Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
And sure enough, he’s right. This is the truth-or-dare room. And on the floor is the same wheel. House of Moths. House of Bucks. House of Dragons. And this is very much looking like a game.
I groan. But my dismay doesn’t last long because I have so many questions. “But Tomas, how did you get here?”
“How did any of us get here?” Pell asks.
“Oh!” Tomas is in good spirits, unlike Pell, who seems to be getting grumpier by the second. “It’s a long, sad story. I had a fight with the gods. They won and here I am.”
“What are you talking about?” Yep. Pell is way beyond grumpy. He growls these words out like he’s about to take a bite out of someone.
“Well…” Tomas scratches his head, like he’s got something to tell us, but doesn’t want to. “I was messing around with the doors, and spells, and the doorknobs, making demands I really didn’t have a right to make. And then…” He sighs. “Then I made a promise.”
“What kind of promise?”
“Pell.” I put a hand on his chest. “Calm down.” Pell’s eyes flash yellow, but underneath my hand his galloping heartbeat begins to slow.
“Sorry,” he grumbles. “But my trip in the hallways was pretty fucked up.”
“Oh, tell me about it. I mean, my trip was fucked up. I learned exactly who I am and how I got here. This isn’t even me, you guys!” I point to myself. “I’m a fuckin’ lion!”
“You don’t really look like a lion to me.” I glance at Tomas and find him squinting at me, confused and caught up in the literal meaning of my outburst. And just for a moment I have an urge to yell at him the way Pell does.
But Pell beats me to it. “Not right now, you simpleton!” He growls these words out. And they come with that new voice of his. “She means in her hallway life!”
“Actually”—I put up a hand—“no. It was my real life. Uggghhhh.” I shake my head, exasperated and tired of not understanding who and what I am. “It was real, Pell. And it was a shit show, OK? An absolute shit show! They were selling me to… Prince Tarq, or whatever!”
Pell softens with my building frustration. He even offers me a sweet smile that comes with a melty look in his eyes. “Well, if it makes you feel any better my trip into the hallways ended up with me cursing myself into this whole mess!”
“What?” Tomas says.
“That’s right! I’m the one who put us here! I spelled the whole thing into existence because they were going to kill me and use me to make big magic and I just started sputtering out… bullshit!”
I lean in to him, placing my head on his shoulder, ready to give him the sympathy he needs. “Oh, Pell, that’s—” And I was going to say ‘cute,’ because of the pun. Bull and shit. Because he’s a bull. Never mind. It doesn’t matter, because I don’t get that far.
The room blinks into darkness and Tomas says, “Oh, what fresh hell is this?” And then the center of the room bursts into flames and a deep, menacing voice fills the void around us.
“Your spells are good, but so are mine.
I lead you through the hall of time.
This place is but a dream I dreamt,
Caught in the world I did invent.”
And Pell says, “Dammit. I forgot about him.”
And I say, “No! Fuck this shit!”
And then… there he is.
The fuckin’ eros.
But not a real person. He’s a shadow on the wall. Flickering up the sides like the flames in the center of the room.
“Finally,” the shadow says. “We’re all in the same place at the same time. And thank you very much for completing all your tasks so well.”
“What?” This time Pell’s growl makes the whole room rumble.
I’m just about to ask the same thing. I even open my mouth, but instead of a question, a spelling spills out instead…
“A horn, a hoof, an eye, a bone.
A book, a jar, a moth, a stone.
A crown, a fire, a golden ring.
The cheated man who would be king.”
And then, before anyone can say anything about that weird outburst, Pell is spelling too.
“Words are power and breath is time.
He sits and waits, commits no crime.
Make him stay and make him wait.
Cold is justice served too late.”
And the moment Pell is done, Tomas picks it back up:
“Spin the wheel and seal your fate.
Make a choice, walk through the gate.
But once inside there is no out,
Journey on without a doubt.”
The flames in the center of the room grow huge, licking the high ceiling. And then, poof! They disappear and in their place…
Well. I plant my hands on my hips. Because there he is.
Only this time for real.
I’m talking black wings, and the crossbow, and the arrow, and the whole black leather get-up that has actually never appeared in any of my mental images of how a cupid looks, but whatever.