Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Instead, I sand rubs against my feet as I take a step down a dimly lit hall inside a pyramid. I’m in the Underworld, and I have no idea how I got here.
“Osiris?” I call out, blinking to adjust my vision. “Why am I here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”
Looking down, I’m so thankful I pulled on one of Lucas’s t-shirts on my way back from the bathroom. But I don’t have underwear on, and I make a mental note to put on appropriate clothes before passing out from now on. The scarab was on my nightstand when I went to bed, evidently close enough to use.
“I’m not here to accept your proposal,” I start. “But I do have a question. Can you teleport my physical body to my Hell?”
“From here? No. Why do you want to go to your Hell dimension?”
Running my hands down the t-shirt to make sure it’s long enough—it is—I take in a breath. “A demon came to me today and said she can get me in through a portal, and if I can get in then I have a chance at killing Paimon. But unless you can zap me in, I have to trust this demon to actually help me and to kill me along the way.”
Osiris looks at me for a few seconds, considering his words. “You really should accept the proposal. It would benefit you.”
“You know, in my world, people date a while before they get hitched.”
“You want to date me?”
“Not in that sense. But in a prove to me you’re trustworthy kind of way.”
He leans back. “Haven’t I though? Between the Horsemen, the angel, and your vampire husband, haven’t I?”
“Fine, yes,” I huff. “And I do trust you. It’s convincing the other people in my life to trust you too.”
“That’s what I thought.” He smiles and blue firelight flickers across his face, illuminating some of the scars. Mythology says he was cut to pieces and his wife put him back together…which is something I need to bring up. Not being hacked to pieces, but his wife.
“So can you take me to Hell?”
“No, or not yet at least. I’ve never been to your Hell so I would need something to grab onto.”
“The scarab.”
“Precisely.”
I move my head up and down as I think. “I go through with joining you as a proper crime-fighting partner, and you’ll have my back too, right?”
“Of course.”
“And if I can somehow get to Hell, I’ll be able to call you there?”
“In theory. Like I said I’ve never been. I’d like to see your kingdom.”
“I’ll do it then,” I blurt, needing to say it before I get scared and take it back. “If you agree to help me take down Paimon, I’ll do it. I will marry you.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Osiris holds out his hand. “It’s a done deal then.”
“It is.” Swallowing my pounding heart, I take his hand and shake it. “Can you answer one thing for me?”
“Of course.”
“What’s in it for you? I do think you’re a good person just like I am. You don’t want the world to burn or have good suffer at the hands of evil. But I also know there has to be a damn good reason for you to side with me. You’ve had a nice and somewhat quiet life down here.”
“You are right. I lost someone, someone who wasn’t sure if I could continue to provide for and protect them. Joining forces with you, tying my family to archangels…it will show her that I can be who she needs me to be.”
“She?” I echo and start at him incredulously. “You’re only helping me so you can impress a girl?”
“Not just any girl. A goddess. My goddess. Mortals often refer to her as Isis, but she’s Aset to me. And I need her to know how much she means to me.”
“So you’re willing to help me rage a war to win her back?”
His eyes meet mine and he shrugs, looking the most human he ever has. “The things we do for love?” Holding out his hand, he magically swirls sand around him in the same absent minded way someone would twirl their hair. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t take things to the extreme for the ones you love?” Inhaling slowly, he lets the sand settle back to the ground. “You agreed to enter a binding partnership with me, for example.”
“I did, and now that I know this is a ploy for love, I’m failing to see how marrying someone else ill help win back the love of your life.”
“As I’ve said, the marriage is strictly strategic. She’ll not only know that, but would appreciate having a strong ally on our side. Which you would gain too.”
I pause before I speak, taking in his words. Fuck. He has a point and the more soldiers I can get on my side, the better. Because defeating Paimon is just one battle in the beginning of the war. There are more demons just as powerful—if not more—than Paimon.