Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
He pulls me into his embrace, and I burrow closer, curling up against him like a kitten. Kalos strokes my hair. “Don’t be afraid, Elsie. I’m right here.”
“I’m not,” I say, wondering how long it’ll take to go to sleep. My tongue is coated with honey, but I don’t feel tired just yet. Just…weary. My headache is returning, but it can wait. “Talk to me.”
“About what?”
I consider this. We’ve talked of endless nothings all day, but I want more of him. “Tell me something no one else would know. Tell me your earliest memory.”
His fingers drift through my hair, my nose buried against his throat. “I don’t remember much before the High Father tapped me. I had a life before, but I recall very little of it. Ascending plays havoc with your memories.”
Good. Let it always be like that. Let him not remember me.
“I recall standing next to my brother in front of the High Father, being so very proud that I’d been chosen to become a god. I remember the High Father saying that there were too many mortals for him to watch over all aspects of their lives, so he was creating gods to handle different facets of existence, to assist in tending to humanity. How proud I was.” He makes a noise in his throat, almost like a laugh, and his fingers brush against my scalp. “Then he assigned me disease, the worst of all the jobs. I felt such…disappointment in that moment. Like I was being punished instead of rewarded.”
“It might not be what you wanted, but you can make it worth something. You can start over. We all can.”
This time, he really does chuckle. “My sunshine, this is an ironic thing to hear from a woman that just drank poison.”
I don’t lift my head. It’s too comfortable in the crook of his neck, feeling the vibrations in his throat when he speaks. “You know what I mean.”
“Aye, I do.” His hand rubs up and down my spine. “And I will. With you at my side, everything is going to be different. I’m no longer…alone.”
An uneasy feeling starts in the pit of my stomach.
“I never realized how much I needed someone that truly understands me. That sees the bright side in things even when there isn’t one. Someone that never views me as the enemy. You’re exactly what I’ve always been looking for, Elsie.”
Hot tears flood my eyes. I need to tell him. I need to tell him everything. “Kalos…”
He presses a kiss to my brow. “Was today what you wanted, sunshine?”
I’m a coward to the end. It’s easier to let the sleepiness working its way over me make the decision on my behalf.
“It was the best day,” is all I say.
He holds me right until the very end.
Chapter
Forty-Five
Alighter clicks.
I open my eyes, and Lachesis lights a cigarette in front of my face. “Shitty move, my friend.”
I blink, and blink again, trying to wipe away the fog in my brain. It won’t go away. There’s a misty sort of quality to the world around me, and I didn’t really wake up just now as much as I sort of drifted to life. I’m in a gray room, sitting on a flat, featureless bed. It almost looks like a hospital but there are no beeping machines, no generic art on the walls, and I’m not in a paper gown. “Where am I?”
“You’re dead. I pulled your thread back to me.” She takes a drag on the cigarette and studies me. “Why’d you do it?”
“…die?”
She rolls her eyes and flicks the ashes of the cigarette into my lap. “No. Why didn’t you tell your buddy Kalos where you were headed? Do you know what a shitstorm you threw into my lap?”
I brush the ashes off my legs, idly noticing that I’m wearing a plain gray sheath, my feet bare. Nothing hurts, but nothing looks familiar, either. I raise my hand, staring at my fingers, and they’re translucent. “Am I a ghost?”
“You’re dead. Don’t change the subject. We’ve got a very pissed god over in Aos and everyone’s staring at me like it’s my fault.” Lachesis has gray hollows under her eyes, and she looks tired. I’m not sure if this is more of her “everyday working woman” motif or if that’s because of me. Her clothes are wrinkled, and her brassy hair is pulled into a messy knot that highlights the dark roots at her hairline. “It’s been two months of pure hell.”
Oof. “Two months? I just woke up!”
“Time is different when you’re dead.” She tilts her head. “You didn’t tell Kalos you were returning to me as requested. Why?”
I suck on my lower lip, feeling ashamed. “At first it didn’t seem important. By the time it was, there wasn’t a good time to bring it up. I wasn’t thinking about dying, I was thinking about how to stay alive. And then when I fell in love with him, I couldn’t bring it up. I didn’t want to hurt him like that, to make him think I couldn’t wait to get away from him.”