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)
“Old friend,” I whisper and pat the grass next to me while Rat scurries down. “How are the stars tonight?” I blame my conversation with Anubis. “Have any of them chosen to fall?”
Rat sets the nut down and scurries away. I tilt back the glass of wine and shake my head. That’s what I thought. Nothing. There’s nothing anymore for me here. There is no worship, no magic, no communication between humanity and the immortals unless you’re stuck here. It will be as if I never existed, soon people will forget about me and simply stare at the sun and marvel at how it came into being knowing it’s missing the biggest part—the one who created it.
I hang my head. I’m talking to myself, because if I talked to Inti or any of my other friends they’d just tell me one bit of advice.
Do your job because you think you have no choice.
Or, stay with us.
Fall.
From the sky?
From my very existence? And for what? The last one? A woman I barely know?
Ridiculous.
I have one dark purpose which is the only way to be brought into the light.
People wonder how long the world has been broken. All they need to do is take a look into my eyes and see the darkness—watch the world burn, die. Humanity is so fickle. Maybe that’s why we have the challenge set upon us, to understand true suffering so we appreciate our true power.
I finish my wine and watch the sunrise hours later. Staff start to move around the large property, none of them at all surprised that I’m sitting at the base of the tree.
Cleo has two days to explore before it begins.
I watch the sunrise and find myself saying, “I miss it.”
God of the Sun, trapped.
Until I end it.
Until I spill her blood.
Worth it.
CHAPTER 6
CLEO
“Perhaps the greatest myth being purveyed, is that myths are just myths.” —Michael Tsarion
Something wet is hitting my face.
I jolt awake. A gross naked cat jumps up onto me and starts licking down my neck. I’ve never seen a sphynx cat, but I’m thinking I could have gone my entire life without a naked cat body pressed on me paired with unholy hot cat breath. It’s wearing a sweater that says, “With a body like this who needs hair?”
“Ugh!” I point at it and try to scramble away. “No! Gross, stop.”
The weird little cat makes a small circle next to my other pillow and blinks then meows.
“You need to go to the litter box or something?”
It paws at me and does another circle. How could something so ugly be so cute at the same time? It’s jet black with blue eyes that seem to stare straight into your soul, so basically it’s a demon in cat form.
“That must be a ‘yes’.” I yawn and stretch. How hard did I sleep? I snatch up my phone and check the time. It’s barely six, but I slip into my white Nike sweatshirt and pull on a pair of gray sweats anyway. I mean it’s not like I’m going to see anyone this early. My apartments on the second level of the bar and how the hell did this cat get in here anyway? I look at the door. I know I locked it, but now it’s wide open as if anyone could just barge in, naked cat included. Did I lock it though? I remember being really tired and just setting my alarm. Shit. I really need to get it together.
My stomach flops a bit, but I decide not to even figure out if it’s excitement or absolute terror.
Last night was weird. An NDA? It just feels strange for a random bar in the Seattle area. He was so adamant though.
I decide not to fixate over it too much; when I have an opening I’ll ask Cyrus about it. He has to at least know where Jake had been exploring and he’s literally my insight into everything right now so I don’t want to start off on a bad foot especially after last night.
An earsplitting meow erupts from the cat again.
“Let’s go, little guy.” The door makes a loud creaking noise when I open it, and the little cat jolts ahead of me.
I walk out of the bedroom. He follows me down the stairway, and I’m quite honestly proud that I don’t get lost again on our way to the back door Cyrus texted me the code to go through. Where would the litter box be?
Yawning again, I look around my feet. The cat’s gone. I decide to take a look around outside, I was too tired last night to even explore. Suddenly the cat appears again and lunges ahead of me and runs to a weird looking black canoe in the middle of the back alley or what I thought was the back alley but is actually just a small park like yard within the city. It’s a square shape with a weird looking black wooden boat in the middle with the name Styx across it. Wow, they really do take it far don’t they? It looks like something Captain Jack Sparrow would steal. It also kind of resembles a treehouse with as high as it goes. One tip is pressed downward into the concrete, the other is high up like it’s part of the Titanic deep diving into the Atlantic. Strange.