long time, the way she wanted something else and got it.” He looks behind me as if searching for something. “Sad that you have scars.”
“What?”
“Hey!” Horus shouts from near the back door. “Who are you?”
The guy before me pales and then disappears like he was never there.
Horus jumps in front of me, grabbing me by the arms. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” No. I nod. “That guy.”
“Not a guy.” Horus shakes his head. “That was a shadow. They work for the lower gods and goddesses in hopes of earning enough time to gain back their original place in the cosmos.”
“A shadow?”