Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
The first was that very night after Pie was stolen. I was overwhelmingly sad. And worried. And… well, really just sad. I had no idea what was coming for me. It didn’t even enter my mind that I would be required to take Pie’s place as the Vincan princess. It’s just not done. That’s not how it works. We were sisters in a peculiar way, after all. Of course we shared some genetics, but that’s not what made us sisters. I share genetics with thousands of gryphon chimera who came before me. What made us sisters is the simple fact that we shared a specific living space in the House of Fire palace where Saturn’s word was law.
I was not meant to birth godlings. I was meant to make potions, and write spellings, and pore over pedigrees, and breed future generations of gryphon chimera for the House of Fire.
That was my place.
So on the night of Pie’s disappearance I wasn’t thinking about what the King of Vinca might demand and lamenting my future in the capital city. I was crying because my little sister was taken through a magic door against her will by—well, from my point of view, it was just a disembodied hand—and then followed by a no-good, narcissistic, fade-away god who was going to ruin her.
I was crying for Pie. Her life was over. Her future stolen.
The second time I cried was when Tarq relieved me of my virginity just a few weeks later. It wasn’t him, not really. It was everything. There was an inspection to make sure I was, in fact, a virgin. And there was an audience.
I cried because I was embarrassed.
The third time I cried was at the king’s funeral the following year. He was a good man. He really was. And even though I was still quite young and didn’t have a keen grasp on the nature of the world outside the palace, I knew in my heart that most men were not good. ‘Most people’ would be the more accurate way to say that. It’s really got nothing to do with men. It’s just people. They’re imperfect.
I, myself, am a prime example.
The fourth time I cried—the last time, up until tonight—was when Pie banished me to the Bottoms prison just a few short months ago. It was overwhelming because my beautiful, mature, magnificent gryphon chimera body had been turned into… well, this. The skin suit I am currently wearing. Human, powerless and ordinary, and not in the least spectacular.
It was quite a shock and I cried because I was humiliated. Even more so than when Tarq took my virginity. Everyone in the consummation bedroom was a royal beast. It was all very cold and professional—still embarrassing, but not nearly the level of humiliation I felt when I found myself in the Bottoms with common monsters. Common monsters who knew me. Knew who I was, and what I was, and could appreciate both the irony and the significance of me finding myself stripped of power, and magic, and beauty like a common criminal.
So I cried because I was put in my place. Shoe-on-the-other-foot kind of thing. Ha, ha, ha. Look at her. She got what she deserved.
It’s humbling. Now, at least. But back then, on that first night, I would’ve chosen death over the laughing and jeering of the entombed criminals all around me. The pointing and sneering, the jokes at my expense. And the miserable conditions. I kept telling myself, She won’t leave me in here. She wouldn’t do that. She’s my sister.
But I am her sister too, and I killed her little magic bird. Which was just a spelling that was locking up her power. Except that’s not who Pia was to Pie. Pia was her best friend. And I killed her.
So Pie did leave me there. She didn’t come back. Not once. Not even to argue, or express her hatred for me, or even to curse me again.
I was no one to her.
It was a bad time.
The only reason we all got out of the Bottoms was because the whole curse of Saint Mark’s was falling apart. The prison literally crumbled around us and when the dust settled, we found ourselves in the ruins along with all the other monsters who were living there at Saint Mark’s, though not as prisoners.
Tonight, though, is different from all those other times I found tears rolling down my cheeks. I’m not even sure what this emotion is aside from gratefulness.
I hate to admit it, but that’s the overwhelming feeling I have inside my heart right now. I am grateful that Eros has taken pity on me. That he came looking for me in the fog, and took me home, and ran me a bath, and brought me food, and even got into bed next to me. Because I was positive that he would sleep somewhere else tonight.