Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“I put on headphones,” Mason admits.
“I was watching Dateline,” Cassius grumbles.
“And I was out for a run while Bannik stewed in the backyard,” said Tarek. “He walked on your tomato plant, by the way, Timber.”
“Son of a bitch, Bannik!”
“I SLIPPED!” he yells.
“SILENCE!” Cassius looks ready to throw something. “So the way to solve this is easy, we’ll go with Horus to the Abyss, grab the tails and come back.”
“No.” Bannik’s hoarse voice sends chills down my spine. “He can’t just steal them back. He’ll have to earn them. And even if he can fight and win, the Abyss doesn’t let you go without the sacrifice. His, I’m sad to say, will be time.”
“How much?” I ask.
“For her? For us? A few weeks.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “And for me?”
“Nine tails equal three lifetimes, Horus. You’re looking at three hundred years at the very least.”
I stand, mind made up. I grab a piece of paper and start to write. Minutes later, I’m folding it up and handing it to Bannik. “Make sure she looks up from time to time.”
“You’re not going to say goodbye?” Timber asks. “To her? To any of us?”
“Why say goodbye when I’ll be back?”
“Terminator.” Tarek nods. “Classic.”
“How can you joke right now?” Timber lunges for him.
Tarek grins, his eyes flicker with blue. “Ah, we all have our reasons for doing what we do. Sometimes, we have to walk through the darkness in order to find our true light. Good luck, Horus. We’ll keep watch.” His eyes fall to Bannik. “It is, after all, what you do, isn’t it?”
Bannik pales. “What?”
“Watcher.” Cassius’s voice booms. “You watch. You do not look away from your purpose, from your being. Will you watch her?”
A tear slides down Bannik’s cheek. His whisper is haunting. “May I die if I close my eyes just once.”
“You did, though,” Cassius says quietly. “But now I wonder what will happen when the one who chose her, who watched her, is back?”
“What?” I ask.
Bannik shakes his head. “I watched the mountain.”
“Yes.” Cassius smiles sadly. “But before you watched the mountain, you watched a tiny innocent little fox fall into a river. You kept her safe when her parents died and when the last of those who loved her left—you made a pact with the heavens, and you finally chose.”
Tears stream down Bannik’s face. “What did I choose then if you’re so smart?”
Cassius waves his hand in front of us, a star shines so brightly down on Kit, she’s lying across the grass and reaches for the star, whispering, “I choose you too, pretty star. Keep me safe.”
The star shoots across the sky and places itself above her.
“Don’t you see?” Cassius sighs. “Things always come full circle. You, Bannik, before you fell, before you stopped watching, were her star. Why else would the Creator place you at her mountain? In Asia?”
Bannik falls to his knees and screams.
I squeeze my eyes shut. “It’s why she reached for your hand.”
Bannik doesn’t speak; he just stares at his hands as if they’re dirty like he doesn’t deserve to know even the good he did.
I sigh. “You have your job back.”
He nods his head and stands. “I won’t let you down this time. I will not fall.”
I believe him.
His shaky hand comes out to grip mine. I shake it hard. “Make sure she watches.” I shove the note into his hand.
And I take my slow walk to the Euphrates to descend into The Abyss.
This time, I didn’t choose my brother.
I didn’t choose me.
I willingly choose her, even if it means years of torture. I’ll stay, and I’ll endure. What’s three hundred years to her three lifetimes of not knowing what she was?
I smile as I walk.
And when I reach the muddy bed, I have enough power that I simply flick open the gated window and hold out my hands. “Kings of The Abyss—you have permission to imprison me.”
Chains drag against the ground, they get caught on rocks and objects. They get closer and closer.
Cold metal clasps around my wrists. “You are out of your time, god.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I think I’m actually exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
悪戦苦闘
akusenkutou
“An uphill battle.”
~Japanese proverb
Kit
I fall to the dirt, my knees hit the ground hard enough to make them bruise; I know I’ll be picking pieces of the dirt away from them later.
I’m betrayed again.
He’s all-powerful, and I’m going to die. I guess every being dies, mortal or not, something always happens, but I’ll die sooner than later after trusting him.
Trusting all of them.
I stare up at the sky, but all I see is darkness. Maybe I finally see what I feel, and now that I don’t have a star that feels it with me, I have no guilt in saying I’m sad, alone, isolated, angry.
It’s like a shroud of blackness that makes it impossible to see the stars. I reach up with trembling fingertips and then drop my hands to the ground.