Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
One particularly tall and broad Matron steps in front of me, hands up in a full-stop gesture.
“Get out of my way, you bitch.” I snarl these words out, making the big woman recoil. Which gives me an opportunity to push past her and head for the stairs. I don’t even know where Clara’s room is. I have literally never, not once, been inside this tower. But I don’t care. There are two Maidens left at this point. Fuck ’em. I’ll just yell her name until she answers.
“Clara!” So that’s what I do. “Clara!” My shout echoes off the high ceilings ten floors above.
Mitch and Jeyk are still behind me, but both of them are yelling threats and insults at the Matrons, who are following us as we climb the central staircase.
We’ve reached the third floor and I’m still yelling, but there is a sudden commotion down below and I pause, leaning over the railing to see if it’s Clara. I had always assumed she lived up at the top somewhere, but hell, she could be in the basement for all I know.
But it’s not her, it’s the Little Sisters—haphazardly dressed up in their pretty white nightgowns, all of them in different states of confused disarray and looking like nubile virgins with their tousled hair, and sleepy bedroom eyes, and no corset to keep their breasts from falling out all over the place.
I stop and just look at them. I mean… there is no way I can’t look. It’s… quite something to behold.
Mitch kinda guffaws as he leans far over the railing to gawk as well.
Jeyk mutters, “Holy fucking shit. Look at them.” Like he’s never seen a half-naked girl before.
The appearance of the Sisters confuses the Matrons. They split—half of them barking orders at the girls below, half of them still trying to follow us up the stairs.
But some of the Matrons are old. Many of them, in fact. And we are not old. We are in our prime.
“Come on.” Mitch grabs my arm, pulling me up the next level of stairs, probably coming to the same conclusion because we’re going fast now and the few Matrons still giving chase are falling behind.
I start yelling again. “Clara!” And after a few more times of this, I hear a shout back.
“Finn!” My name comes out as a sob. And when I look up, I see her about three floors above me, leaning over the railing. Her long, blonde hair hangs down, almost covering her face completely. She feels much too far away, but at the same time, I can see every emotion as they flash through her mind and then manifest as an expression.
It is fear, and anguish, and hopelessness.
This is how I will remember her. I know it. I will not think of her as the once fun-loving and playful girl that I grew up with, or the mature, intelligent woman she grew into, or even the way she looked in all those beautiful gowns she’s worn over the years.
It’s this image of her that will be burned into my memory until the day I die. This moment, as the bells toll incessantly, when she realizes that our dream of forever will never happen.
Gemna is there too, when the three of us arrive on the ninth floor. She and Clara are holding each other. Crying, hysterical, faces buried in each other’s necks. And even when Mitch and I try to pry them apart, they cling to each other. Like if they could just hug each other tight enough, then maybe the nightmare will go away. But if they let go, they know they will lose everything.
Mitch is the one who finally manages to pull them apart. Replacing himself with Clara, he hugs Gemna tightly and Gemna hugs him back.
Clara is then instantly in my arms. Just sobbing uncontrollably.
Jeyk must be intercepting the Matrons on the stairs because that’s all I hear—sobbing—as I hug the only woman I’ve ever loved. The only woman I will ever love.
Jeyk won’t be able to fend them off for long, so I push Clara off me and hold her at arm’s length. “Where can we go?”
She’s a mess, but she’s paying attention, because she points a finger down a hallway.
“I’m staying with you. All day, do you understand?” I push her wild hair out of her face so I can see her eyes. “Let’s go.”
She stares at me for a moment. Like she can’t quite snap herself out of the shock. But then Mitch says, “Come on!” And he’s dragging Gemna down the hallway.
I grab Clara’s hand and follow him. Gemna is slightly more in control than Clara, but that’s probably because her bell has not yet tolled.
But it will, dear Gemna. It will.
That god in the tower has an insatiable appetite. And he will feast on you as well.