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)
“You planted a seed to make me fall in love with Tarq? Who, by the way, we’re not handing over to Eros.”
“Oooh!” Tomas exclaims with wide eyes. “A twist. You are in love with Tarq.”
“No! It’s just…” Pie looks confused for a moment, then a little bit scared. Because he did bind her to Tarq. We all heard the curse. We all saw the arrow. Pie rallies, though. She, like Tomas, has always been a dreamer. “I’m not in love with Tarq. It’s just… what happens to Vinca if we keep meddling in their magical business?”
“Do we care?” Tomas asks.
“Not really,” I admit.
“What about Talina? And the girls? And everyone else? They won’t have a king, they won’t have a queen—”
Tomas points at Pie, chuckling. “Oh, I forgot you have her locked up in the Bottoms.”
“Tomas!” I sneer.
“That’s what I mean,” Pie continues. “We can save ourselves, I guess. But what about everyone else? Aren’t we caretaking them anymore?”
“Were we ever?” Tomas asks. He and I both shrug.
“We were, you guys. We can’t just forget about them. That’s not how stories end.”
“Don’t they end in happily ever after?” Tomas asks.
I agree with him again. I might have to rethink my frustration with Tomas. He’s on point today. “They do. And if we win, we get our happily ever after.”
Tomas laughs. “It’s like we’re living in a fucking fairy tale, isn’t it?”
This makes Pie pause and look confused for a moment. “Do you guys even read fairy tales?”
We make faces at her.
“You can’t just save yourself. That’s not happily ever after! You have to save everyone.”
“Well, that’s just stupid, isn’t it?” Tomas. He’s kinda funny today. “Saving everyone is impossible. And I do read fairy tales. They often have horrible plotlines. Children being pushed into ovens. Beautiful girls being locked in towers. Spinning gold for trolls.”
But Pie is not giving up. “It’s not stupid. It’s heroic. And helloooo! Accomplishing the impossible and being heroic is the whole point of happily ever after! Fairy tales end with a hero doing heroic things. Like cutting open the wolf’s stomach to release the grandma, and slaying the—”
She stops.
Tomas tilts his head at her. “Were you going to say ‘dragon?’” He looks at me. “Was she going to say ‘slay the dragon?’”
I roll my eyes at him, then look at Pie. “Well, it’s a nice speech, Pie. But—”
“Hold on.” Tomas puts up a hand. “Heroic, you say?”
“Yeah!” Pie brightens, not sure if she’s happy he’s let the dragon-slaying go or that he’s latched on to the idea of heroism. “Heroic. Isn’t that the point of all this struggle?”
“Is it?” I ask. “Isn’t the point to break the curse and live our best lives?”
“No!” Pie stomps her hoof. “It’s not going to end this way. We have monsters to think about. And Jacqueline, Pell!” She pulls on my arm, pleading with me. “I can’t leave Jacqueline!”
“I will need to change my vote.”
I growl at Tomas. “There is no vote.”
“Of course there is.” He grins at me. “There’s always a vote. Isn’t there, Pie?”
Pie is making one of those clenched-teeth smiles, which means she knows I’m getting angry, but she’s gonna do whatever comes next anyway. Then she shyly raises her hand. “I vote we be heroes.”
Tomas raises both his hands. “I second and third and declare the motion passed.”
All I can do is sigh. Because if this is what Pie wants… well, then that’s all I need to know, I guess. The whole point of my life is to make her happy. Still, my agreement comes out with objections. “Have the two of you forgotten about spinning the wheel?”
Pie shrugs with her hands. “What wheel?”
“This one.” Tomas points at the floor where there is, indeed, a wheel. Just not a real wheel. “Too bad the hookah’s gone. I bet it had all the answers.”
Now he’s giving me a headache.
“Ooo!” Pie raises a finger. “I bet that’s how we get home.”
“Why wouldn’t we just walk out the door?” I point to the door. Which… was there the last time we were here, but isn’t now. When I look back at Pie, she’s smirking. “Hey, all I wanted to know was how it fit into the spell.”
“‘Spin the wheel, truth or dare, and all your lives will be spared. If you follow all the rules and deliver me the beastly fool.’ I’m pretty sure spinning the wheel takes us home. Because obviously”—Pie points to the missing door—“there is no door.”
“What about the rest of it?” Tomas scratches his chin. “I can’t remember the first part.”
But Pie can. “‘Revenge is sick but oh so sweet. Burning hate makes me complete. I have no love for men or gods, I use it to enslave their bonds.’”
“They fucked him over,” I say. “I don’t want to get into the whole stupid story of where I came from and why I’m here, but that eros was there.”