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)
And of course it’s a lie. It’s just clothing. The person inside has not changed. But it’s messing with me, this new outer version of the crazy queen I’ve been sleeping with for nearly two months.
So. Well. Now I have to admit to a second thing that I did not see coming.
I like her like this.
A lot.
Which leads me back to her request about closing the door.
“I know how to close a door. We did it when we took Pie, remember?”
She was there, so of course she does. But something else is troubling her now. “Will you go find her?”
“Who?”
“Lisa.”
I scoff and chuckle a little. The queen is insecure. “No, Callistina. I have no desire to go find Lisa. I haven’t even thought about her in decades. She is not the reason I want to go to this world. You are.”
It’s the right thing to say. And anyway, it’s not even a lie. It calms Callistina’s nerves and eases her doubts, and finally she nods. “OK. So how do we close the door?”
“I will curse it with a spelling.” I hold up a finger. “Give me a moment while I work it out.” Then I turn my back to her and pace along the side of the mountain, trying to find the right combination of letters, and rhythm, and intentions.
Then I turn to her and nod. “OK, I’ve got it. Are we ready?”
She looks scared. Truly. Not so scared that she’ll back out, but I can tell she is afraid of what’s about to come next. And this is a perfect opportunity to take her hand and ease that fear the way a good man would.
So that’s what I do. I take her hand, give it a squeeze, and say, “I’ve got you. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”
It’s enough, because she nods and then she is the one who takes the first step towards the door. As we come up on it though, I step in front of her, still holding tight to her hand, and as we pass through the door frame I say:
“A hill, a god, a queen, a town.
We take these steps to make new ground.
Pass through the door and shut it tight.
The other side will make it right.”
A very simple little spelling, but it does the trick. Because I can feel the energy at my back, closing off the world behind us.
But then something goes wrong. One moment I’m looking at a forest, much like the one we just came from, but looking downhill instead of up.
The next moment, it’s gone. It’s nothing but a closed door now.
And when I look behind us, the Savage Falls hillside has also been replaced by a closed door.
Callistina gives out a surprised gasp. “What just happened?”
I pull her towards me and hold her close, her back pressed up against my chest. Then I turn us in a circle so we can get a good look. “It’s a hallway, not a door.”
“Well, I can see it’s a frickin’ hallway, Eros. Why are we in it? It wasn’t a hallway a moment ago.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
She wriggles free from me and takes a step down the hallway. It’s not very long, but there are three more sets of doors, each set situated precisely across from one another. She looks back at me with wide eyes. “Now what do we do?”
“Perhaps the hallway gods don’t like being forced into things.”
She makes a face. “What? What are you talking about?”
“In a way, you were forcing them to take responsibility for your decision. And they decided to fix that.” I pan a hand at the new doors. “By offering us choices.”
This is actually a really good explanation and I’m rather proud of myself for coming up with it.
“Oh.” She walks back to our door, practically pushing me out of the way, and bends down to pick something up. Then she leans across the hallway and picks up something else. I can’t see exactly what these two things are because her long dress is blocking my view. But when she stands back up, she presents two doorknobs to me in her outstretched hand. “These are keys, aren’t they?”
I stare at the ruby-red crystals in her palm, each the size and shape of a doorknob. “Well, well, well. They certainly are.”
“So…” She looks down the hallway again. “We just use the doorknobs to open each door, right? Then we can see our choices and make one.”
“Seems reasonable. Let’s give it a try.”
She starts off towards the second set of doors, but I grab her arm. “Hold on. Let’s try these two first.” I point to the door we came from, and the one across from it that should lead to the Realm of Pittsburgh.
“Why? We don’t want to go back there.”
“Don’t you wanna know if we can?”
“No. That was the whole point of your spelling. It’s move forward no matter what.”