Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85029 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Ryet directs those constantly-angry eyes in my direction, then pushes Syrsee behind him. “What the hell are you doing here?”
It’s an honorable gesture. Of course he wants to protect her. He loves her.
Not as much as I love him, but he’ll get there with time.
Unfortunately, time isn’t a luxury.
But it could be.
I put up a hand. “We don’t have a lot of time. I need to explain some things—”
“You bet your ass you do.” Syrsee spits these words at me. “You didn’t tell me that I was literally going to be fucked by a demon! You said it was Ryet!”
I shrug with my hands. I mean, what was I going to say? Syrsee, you’re going to be fucked by a demon and have its baby? That would’ve gone over well. And anyway, it was Ryet. The vessel that contains Ryet, at least. It is my professional opinion that this was not a lie because Syrsee didn’t understand that the mind and the vessel are two separate things.
She does now.
All of this is beside the point. “We have more important things to discuss.” Syrsee opens her mouth to protest, but I put up another hand, warning her off. “I’m sorry. OK? I apologize for leaving out the details. But the situation is very sensitive.”
Ryet takes a breath, then looks me straight in the eyes. “What, exactly, is the situation?”
“Third-born’s choice.” I hold up a finger. “Long version?” I hold up another finger. “Or condensed?”
They both say, “Condensed,” in unison.
“Good choice. Here’s the deal, kids.” I point at Ryet. “You’re going in the ground. I’m going to bury you in the tunnel between the root cellar and the house. You’re going to stay there for the foreseeable future.” I point to Syrsee. “You’re going to the Guild.”
The both blink at me. Like they can’t believe they’re about to agree that this is a better outcome than they expected.
“But,” I say—they both sigh—“there’s a catch.”
“Of course there is.” Ryet is looking like the beautiful man he is in this moment. Not the blue-black thing back in the tunnel. “Paul!”
So he’s a bit distracting and I missed most of what he just said. “What?”
“Stop looking at my dick and focus. I said”—he’s really angry—“what is going on back in the tunnel?”
I wave a hand in the air. “Oh. It’s all over.” Then I point at Syrsee. “You, however? We have a little bit of a problem.”
Syrsee goes pale. “What kind of problem?”
“You’re addicted to the blood. You will need to continue feeding on a regular basis.”
Ryet interjects. “Let me guess. I’ll be in the ground so you’ll be the one who needs to feed her.”
“An intriguing possibility that I admit sounds a lot more fun than the path I’m on. But no, Ryet. You are going to feed her.”
“But you just said he’s going in the dirt.”
“He is. But only part of him, Syrsee.” I suck in a breath, steeling myself for the next revelation. Because this is the part they’re going to hate. “Just like only part of you will be going to the Guild.”
“Explain.” Ryet is growling mad now.
“You can…” There is no good way to say this, so fuck it. I just spit it out. “You can split yourselves. In fact, this is not a ‘could’ situation. It’s a done deal. Every time you enter the purple ‘dreamwalk,’ as we’ve been calling it, you split away from your true self to be there. But you are there.” I look them both in the eye for this part. “It’s not a dream. The two of you know this, right?”
They look at each other for a moment, then shrug. Ryet answers for both of them. “Yes. It’s real.”
“This is real too.” I pan my hand at the library. “It just exists in another place. It’s connected to the reality we experience through our magic.” I wave a hand through the haze of gold and purple. “Which manifests as a mist. You’re perfectly safe as long as the mist is around you because it’s a connection to your physical body.”
“Oh!” Syrsee puts up a finger. “It’s like astral projection.”
“Sort of. But it’s really not. I, myself, am not an astral projection expert, so I can’t say how related this might be to our particular circumstances. But I don’t think the point of astral projection is to split away from your soul so you can be in two places at once.” They blink at me. “Physically, I mean. You can be in two places at once physically.”
“How?” This one word of Ryet’s is filled with so much doubt, it comes out seething.
“You walk away from the soul.”
The silence that comes after this revelation is thick, and heavy, and charged with unanswered questions.
“OK.” Syrsee comes back first. “But… I don’t understand. One… clone, copy, whatever—this one has the soul, but the other one doesn’t?”