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)
“Wrong. It is Eros stealing Pie from that room that causes this outcome. And you damn well know he did that. You were there.”
“Well, then it was Ptah. He gave Pie the rings that Eros wanted to steal.”
“Wrong. It was Eros who caused Ptah to give Pie the rings.”
“How do you figure that?”
She opens her mouth to say something, but then she abruptly stops.
And this is when it all starts to make sense. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
She tilts her chin up in defiance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You took Ptah through the doors and showed him something.”
“Wrong.”
Her denial doesn’t come with an explanation this time, so I know I’m on the right track. So my mind starts racing, trying to put it all together.
It’s actually not that complicated of a puzzle once you get this far.
Fallen gods.
That’s what this is about.
The savage rage of fallen gods.
Not Eros, though he has been fallen for a long time now. Not Eros, but the gods in that throne room where I took Pie to receive her gift on her Caretaker Day. Cronus, Zeus, Saturn, and Ptah.
They fell out of favor. All but Saturn, who still has a cult to this day.
“It was you.” I say this again, only this time I’m certain. “You took Ptah through a door and you showed him what giving Pie a bag of rings would do. You showed him how to change the future.”
“I just told you, the future cannot be changed.”
“So?” My sneer comes with a shrug. “Like I’d believe anything you’d say.”
She shrugs as well, playing it off. And I hesitate here, because I think this is real. I’ve missed something. What I’ve deduced is a good portion of what’s happening, but not the whole story.
Because Eros is not dead. He has not been defeated. So the plan is still happening.
She has already admitted that whatever we were doing in that hallway was mostly magic. Not the future. Sure, maybe she really did see it all in her travels. But she didn’t show me the future. She made me experience it. Backwards.
Why?
Hmm. It’s so obvious now.
Love.
She made us live it backwards because of love.
I don’t know if I love Eros and he’s not able to love, so he says.
But love comes in many forms and friendship is just as powerful.
We were friends. We started to rely on each other. Talk to each other. He wanted to protect me in Glory Rome.
Eros and I are friends.
And wouldn’t it be so devastating to trust him and then be betrayed? Especially in such a selfish and terrible way. That’s why we had to live it backwards. Because he didn’t kill me. He didn’t steal my magic. He didn’t and he won’t.
“You need me,” I say. Pressia says nothing, so I keep going. “You need me to end him.” Still, she says nothing. “You want me to think he’s worthless. Evil. A betrayer. But he’s not. I will admit,” I say—and she is looking at me intently now—“that I don’t know the rest of your plan. But I do know the rest of mine.”
And then, like I’ve been planning this moment my entire life, the words just spill out…
“Love is my soulmate, Eros my friend.
The fog is our solace, the sunshine our end.
No hate for us, this blessing forever.
Savage Falls is our home, this curse we will sever.
The road is easy, and crowded, and glad.
No spaces between to drive us wild and mad.
The reward is the people, the prize we will win.
There is nothing but winning
when you’ve been cleansed of your sins.
The gate will be wide, and broad, and great.
We’ll all pass through, it’s never too late.
We will find our place, lifted of weight.
Love is our soulmate, there is no more hate.”
Is that all the magic is? Intentions? And if so, couldn’t I just change it all around just by switching the words?
Apparently, yes. Because the scene around me starts fading as soon I start the spelling and by the time I get to the last word, I’m in the fog.
I think I’ve been here the whole time because I’m wearing the blue prom dress. The whole costume, actually. Antlers, wooden-block shoes, mangy coat that smells like sulfur.
This is the day I gave up. This is the day I wanted to end it.
But then Eros came, and picked me up, and carried me back to the curse.
I sit up, blinking, trying to see past the fog. My head spinning a little from the movement.
“Eros?” I say it too softly, looking around. He came here to find me, so if I never left, is he on his way?
No. He’s not. He’s somewhere dealing with the idea that he just brutally killed me. That he cut off the wings of Ire. And he used us to get his own wings back.