Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“I don’t want to be on The Cold Case Files!”
My queen is so hard to please. I thought everyone wanted to be on TV.
“Then perhaps you should send your mother a message, let her know that you’re alive and well but currently…indisposed.”
“Indisposed doing what? That I ran away to join a cult?”
She lifts her head, her hair sticking to the trails of tears on her cheeks. My heart sinks at the sight of such sorrow and torment inside her. I reach over and brush her hair out of her eyes, wishing I wasn’t wearing my gauntlets so I could feel her.
“Is joining a cult considered a good thing in this world?” I ask, keeping my voice soft.
She shakes her head, her lower lip quivering.
“Then no,” I say. “Don’t tell her that. You’ll think of something.”
I lean in and kiss her, trying to be gentle. But the feel of her lips, the rush of energy that seems to surge from her and through to me, straight to the marrow of my bones and the depths of all that is dark and unknown inside me, makes me want to take her away from this, from here. I want her beneath my body, gasping at my fingertips. I want to take away the uncertainty and pain that this world is already bringing her. I want her to see the goddess that she is.
But then, the ground starts to shake, and I think it’s more than just my heart. I pull away in time to see a train pulling into the station. It’s the only thing that could have distracted me at this moment: my first time getting on a train.
Hanna gets up and grabs her bag, but I take it from her and pick up mine, watching her for cues on how to deal with the train ride. She waits until it comes to a stop, and after people leave the train, we follow the crowd onboard.
I have to admit, the train is not what I would have thought. In the black-and-white movies I’ve watched, the train has always seemed grand and opulent inside, with wood furnishings and fine linens, and the outside was always black metal, something loud and menacing, something that would easily fit in the land of Tuonela.
However, as Hanna takes me to our narrow seats and I’m once again squished up against a window, I’m disappointed at how clean, boring, and sterile this train is. The chairs are upholstered with thin, scratchy fabric, and the walls are plastic.
“Well, what do you think?” Hanna asks as the train pulls away from the station.
“I don’t like it,” I admit. “It’s so cheap looking, and it moves silently. Where is all the noise and the shaking and the steam?”
She laughs, and it sounds good to hear her spirits lifted slightly, even if it’s at my expense. “Those kinds of trains aren’t so popular anymore. They’re old-fashioned. These ones are electric and much more efficient.”
“I think when we return to Tuonela and get everything with Louhi sorted, I should look into installing a train. Not a plastic thing like this, but the old-fashioned kind, with big metal gears and loud whistles. Perhaps we could transport the dead from the River of Shadows to the City of Death that way, maybe even take them on a tour of the land before they settle in for eternity. There’s so much of my kingdom the dead never even see.”
She puts her hand over mine and gives it a squeeze. “That is a lovely idea.”
The train into Helsinki goes quickly. I spend my time staring out the window at the passing trees and frozen lakes, at the buildings that get higher and closer together the further into the city we go. Hanna seems glued to her phone, researching her own disappearance. The entire ride, I think she’s touched on every emotion, from crying over the heartfelt messages people left on her so-called wall to disappointment over how quickly people seemed to forget her.
Of course, I figure those people are all idiots, possibly blind, because I don’t know how anyone could forget Hanna—not her body, not her mind, and not her spirit. But I don’t tell her that—it seems she needs to work her way through these emotions on her own. I could never pretend to know what she’s going through; I doubt anyone could. I might be the God of Death, but I assume it’s not every day people think you’re dead when you’re not.
This creates a bigger problem for me. If Hanna lets her mother know she’s alive, will that make Hanna want to stay? Will seeing the messages from those she loved make her realize all she’s lost? Will being in this world make her realize that this is where she belongs?
Does she belong here?
Or does she belong at my side, with me, ruling the Underworld?