Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
But Tyche couldn’t deny that he looked uneasy. And yes, almost nervous.
“Actually, a little more than a year ago, I would have said the minor gods didn’t exist. I thought they were folktales. But then, I barely believed in Tula, and I’m a member of the Talos family.”
Tyche approached, one corner of his mouth kicked up. “Well, you’re the first new god I’ve met who isn’t trying to kill me.” He stopped when he was still several feet away, and his brow furrowed. “You’re not planning to kill me, right?”
Caelan tossed his head back and laughed. “No! No, I have no plans to kill you.” After he stopped laughing, Caelan pushed to his feet and brushed off his hands. He motioned to a pair of carved wooden chairs set up under a pink flowering tree on the other side of the pond. They strolled together and sat in the shade, allowing Tyche to get a better view of the serene courtyard filled with ferns, large leafy plants, and a pond filled with colorful fish. But it was Caelan who commanded his attention.
The king of Erya was a very handsome man with sharp, harsh features and large, dark-blue eyes that seemed to see everything. His hair was black, but there was an odd purple highlight to a few strands that whispered of a run-in with the God of Time.
“You’re so young!” Tyche burst out, making Caelan laugh again.
“You don’t look more than two or three years older than me.”
“Yeah, but…” Tyche motioned to him with both hands open and extended, as if struggling to find the right words. “I can feel your powers pouring off you, which speaks to your youth, but there’s something else. There’s a layer of humanity behind it all, and that’s what keeps crying out to me as young. You don’t possess the same weight of humanity as an old man.”
Caelan’s head canted to the side, and his eyes widened. “Is that what you sense with all the gods? Their powers. I mean, I can feel yours, but they’re so subtle. If I’d not been told you were the God of Luck, I would never have been able to guess what you were the god of.” He shook his head and sighed. “There’s so much I don’t know.”
And Tyche could guess that there wasn’t anyone Caelan would feel safe asking. His dealings had been limited to the major gods, and they were a bag of feral cats at the best of times. There was no way he could trust a damn thing they said.
“Obviously, I don’t sense any humanity from the other gods. Zyros was the only other one I’ve met who started off as a human. The rest of us came into existence as gods. As for…that.” He lifted his hands and motioned to the aura of energy that surrounded Caelan. “Most of the gods learn with time to pull in their powers.”
“Oh, sorry. I guess I need to learn how to do that.”
Tyche smiled. “It’s okay. Your powers are enormous, but they don’t feel oppressive. They’re rather reassuring, which is interesting. Plus, the ones who can really sense it are other gods and the dragons. If the dragons don’t care, don’t worry about it.”
Caelan sat back in his chair, slumping as he peered out at the pond. A silence grew between them, but Tyche was surprised to find that it wasn’t uncomfortable. Maybe it was Caelan’s youth and straightforward manner that made him approachable. Tyche was tempted to lower his guard, which was saying a lot because he’d never relaxed with other gods. Not even Yesuntei.
“There are hundreds of things that I would love to ask you. Things I’m sure I could never ask another soul,” Caelan murmured and flashed Tyche a wry grin. “But time is slipping away from us, and I have a feeling there are more important things we need to discuss.”
“Haru.”
Caelan hummed in agreement. What the fuck were they supposed to do about Haru and the powers from the Goddess of Nightmares?
“There’s a question I’ve been wanting to ask since I first learned about the situation,” Caelan confessed. He paused and stared at Tyche until Tyche felt the need to squirm in his seat. He could imagine that piercing gaze had made more than a few government officials in Stormbreak uncomfortable. “Why didn’t you keep the power for yourself?”
A bark of laughter jumped from Tyche. He ended up “gracefully” coughing like a pack-a-day smoker. “Oh, yeah. That would have been brilliant. Me wildly flinging about bad luck and nightmares to everyone close to me.” He blew out a puff of air from his nose and glared at the pond in front of him. “No, thank you. I like my quiet life. And I’m fully aware that I don’t have the kind of strength that’s useful in a fight.”