Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Ew. “Shouldn’t someone stop him?”
“Stop him?” The barkeep gives me an incredulous look. “The women are practically throwing themselves at him. The men, too. Who wouldn’t want to fuck a god?”
Big yikes. So much yikes. I guess he doesn’t view mortals like Kalos does, like we’re the equivalent of footwear.
“Don’t worry,” Kalos says, and to my surprise, he drapes an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “I’ll keep her tied to me on a lead like the goat if I must. He’s not getting my wife. Now, about that room…”
The room is a paradise compared to everything we’ve been through for the last while. It’s not a swamp. It’s not a stinky fisherman’s cabin with a dead body on the floor in a puddle of water. It’s a plain, simple, small room with a low ceiling, a lumpy bed with a hay tick mattress, and a tiny window with thick, opaque glass that lets in very little light.
I love it so much I could cry.
I set my pack down on the end of the bed. Dingle hops up next to it, prancing around atop the bed with the zoomies. Sighing with contentment, I kick off my nearly destroyed sandals and sit down next to my pack. I rub my neck, and my gaze catches on an earthenware jug and bowl on a rickety table in the corner. For washing, I assume.
Washing sounds lovely, too.
With a yawn, I glance over at Kalos as he paces through the small room. “We’ll probably have to get food downstairs later. Then we can probably go out looking for supplies.” We’ve got a fair amount of coin now, thanks to the innkeeper, and while I’m pretty sure he ripped us off, we didn’t have a ton of options. I’m just glad to have some money instead of a random assortment of necklaces. “Shopping can wait, though. I need a nap first.”
But Kalos doesn’t settle in. He paces the length of our tiny room, pausing at the door and looking over at me. “No shopping. We should leave.”
“What?” I protest. “Why? We just got here.”
“Did you not hear the mortal man behind the bar?” He gestures downstairs. “Gental is in this same town.”
“I heard. I thought it was interesting. Who’s Gental again? What’s his job?”
“He oversees the family. The home.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” I have to admit, I’m curious about the other god. I want to see what he looks like. I want to see if he seems as otherworldly as Kalos does, at least to me. How people don’t stop on the street and stare at him is beyond me. How can they not see a god walking amongst them? He’s got freaking silver hair, for crying out loud.
Pretty, soft, floaty silver hair.
Whatever the opposite of blending in is, that’s what Kalos is doing, at all times.
Striding across the floor, Kalos snorts in disgust. “He’s a fool.”
“Okaaaay.”
“Thinks he’s too good for the mortal plane.”
I tactfully don’t point out that Kalos himself has thought the exact same thing. “What a monster.”
He shoots me a look. “You haven’t met him. I despise him.”
“Is there anyone you don’t dislike?”
He pauses. Thinks for a moment. “No.”
“Even your brother? What’s his name? Rhagos?”
Kalos shoots me a scathing look. “He’s the worst of them all.”
Okay, so they’re not close like David and I. Thought as much. I’m not ready to get up from my spot on the bed, though, because it feels far too good to sit and relax after what feels like weeks of swamp walking. I probably still smell like swamp, even. “Let’s think about this and be logical. You don’t want to be here, fine. But before we go, we need supplies. I need to eat. Dingle needs to eat. We need weapons. We need clothes that will help us blend in with the people around us. Look at how we’re dressed compared to everyone else. They’re wearing warm clothing, with cloaks. We’ve got thin, impractical clothing that was fine for the warmth of the swamp but not here on the coast, where it’s chillier. More than that, we need to blend in.”
His expression sets in a mulish frown, but he’s not arguing.
I continue on. “We need better shoes, especially if we’re going to keep traveling. Mine are destroyed, and I imagine yours are, too. So yes, we can keep on going, but we need to be smart about it. Give me one day to get supplies and better clothing for us, and we’ll continue on. The plan is still Balsingra, right?”
He crosses his arms over his chest, a hard frown on his soft, pink mouth. “It seems as good a place as any.”
“Great. So we take a day. We stock up on supplies, and we sneak out of town and leave and head for Balsingra.”
To my surprise, he moves to my side of the bed. Kalos sits down next to me and flops onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.