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)
“Not your thing?”
“I’m just not… the responsible party, right? I don’t play that game.”
She takes a breath, eyes narrowing down. “I don’t need you to save me, if that was the conclusion you just jumped to. I never asked you to save me. I’m trying to figure out what happened once I walked through the damn door! And for your information, I can handle the spark, OK? I might be number nine, but I lit up like a fuckin’ sun!”
“OK.” I don’t even know what else to say. But she doesn’t elaborate, just stares at me with her mouth open, so I gotta fill up the silence with something. “How about this? I’ll take you down to the patrol. I know the chief. He’s a friend. In fact, he’s the one who sent me down there to look for you. Well, not specifically you. Just to check out the disturbance you were creating. I’m sure he’s totally interested in this story you’re tellin’. It’s just… well, I’m really not.”
Slowly her hand comes up in front of my face. And then, even more slowly, she raises her middle finger and shoves it right up to the end of my nose. “Fuck. You.”
I slap her hand away. “Ya know, for such an up-city Birch, you’ve got quite the potty mouth going.”
Her mouth falls open, aghast. Then her eyes dart past mine, focusing on something. The next thing I know, she’s pushing past me, heading for the door.
I wave my fingers at her. “Bye. You’re welcome. I’m really fucking glad I saved you by hauling your ass up all those stairs! You’ve been a complete delight.”
She grabs the door handle and pulls. But the door doesn’t open. She turns to look at me, growling again. “Open. The door. Right now. I want to go.”
“So go. It’s not locked.”
“Bullshit, it’s not locked! Look!” She grabs the handle again and tugs. But it won’t open.
I walk over, push her out of the way, and pull on the door. But it really doesn’t open. “What the fuck?” I try again, but it’s stuck. The handle moves, but the door doesn’t so much as budge.
Which isn’t even possible. Nothing locks in the tower unless you’ve got a private padlock on it. And I never bothered. I’ve got a stash of coin hidden here, of course. And it’s worth a lot. But if someone were to steal it, I’d just restock. My one really valuable possession is the Versi, but I never leave it behind when I go out and while I know the people in this tower are mostly crazy, they’re not crazy enough to steal my weapon. It’s literally the only Versi outside the Omega Outlands. They couldn’t even pawn it.
All that is beside the point. I kick the door. “Anneeta! Are you out there? Are you doing this?” I listen, but no one answers on the other side. “Anneeta!” I kick the door again. “If this is your idea of a joke, I’ll kick your little ass if you don’t knock it off right now!”
Just silence from the other side.
The woman comes over, pressing her face to the door. “Help! Someone! Help! The door is stuck!”
“Shouting is pointless. There’s no one out there.”
“It’s not pointless when you do it, just when I do. Is that what you’re saying?”
I point at the door. “Can ya hear anyone out there?” She pauses to press her ear to the metal. “No. Didn’t think so.”
She pulls back from the door and looks up at me with crossed arms. “Then who the hell is Anneeta?”
“A trouble-causing kid, that’s who. This is her doing. I don’t know how she did it but it’s got to be her, ’cause—” But just as I’m saying that, the blue letters are back, again telling me to hide her.
The woman points at me. “Your eyes are doing that creepy blue thing again.”
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
She huffs. “What’s it saying?”
“What makes you think it’s saying something?”
She shoots me a look. This look says she thinks I’m the dumbest person she’s ever met. “I can see them?”
“You can see what?”
“The letters. I just can’t read them, they’re blurry.”
I glance inward at the letters on my field of vision, then expand it out to her. “You can read them?” Then something hits me. “Wait. Are you from the Outlands?”
“The Outlands? No. I’m from Tau City.”
I laugh. “You’re definitely not from Tau City.”
“The hell I’m not. I grew up there. I live in the Maiden Tower. Well, I did live there. Until last night when I walked through the God’s Tower door.”
“This is Tau City. And there is no god in Tau City, lady. It’s been dead for hundreds of years, I’ve already told ya that. And I’ve never heard of a Maiden Tower. There’s no Maiden Tower.”
She lets out a breath, but her eyes are flashing anger as they look around my small room. “Is that a window?” She points at the window, which is covered in steel shutters.