Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“We are a void,” Ashtaroth says. “Even if his eye burst with the light of a thousand suns, unless a miracle happens, the darkness shades us from the heavens. If he wants to leave this place after coming voluntarily, he must trade.”
I nod my head. “Fine. I’ll trade.”
“What?” Sariel grabs my arm. “What are you saying?”
“Take my other eye; both together are more valuable than one. Just give me the nine tails of the fox and let me leave.”
“And the bead?” Ashtaroth asks. “She will want it; she won’t let you leave.”
“She can have me.” A voice sounds. A familiar voice. I pray I’m wrong. It isn’t worth this sacrifice. No story should end this way, with pain upon pain and weight on his shoulders, not after being reborn. “I’m sorry, Horus, I promised to watch, and when I did, I saw this. The demon goddess can have me again. Take me, take my power, let him leave with the tails, with the bead, let him have his peace.”
“He is a star again!” Ashtaroth says in disbelief. “He was redeemed! He watched her; he watched.” He falls to his knees. “His star never chose to fall into The Abyss the first time. But this time… this time, Watcher, Bannik of the Mountain, has chosen to fall. He has chosen. Sacrifice.”
Before I can scream no, Bannik is swirled up into darkness yet again. His own hell, the one he just fled, consumes him and tugs him deeper and deeper into the darkness of the Abyss. He doesn’t fight it. A tear slides down his cheek. A small smile follows as his body jerks down into the mud; his face is all that’s left. “Make it worth my sacrifice, god of the sky, and if you have more power, I wouldn’t mind a constellation, even if it is just two stars.”
He’s tugged through the ground, the mud, and beneath while Sariel yells and is thrust back into the land of the living, able to look up to the stars, while the worst of us is pulled back into the depths of the Euphrates.
Sariel and I hit the riverbed with a thud, and the window to the Abyss closes, sliding down into the running water.
Sariel crumples next to me and looks up. “I’ll return, I’ll tell the story—”
“Do that.” I nod, then grab his hand and point it toward the sky. “And when you speak the words, show them this.”
I create a constellation of Bannik.
On his knees.
Sacrificing himself for a fox.
A fallen.
And a god in Hell.
And at the tip of the crown, I place on his head, I create a falling star and point it straight toward Heaven as Sariel is called back home.
CHAPTER THIRTY
雨降って地固まる
ame futte chikatamaru
“When it rains, earth hardens” or “Adversity builds character”
~Japanese proverb
Kit
It’s warm in my bed or forest? Where am I? I look around and sit up. Fireflies move around me and my tree. Am I dreaming? Am I back next to where I grew up?
I slowly move to my feet and stumble out into the clearing.
He’s there.
It can’t be real.
Horus is lying there staring up at the sky. “I like it.”
“How are you here?”
“Magic.” He doesn’t turn around. “I heard that when you have a bead and nine tails of a fox, you can basically do anything. Like a dumb god with too much power.” His hands are behind his back; slowly, he moves them in front of me and holds them out.
Nine tails.
I count them nine times.
And then I count them again.
Orange, red, blue, pink, white. “How?”
“Everything costs something,” he says sadly. “And I had help.”
“But, but, this means—”
“Allow me.” Horus walks around me and places my tails at my lower back, they press into me and disappear, and suddenly I feel focused again, whole. I don’t even miss the bead. I have my tails, the ones cut off, the ones sacrificed. “I don’t deserve this.”
“You deserve everything.” Horus points to the sky. “He does too, but I think his journey is just beginning.”
“Who?” I look up and gasp as I see a King of angels. Bannik. His star shoots toward the heavens twisting around and around like a cyclone before bursting across the sky. “He’s beautiful.”
“He’s going to be okay.” Horus nods. “Now, about that bead.”
“Keep it,” I say quickly. “I want you to have a part of me. As long as I have my tails, I can live a long time; I don’t need the magic of the bead.”
He frowns. “And I do?”
“Yes, god of the sky.” I point up. “Because who knows when you’ll need to use the power to save a friend?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Lie.” I laugh. “Now, catch your fox.”
I don’t run, though. I want to be caught. I also like to tease. It’s been weeks for me, but for him? Hundreds of years.