Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
“Loviatar,” Kalma says to her. “You take Hanna to your father’s quarters. The wards will hold there against whatever the hell this is. Make sure she can’t leave, and that no one can get in. And I do mean no one.”
I shall go too, Raila says, making a move to the stairs.
“No,” Kalma says sharply. “No, you are coming with me, Raila.”
I exchange a look with Lovia. I don’t like the idea of being locked up in Death’s room, but I do like the idea of being protected by wards from this strange attack on the castle. I mean, it is an attack, right? Hard to say since no one will fucking answer my questions.
Kalma grabs hold of Raila’s arm, holding her tight enough that I hear the bone of her arm snap and he practically drags her away. Ouch. What the hell was that about?
Meanwhile Lovia is running up the stairs with my dress in her hands and I’m taking the steps two at a time to catch up.
“What was up with Raila?” I ask Lovia as we round the corner of one level and take the stairs to the next. “Pretty sure Kalma just broke her arm back there.”
“I don’t know,” she says warily. “But if Kalma does something like that to you, you probably deserve it. He might think Raila is a spy behind all that’s happening, whatever this is.”
“A spy? She’s the spy?”
“My father has a saying, never trust the dead.”
“I thought his saying was never trust the living? Which, by the way, he got from Beetlejuice.”
“Never trust the dead, never trust the living, never trust a God, and never trust a redhead,” she adds, “which is all because of my redheaded mother.”
“So basically trust no one.”
“Bingo.”
And as if on cue, another crash rocks the castle and both of us nearly fall over the railing of the stairs, a long way down.
“We need to hurry,” Lovia says, reaching over and pulling me up straight. We run even faster now up the stairs, past Deadhands who are running the opposite way, their swords drawn as if going into battle.
Hell, I have no idea what’s happening outside these walls, maybe there is some epic battle going on, an all hands on deck type of situation.
Finally we get to the top and to Death’s quarters, a place I still haven’t been yet since it’s been forbidden to me. Lovia tries to push open the doors but they don’t budge. Panic lines her face and then she fishes out a set of skeleton keys from her boobs and inserts the key.
The door opens, revealing a large lair that could only belong to Death. Everything is black. Everything is lush and stark and hard and soft, and a million contradictions. His private quarters are like all of Shadow’s End in concentrated form, and his essence oozes from the gleam of the dark floors, to the metallic black designs of the wallpaper.
But while the door to the room is wide open, it’s not easy walking through. There’s a feeling of thickening air, like something solid pushing you back, similar to the feeling of walking through the tunnel under the waterfall.
“It’s the wards,” Lovia says, her face straining as she pushes forward and finally we both go stumbling through, my ears popping as I try not to trip over a rug.
“Father!” Lovia yells, searching the room, while I go straight to the window and peer out to see what’s happening.
Of course I can’t see a damn thing. The world is covered in the thickest layer of fog I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know if it is fog, maybe it’s smoke. Even though he’s been avoiding me, the weather hasn’t been too terrible the last few days. Not sunny like the day he told me I was marrying him, but it’s been pleasant. But this? It’s foul and I wonder if it’s all his doing.
“He’s not here,” Lovia says, sounding panicked. “Do you mind if I go look for him? I’ll be okay out there, and you’ll be safe in here. Just lock the door behind you and don’t leave this room. Okay? He’d kill me if something happened to you.”
I’m not planning on leaving, but I don’t want her leaving me either.
I swallow hard, feeling so scared I might vomit.
Somehow I have enough courage to nod. “If you say I’ll be fine here, then I’ll stay.”
“I’ll be right back,” she says. Then she marches over to a stand of armory in the corner, picks up a sword, twirls it around in her hand, and then grins at it in satisfaction before heading through the wards again and out the door.
I quickly head to the door and fight through the ward again to lock it. Then I turn around and face the room, wondering what the hell is going on.