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)
Maybe she’s come to terms with it, just like I have. This beautiful human will be sacrificed for the greater good.
“Your move.” She grins up at me after taking another one of my checkers.
Damn it.
I skip over one of hers and preen. “Done.”
Her laughter fills the cave as she jumps my checkers twice and collects them like a monster!
“Wait! Isn’t that illegal?”
“Nope.” Her face is pure gloating.
I hate losing. I never lose. What the hell?
She practically beams down at me. “Perfectly within the rules of checkers.”
“You’re lying!” I jump to my feet. “You’re cheating!”
“Am not!” She puts her hands on her hips. “Ask Dag!”
Daggon looks over us from the rock wall and holds up his hands. “I’m just the help.”
I glare at him.
He drops his hands and gives me his back again.
I adjust my robe and sit back on the bed. “Again.”
“You haven’t lost yet.”
Slowly, I lift my head and glare at her. “Yes, but by my calculations I can’t win.”
She shrugs a shoulder and smiles. “See? And aren’t you having fun? Maybe checkers can be your thing.”
I lean back and cross my arms. “Or maybe I make you think you’re drowning in a sea of checkers for beating me.”
She tosses a checker towards me. I duck. “That’s creepy, even for you.”
“I’m not creepy,” I say defensively. “Let’s play again.”
“Did you want me to hold back or—”
“Finish that sentence and I’m telling the panther that you’re a steak. Trust me when I say she’s very aggressive with her food.”
She recoils and then crosses her arms. “Fine, you set up the board.”
I move all the checkers back to their spots and allow myself to go first.
My pride gets hurt again and again until finally I can’t take it anymore.
I’ve lost seven times.
I throw the board onto the ground and kick it for good measure. “It’s a stupid game.”
“It’s just a game.” Cleo stands up. “Clearly, you’re not used to playing for fun.”
“Fun.” I laugh. If she only knew. “I don’t think I really know what that word is anymore.”
Cleo bends over and starts picking up the checkers. When she’s finished, she sets them on the bed, then approaches. She must have a death wish with the way my dark mood is affecting me.
If she gives me a pep talk, I just might kill her.
“What else do I need to know about Dag?” she asks. I hate the question immediately. I hate what we’re doing. I hate so much that it burns my throat and fills my blood with boiling rage. Why we ever decided to gift the children of Chaos a boon is beyond me. I understand it was so they could have something to look forward to. They never asked for this. But now? I hate it. I hate it like the fire of my millions of burning suns.
What if Daggon is who she chooses? I guess he’d be better than Inti.
Enki as well.
I clear my throat and keep my arms crossed to stop myself from doing something stupid like touch her again, kiss her, hold her like she means something when she’s nothing. “He’s playful, dumb, easy.”
“He can hear you!” Dag yells without turning around.
I smirk and say in a low voice. “I’m well aware of that.”
“Jackass.”
“Say it louder,” I call.
“Benevolent god, Lord of the Skies, Master, blah, blah, blah, blah…amen.” Dag says in a bored tone that actually has me smiling. Things have been less boring since Cleo came, and it pains me to admit that living from one sacrifice to another hasn’t been enjoyable. Miserable. Painful. Frustrating. And now I’m finally smiling. Now I finally feel my own sun radiating from within all because of the last one I have to kill and the way she tugs the joy from my soul.
Everyone has their job. That’s why Dag chose the police station, it’s why I own the pubs and a few ships. We need something to keep us busy since money is no object.
No, we deal with time and power; those are the only commodities—well that and the spilled blood.
“He’s insolent.” I turn to Cleo. “You’d get along well, I think if you choose him, but we still have training for the next two, and Enki, well…” I trail off there. The idiot is going to try to feed her the entire time, cry, then feed her again.
It will be a crazy emotional cycle of her constantly comforting him while he comforts her.
“That sounds weird,” she says.
I frown. “Did I say all of that out loud?”
“You’ve been distracted since losing to me.” She tilts her head and grins. Then that same smile falters when I grab her by the waist and jerk her against me. “Maybe you should see it the way I do.”
The way her lips part and the sound of that small exhale nearly undo me. “And how’s that?”