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)
What? Saints? I don’t know what this is about, but I’m very sure anything to do with saints right now is a bad thing. I look down, trying to find the new medal. And then a whole bunch of whispers erupt in the room. But then Callistina squeezes my hand tight again. “Go. Now.”
And then she turns and leaves me there at the edge of the bridge.
Mistress Ryella is off to the side now, no longer center stage on the little revolving platform because we are the stars of this show. But she’s close enough to me that I can hear her say, “Walk. Now.”
So I walk. A moment later I’m on the bridge. Two more after that and I’m carefully stepping onto the rotating platform. It’s not moving quickly. I would barely call it a spin. It’s very slow, the way a car might revolve in a car show. But stepping onto it instantly makes me dizzy and I have to hold my breath and focus very hard to keep from falling over.
“House of Fire Number Eleven,” the mistress calls out. “Engineered by the alchemist Ostanes and from the bloodline of every single god and goddess present in this room—”
That’s all I hear because the whole place erupts in shouts. It’s so loud, and the room is spinning, and my head is pounding, and my stomach is sick, and my knees are—
And then I lose all my thoughts. Not because I pass out, even though I want to. But because there he is. Right there, on the floor in front of me, bare-chested, and tattooed, and blonde, and green-eyed, and… winged. And Mistress Ryella is talking about my bag of rings when these same wings suddenly unfurl, creating a great wind. And then the devil rises up in the air and floats there right in front of me.
People begin to scream and push towards the edges of the room, trying to get away from him. I hear someone say, “Watch for the arrow! Get out of the way! The arrow!”
And then there it is.
The fucking arrow. Coming right at me and slam! It hits me in the chest.
I wait. For death? To pass out? Something.
But nothing happens.
Well, nothing happens to me.
But the room is chaos.
I stand there looking down at the arrow that has—once again—penetrated my heart. And I feel nothing. No pain. There’s no blood. It’s like I was never hit. Except for the fact that a fucking arrow is sticking out of my chest.
“What is this?”
I don’t know who says that. But it doesn’t matter. It’s just the first of dozens of objections. All of which are coming from the gods and goddesses from the top tier. All of which are basically saying the same thing.
“What are you doing?”
“The nerve of you!”
“You don’t belong here, Eros!”
“Get out!”
Even the royal beasts are fleeing, climbing over seats and each other, trying to get to the edge of the circular room.
Welp. I was wondering how it happened and here it is.
The devil smiles at me. And I smile back, giggling. Maybe even blushing, because I feel my face go hot.
“Hello there, Pie. It is my pleasure to finally meet you.”
It is so weird to hear his PA accent here in this realm, that’s all I can think about. Well, that and how pretty he is. And how I want to be with him forever. And never stop looking at his—
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I actually say this out loud.
And the best thing is, the devil laughs.
But then Saturn is descending from the top tier like—well, a god, I guess. Being all demanding and godlike. “You have been banished. Get out.”
“That’s funny,” the devil says. Then he looks at me and squints his eyes. “I’m not the devil, sweetheart. Wrong pantheon, I’m afraid. I’m Eros. Your new caretaker.”
“The hell you are!” I don’t know who this woman is, but she comes from the top tier as well, so… a goddess, I presume. “Number Eleven is a joint project. She has already been promised to the royal beasts of Vinca in exchange for access.”
Everyone is still in the room. There are no doors except for the one us lion-girls came through, which is a fire hazard. But the people are all still here. They are just pinned back against the wall. In fear for their very lives, I think. But this last comment gets them animated again.
“Promised?”
“How is that possible?”
“Access to what?”
“Isn’t this an auction?”
“It’s rigged! I told you it was rigged! But do you simpletons ever listen?”
“Silence!” Saturn roars. Immediately, there is silence. I think he used the voice on them, because the whole room rumbles the same way it does when Pell uses that voice. And when I look to the back, through the shadows, I can see that they no longer have mouths. There is just bare skin there. Like they all just stepped out of a Japanese horror movie.