Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
My only goal: Beat him at his own game and escape.
His: Save the world, by way of me.
Thousands of names have been written on the ancient parchment, but it moans for one last signature.
He promised he would help me find my brother.
He lied.
I don't know why I immediately trusted Cyrus. He was stunningly gorgeous, nice, and so accommodating that maybe I felt too safe—maybe that was the first red flag.
The second was that he always said my missing twin was fine, that he'd come back when the internship was supposed to start again.
Looks are deceiving. And I forgot..
Now I'm completely screwed. I'm trapped here until the eclipse and the great Sun God says I'm the last sacrifice he has to make in order to ascend to Olympus. I have so many questions about the mixed mythology but what I don't have is answers.
He says I'm the last name he needs to enter on the pages of the Book of Life—a book that contains every descendent of his mortal enemy. He says he'll reward me with any immortal god for twenty-four hours. He doesn't know that my only goal is to do exactly what he does.
Burn the world down—Him included
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
CYRUS
“It is not death that a man should fear but he should fear never beginning to live.”— Marcus Aurelius
In the end, she whispered it, the one name, the secret name, she wielded the power of Ra—but it fell on deaf ears. It did not bear fruit; it was too late, blood had already spilled. And they mourned the loss of the sun as darkness descended across the earth. Chaos manifests in so many different ways. I should have known that in the end, he wasn’t just watching, no, my enemy, he was waiting for the one thing immortals have in spades---the right time.
The Great Gathering
In the beginning…what a strange sentence. I should laugh but I can’t even remember the beginning. I do know, however, that the end is near, for all of us. Twelve of us remain, gods of our own realms, gods of our own territories.
I have no throne.
Humans worship us but even so, they confuse our names.
In order to save what was left of our power we decided in favor of a human trial. If you can prove that you deserve your godhood by surviving with humanity, then you’ll ascend to Mount Olympus, never to be tested again. If you fail…
You’ll roam the earth with whatever remaining power you’ve been given—tasked with one job: to serve humanity as penance for your failures.
We started with many gods. Now we have few. What god fails in living as a human? What god could be so weak?
It is that time again.
I check my watch.
After ten thousand years—my name has been called.
I am Ra. I am the morning sun. I do not blink when darkness comes. This will be nothing but a blip before I ascend to the skies where I belong.
I sit at the marble table and smile.
They’re all present. Mars, Aphrodite, Venus, Gaia, Gilgamesh, Osiris, Lugh, Marduk, Ogen, Huw. They wait for my failure. I assure them, with my smile, of my success.
“You have a thousand years.” Gilgamesh rubs his hand down his black jeweled beard. “Annihilate them all, every last child of Chaos, have them write their names in The Book of the Dead with the blood of our enemy. In the end, you will ascend where you belong. Good luck brother, may the Creator be with you.”
“May they be with us all.” I incline my head and smile.
Easy.
The children of Chaos? Only a few thousand still exist. I’ll get it done in one night and make sure they fear the light. Forget the dark, only the truly terrifying things are bold enough to walk under the sun.
Under me.
Present Day
Seattle, Washington
Club Styx
“It’s taken you a while,” Anubis whispers from a very dark and sinister looking corner in my office. He just has to always pick that seat. I’ve moved the chair for years; he moves it back. I’ve changed the lighting; he snaps his fingers and changes it back. Some gods like the darkness better than the light, and the God of the Underworld is no different, though his wife might argue that point.
Some might say their marriage was the beginning of the end for the immortal realms—they were part of the group that started finding their mates. It started with a vampire, or was it a werewolf? There has to be a joke in there somewhere, fallen angels became involved, a siren, a Katsun—there really isn’t anything they didn’t cover or are still covering, and I’ve somehow gotten thrown into the mix since the clock keeps ticking, and I’ve yet to find the last of Apep’s bloodline that actually matters, thankful I can be very convincing.
Just one left.
And it’s taken what feels like an eternity.
“What? No snarky comeback? Has humanity stolen the joy from your soul? You aren’t shining as bright anymore, maybe you have the opposite of a fever? What’s that?”
“A pulse?” I snap. “Could you focus for one second and tell me if her brother convinced her it would be in her best interest to take the management position? I looked into her financials, they aren’t great and with her brother's constant wandering on behalf of my research, it’s a shock to me she’s even been able to get him on the phone.” Idiot with stars in his eyes and I couldn’t constantly ask a new hire about his family member without looking suspicious.
Anubis’s sigh is long like I’m the annoying one. “There is this thing called the internet.”
“There’s also these things called words,” I point out wryly. “You use them to form sentences, oh and favors, which you owe me about a million of at this point.”
Anubis stands to his full height and walks over to me. He pauses in front of the fireplace. It’s one of the things I always keep within reach—heat. The flames cast a glow across his chiseled features, and bright blond hair.