Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
But this face also possessed a pair of full, pouty lips that were only enhanced by the neatly trimmed mustache and goatee.
My skin was now a swarthy, warm brown compared to my previous pasty, never-seen-sunlight white. The hair that hung to my shoulders was a brown so dark that it was almost black. Of course, it was a rat’s nest after lying on the ground and getting windblown while riding on the horse with Nylian.
Staying bent in front of the mirror, I tried out raising my eyebrows and smiling, which made me look like an idiot. I switched to something flirty and suave, which made me look to be an even bigger idiot. I settled on a glare and sighed heavily. That seemed natural on this face. Of course. Did that mean I was supposed to play the asshole?
Fuck.
Who the hell was I?
Or rather, who the hell was I supposed to be?
While my mind was adjusting to being in my book, I’d thought I had popped in as myself in my body. But this body wasn’t my own, so that left me thinking that maybe I’d taken over the role of one of the other characters.
But which one?
I’d never been especially great at visualizing my characters. I was more into personality traits and interior thoughts, not jaw structure and the innate sultriness of eyes.
I pulled off my gloves to better inspect my face and discovered a signet ring on my right hand. It was a big, heavy gold-and-onyx thing. Overlaid on the black stone was a golden raven with its wings spread wide in flight. Something like this definitely meant that I was part of some important family. But which one?
Now that I was alone, it was a good time to get better acquainted with what I’d been blessed with. I turned from the mirror and patted my arms, chest, and waist. There were a surprising number of knives on my person. Maybe this body’s muscles recalled how to use them, because I had no clue.
There was also a bag that contained some travel basics such as soap, a comb, a toothbrush, a canister of what appeared to be pomade that had a nice spicy scent, and a spare dark-green tunic. This was going to come in handy.
In a little pouch, I had money! Oh, thank the gods, I actually had my own money. I could at least pay Nylian back, and I had a chance to survive if the damn elf ditched me.
I reached in to pull out a handful of coins to count my bounty, and my fingers fumbled across a coin that didn’t feel like the others. My heart stuttered, and I drew out the same fucking coin I’d found on the bridge.
The same coin I’d flipped a heartbeat before that car had forced me off the bridge.
Was this thing the reason I was here now? One side of the coin had a raven on it, very similar to the raven on my ring. Was that why I was here?
Should I give it another flip and pray that it got me home?
Or would flipping it change me into a corpse at the bottom of a river?
Three loud knocks tore through the room, jolting me from my swirling thoughts. My hand jerked, and the coin fell from my fingers to clatter on the floor.
“Lockhart?” Nylian called through the door. The knob squeaked as he turned it.
I slammed my foot on the coin, covering it from his sight, and beamed at my companion. “Yeah. What’s up?” My attempt at nonchalance failed miserably. Most likely because I was sweating and panting as if I’d run a marathon in my closet of a room.
Nylian stared at me for a second, his blond eyebrows shooting toward his hairline. He seemed like he wanted to back out of my room slowly and make a run for his horse, but the exiled prince held his ground. “You okay?”
“Yep. Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Are you ready to head downstairs for a meal?”
I nodded manically. “Sounds good. I’ll be right behind you. I need…to grab…my gloves!”
Nylian continued to stare at me as though I’d lost my mind, but finally nodded and closed my door. I waited, listening for his quiet footsteps to disappear along the hall before I snatched up the coin and placed it into my money pouch.
“No more causing trouble until I figure out what you are,” I snarled at the thing.
I was going to need to find a wizard to help me sort this out. For now, I was sticking to Nylian like glue. Some weird magic had put us together for a reason. And I had a feeling it was going to take a lot more weird magic to get me home.
Chapter 4
Piano Man, Play Me a Distraction
The pub was what I’d expected and maybe even a bit better. I caught up with Nylian at the bottom of the stairs and we strolled into the large, crowded room. The bald, frowning bartender behind the long bar gave us a scowl as he shoved a tankard of ale in front of a man slumped on his stool but said nothing. A fire danced in the enormous hearth, keeping warm a giant black cauldron that put out a steady smell of hearty stew over the stench of body odor and old ale. A few lit candles dotted the walls, but mostly shadows filled the room, as if the occupants preferred not to be too visible to outsiders. Antlers and stuffed animal heads covered the walls as decoration, but there wasn’t much else to lend this place any charm.