Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
I walk into the quiet cave.
Cleo’s sitting with the book open on her lap and casually writing names like it’s no big deal.
Her pen is slow, her cadence almost rhythmic in the way she presses the ink against the old parchment. She’s doing my homework for me. Once the final name is written, it will be complete. All of it.
I didn’t expect her to be so calm though.
Why didn’t Kratos warn me, then? That she’d already been writing the names down? Writing down a memorial tribute to every single sacrifice I’ve taken in order to appease the immortals—in order to end chaos once and for all.
She looks up, and her eyes briefly flash before she sets the book down and then starts to undress.
I back up.
Not in fear, more surprise than anything.
Humans have tried to seduce me, but I never expected her to.
She throws the silk top to the ground, then slides the pants down her hips and kicks them off.
She’s completely bare to me. Her glorious smooth skin is on full display. What’s happening? This isn’t the plan; this was never part of the plan. Searing pain hits my temples as she locks eyes with me.
Cleo takes a step toward me, then another. My breath hitches, and my chest—it burns for her.
She presses a hand to it like I’ve given her permission.
“Don’t touch me without asking,” I whisper.
Her nails dig painfully into my skin. “Kiss me.”
“Apep doesn’t like kissing,” I say.
“But you do,” she says, “since it’s all you can do.”
Okay this has gone on long enough. Enough of her games. I reach for her and pick her up, throwing her over my shoulder and tossing her back onto the bed. “I don’t know what you think you’re up to, but it won’t work. How many names did you write down?”
Her lips tremble, I ignore the fact that it makes me want to give in, it makes me want to fall. It should be working, my sun that heats my heart should be temporarily frozen against her. “Three hundred so far.”
“You’re slow.”
“I’m trying.” She’s naked beneath me again. I grit my teeth while her eyes roam my body. I’m still in the red silk robe. She reaches to push it over my shoulders.
I slap her hands away lightly and do it myself.
“The first name…” Her eyes search mine.
I jerk away from her and stand.
“Tell me!” she yells.
“Never look directly into an immortal’s eyes.” I give her my back not wanting to tell her the rest of what I know. “A waste of a sacrifice, your mother.”
A kindness that she finally died after being used reincarnation after reincarnation by Apep to sire more children. It was a necessary killing, allowing her to finally leave this realm for good, allowing her to find peace. Maybe that’s why Cleo is different, because her mother was reincarnated and used so many times, a favorite of the gods because she never cried—no she worshipped, she felt it was her calling each and every lifetime—to bring about abominations for ultimate power—she thought she was saving the world from Chaos without realizing she was sleeping with it every single fucking time.
“You killed my mother?” Tears stream down Cleo’s pale cheeks. Her jet-black hair is still a mess around her shoulders, in tangles and dirty.
“No.” I shake my head. “She stared into chaos in hopes of seeing your father one last time, I told her not to, I warned her on her very last journey to never search for him.”
“So where is she?”
I wasn’t expecting this. I lift a finger and point at the water. “Lost. She doesn’t want to be found—by anyone.”
“Can you save her?”
“Once you’re in the depths of chaos, you can only save yourself, and many lack not just the ability but the drive to do so.”
“But she died in a crash, there was a storm and rain—”
I burst out laughing. “Humans are so stupid.”
“What?” She jerks away from me as a tear slides down her cheek. “I was at the funeral, there was—”
“Pink cake? All her favorite foods? Family mourned. There was even a totaled car, a news story. Beautiful obituary, by the way. We’ll make sure we do the same for you. It’s the least we can do.”
I can see when it hits her the way it does everyone else.
Her face pales even further.
Her eyes squeeze shut then spring open again. “Tell me that was real, the funeral?”
I stand in front of her, chest to chest and exhale the words. “I can make you see anything in this world.”
Her eyes widen as she looks around, lifting her hands like she can touch the skyscrapers. “I’m in New York!”
“You’re in a cave,” I say. “And humans are so very easy to manipulate.” I snap my fingers, bringing her back. Again, what a waste of power. “Like I said before…” I lean down so we’re face to face. “You aren’t special, only a means to an end.”