Damaged Gods by K.C. Cross, J.A. Huss

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - PIE

When I wake up the next morning, Pell is standing in front of the window with his back to me.

“Hey.” I try to rouse myself but I’m still pretty exhausted from the previous day. “What are you looking at?”

He doesn’t turn to face me. But he does answer. “The lake. I was thinking… we should go out there.”

“Out there… for?”

Now he turns and I can’t stop myself from studying his chest. His face. The curve of his shoulders. His horns.

We had sex yesterday.

I had sex with a monster.

I hate that thought. I do. I hate it. He’s not just a monster. In fact, he’s not a monster. He’s just… something else.

“Just to see it,” he says. “Walk around it. There are birds out there. I’ve seen ducks on that lake. And deer in the woods.” He shrugs. “It’s been a while, that’s all.”

“Oh.” I shove the covers off me and swing my feet out. His eyes track down my legs, then back up. But he’s studying me too. Just like I was studying him. And I wonder if he’s thinking… I had sex with her yesterday. A human.

But he doesn’t say that, he says, “So what do you think?”

“About the lake?”

He just stares at me for a moment and I swear to God, I hear him thinking, Stupid. Naïve. Cute. But I’m not sure which one he chooses today. Everything feels different for some reason. Yesterday he felt like my best friend but today… he’s just my monster. “About the tomb, Pie. Do you think you’re up to going inside?”

“Do I have a choice? I mean, if the sheriff comes back—”

“Oh, he will. He thinks he can come and go at will. He probably has no idea that he’s not supposed to be able to get in. I think that’s working in our favor at the moment. He’s not under the impression that his ability to get inside might come with conditions.”

I sit on the edge of the bed and nod, looking down at my feet.

Yesterday, I had hooves. They were pretty too.

“So.”

I look back up at Pell. He’s waiting for me to say something. “Yeah. Sure. I’ll go inside the tomb and grab the book. But… you said I can’t go in. You said I can see the doors, but only you can enter. So how do I get in?”

“I have a way. But we need to go to the greenhouse. There is a plant in there called bloodhorn that Grant used to grow so he could go inside the tombs.”

“Wait. Grant used to go inside them?”

“No. He never did get it to work. But that’s because he needed my help, and another, more important, ingredient. But he didn’t understand that, and I never did offer up that info.”

“Hmm.” I walk over to the closet and peruse through my new selection of clothes, choose a pair of dark jeans and a red t-shirt that says ComeHell or High Water across the tits. Then I go into the bathroom, wash up, change, and when I come back out, Pell is downstairs messing around in the kitchen.

He hands me a sprinkle-covered Pop-Tart as he chews. “I love these. But for the record, I like sugar cereal for breakfast. Boo Berry is my favorite. But I like Trix too. The new ones. With marshmallows. In fact, just get all the marshmallow cereal. You can’t go wrong with marshmallow cereal.”

And there he is. The man I met yesterday. “You’re kinda dumb, you know that?” But I’m smiling when I say it.

He just smiles back. Nods. Then, with mouth full, says, “Grant always kept a candy drawer for me too. Up in the cathedral kitchen. So next time you go shopping, get some candy.”

“Should I pick up the family bag of Laffy Taffy and jawbreakers? Or the fun-sized Twix and Snickers?”

He points at me with his Pop-Tart. “I would appreciate all of those, thank you.”

“I am not eating this Pop-Tart. I’m not hungry. So if you want mine—”

He grabs it. “Thanks.”

Then we both sigh and look at the door. But we’re really looking past it. At the cemetery. I really don’t want to go inside one of those tombs, but if this will get rid of Russ Roth, I will do it. He does weird things to me. I don’t like it. He makes me feel very out of control.

“Shall we go then?” I ask.

Pell nods and shoves the rest of his breakfast into his mouth.

We walk up the hill side by side, but the last time we did this, he was holding my hand. And it’s hard not to compare yesterday to today.

I change the subject instead of dwelling on it. “Do you think Tomas is around?”

“Probably not,” Pell answers. “He needs time to recover from that whole fire-breathing scene. I’ve never seen him do that before.”

“Never?”

“No. I mean, he and I haven’t been hanging out much for the past thousand years, so I’m no Tomas expert or anything. But just appearing in that human body takes a lot out of him.”

“Should we check on him?”

We’re just at the top of the hill and here Pell pauses. He actually turns and looks down the hill. And at first, I think he’s looking at the caretaker cottage, but then I realize he’s looking at the lake out beyond the walls. He answers my question, but it’s done absently. “We’ll see him soon enough, but we can’t help him when he’s like this. He’s… beyond our help when he’s in his base form. When he’s not around, it’s best to forget about him until he comes back.”

“What if he’s hurt?”

“Nothing we can do. And he can’t die, so…” Pell shrugs. Then he points towards the middle of the cemetery. “Tarq’s tomb is over there.” We begin walking again. “I need to show you the greenhouse anyway. You’re gonna need to take care of it. There’s always been plenty of sunshine coming through the roof, but there is an elaborate aqueduct system for watering that needs watching.”

I don’t really have anything to say to that, so I say nothing.

It’s all very… tedious. Everything about yesterday was easy, but today there is a strain between us.

He’s having regrets, I can tell. He’s thinking, What the hell was I smoking yesterday? Except all the sex happened before we started smoking shit.

This makes me feel worse.

But he does pull open the cathedral door for me, and then wave me through first. And I am reminded about a stray thought I had that first day I came here. When I saw Tomas on the second-story balcony and I thought he was a hot guy with manners.

“What’s so funny?”

“I was thinking about Tomas.”

“Oh.” Pell nods, then looks straight ahead again with his too-serious face.

“Not like that,” I say quickly. “I mean—” I stop and sigh. “Pell?”

He turns to me.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You regret yesterday, don’t you?”

“No. Not at all. Why?” He makes a face at me. “Do you?”

“You’re acting weird. Why are you acting weird?”

“You didn’t answer my question. Do you regret yesterday?”

I shake my head slowly, then look up the stairs instead of him. “No. But everything feels off.” Now I look back at him. “And I don’t like it. We’re a team, right?”

He nods. Then he blows out a breath and his words come rushing out. “OK. I’m gonna tell you something. This book, Pie.” He pauses and shakes his head again. “There is nothing in there that can break our curse. But this is a powerful book with powerful spells. And one of them is a banishment spell. But banishment uses very negative energy. It’s a dark spell and it has a price.”

“What kind of price? And whose book is this?”

“The price is always a sacrifice.”

“Like a… virgin?”

He laughs. And I’m so relieved to see this laughing Pell, my whole body relaxes. “What is it with you and virgins?”

“Well, what kind of sacrifice are they looking for? I think this is important, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Especially since you not only have to go inside Tarq’s tomb to get the book, but you’re the one who has to work the spell. But as far as sacrifices go, I don’t know. I’m not a witch or an alchemist. That’s something between you and the spirits where you get your power.” He points to me before I can object. “Don’t tell me you’re not a witch or an alchemist. I saw you, Pie. You saw what you did. Those moths? They come from somewhere. Where do they come from?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I ever did any magic before I came here.”

“What do you think that bird of yours is?”

“What do you mean? She’s not even real.”

“Isn’t she?”

“She’s not here. She conveniently disappeared.”

“And what took her place?”

I throw up my hands. “Nothing took her place.”

“Moths, Pie. They took her place. That’s your magic. You did some high-level shit last night on the sheriff. It comes from somewhere. That’s how magic works. You ask the powers to help you and if you say the right things, and offer up something they want, it gets done. So… who did you ask for help when you did that moth magic last night?”

I shake my head. “No one. I didn’t ask anyone.”

He sighs. Then takes my hand and we start up the stairs.

We don’t pause at the top, just head across the great hall towards a door I have yet to go through.

“This is the greenhouse,” Pell says as he shoves the massive double doors open. “This is where we get what we need.” Then he mutters under his breath, “I really hope it still fucking grows here.”

I am unable to follow him in, so when he moves forward into the room, my feet stay planted on the marble tiles just outside. And the reason I’m unable to follow him isn’t because there’s some magic holding me back, but because I am paralyzed with wonder.

“What the actual fuck?” is what I manage to say as I gaze up at the three-story walls of glass. “This isn’t even possible. This… this place can’t exist!” I turn and look out the front windows. Picture myself walking up to the sanctuary that first day last week. See Tomas on the second-story balcony. Then I look back inside the greenhouse. Look up, where that balcony should be, but isn’t. “This… this…”

“Pie.” Pell shakes me by the shoulders. “We don’t have time for this. It doesn’t need to make sense. It’s magic.”

“But… where is that balcony that I see from the outside?”

“Who cares?”

“I care!”

Pell huffs at me. “It’s…” He looks up. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It’s like the hallways upstairs. I need to find the plant I’m looking for. Stay here while I look. And don’t touch anything. Some of these plants have anger issues.”

“Anger issues?”

But he’s already pushing his way past some overgrown branches down the center aisle.

I stay right where I am. I do not go into the greenhouse. I think I can feel those anger issues and I think that anger is directed at me because these plants are part of my job and I’ve been neglecting them.

And as if this place couldn’t get any creepier, there is a great rumble underneath my feet. The whole building… thrums. It’s not a shake, like an earthquake. It’s a… tone. It’s a wave of deep sound. Like the sound of those humming monks that people like to meditate to.

“Don’t panic!” Pell calls. “That’s just Tomas. We’re gonna need to go down there next. You can panic then.”

“What?” But my voice is just a squeak.

Pell is deep inside the greenhouse now. His voice sounds far away. I don’t quite understand the dimensions of this place, but it’s three stories tall and I can’t even see the other side. It looks like the forest we were running through in the rooms, that’s how big some of the trees are. But there are aisles and aisles of other plants too.

“I am not cut out for this.” Saying that out loud feels very necessary. “I’m not cut out for any of this. I can’t do it. I don’t know what these plants are, I don’t know how to work a spell, I don’t have any higher power guiding me or whatnot. I’m not a witch! I’m not an alchemist!”

Pell suddenly appears, pushing his way through the aisle towards me. “I got it,” he says, holding up several large, bright red flowers.

“What are those?”

“These are how you can get inside the tombs.” He pauses to lift his chin up, like he’s proud of himself. “I have never shown this to a caretaker before. Grant used to ask me about it all the time.”

“It’s a secret?” I ask. Pell nods. “Maybe I don’t need to know?”

“You do. You need to go in the tomb and you can’t do that, only I can. But I can’t see the doors. So this is a substitute for me.” He smiles now. Like this is great fun. “Well”—he holds up one finger—“we need one more thing.”

I look down at my feet. “Tomas?”

“Yep.” He pauses. “No. We don’t actually need Tomas for you to enter the tombs. We just need a few of his scales.”

“Dragon’s scales? This spell calls for dragon’s scales?”

“And bloodhorn.” He points to the flower.

“Wait. How come you can’t just go get this book? Tarq is your friend. You seem to know what you’re doing and—”

“I can’t see the doors.”

“But I can’t walk through them!”

“You can’t walk through them without me.” Once again, he points to the flowers. “This is how you do that. And the scales.”

“So why can’t you just use that stuff and go in yourself?”

He shoots me a look that says, Yesterday I thought you were cute, but today I think you’re being slow on purpose. “It’s not a spell to see doors, Pie. It’s a spell to walk through them. How can I walk through them if I can’t see them?”

I want to keep this fight going and insist this makes no sense, but unfortunately for me, it kinda does. “Well, this sucks. Why isn’t there a spell to see doors?”

“Take it up with whoever makes the rules around here. When you find that asshole, let me know. I have a few complaints myself. Now, let’s go. We need to have this spell ready before the sheriff comes back.”

Pell leads me towards the back of this side of the sanctuary. It’s the same direction as the dining room and the kitchen, but we end up at the top of a winding spiral stairwell made up of stone.

It leads to a dungeon.

The rumble under my feet is stronger here at the entrance to Tomas’s lair. But that’s not even the most concerning thing about this little dragon scale hunt.

It’s the smell.

I have to stop breathing, that’s how bad it is.

Pell pauses at the top of the stairs and looks over his shoulder at me. “Are you OK?”

I’m covering my mouth with my hand, trying my best not to breathe through my nose. I just nod. Because I can’t even lie. I’m not ready for this, I decide. I’m not ready for what Tomas really is.

Pell puts a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t think of it as him. It’s not him. He will not recognize you. And he won’t even remember this when we see him again.”

I swallow hard. “OK.”

“I would go down and get them myself, but this is a two-person job.”

I nearly piss myself when I realize he needs my help here. Because up until this very moment I had figured that I’d just be here for moral support.

“Pie?”

“Pell.”

“Did you hear me?”

I nod.

“I’m gonna need you to distract him so I can get close enough to grab the scales.”

This is when I notice he’s holding a giant pair of… “What are those?” I point to the tool he’s holding.

“Scale extractors.”

“Mmm-hmm.” I just nod. Because I got nothing for that.

“Don’t worry.” He holds them up in front of me and snicks them open and closed a few times. “I got this part.”

My composure breaks. “You’d better, Pell! Because what the actual fuck is happening right now? I’m supposed to distract a dragon while you yank out its scales! It breathes fire, right? It’s gonna fry me, isn’t it? And oh, my fucking God, that smell! What is it?”

“It’s old eggs,” Pell says.

I actually gag on his words. Pell pats me on the back. “Just… breathe through your mouth. We can get this done, Pie. I’m pretty sure we got this.”

“Pretty sure?”

“Come on. We’ll be fine.” Then he grabs a torch off the wall and we begin our descent.

What we’re doing is a very bad idea.

And that thought just keeps running through my mind as we go down, down, down into the depths of the sanctuary. The smell is freaking bad and I spend most of the trip holding my breath, so that by the time we pause on the bottom, I’m lightheaded from lack of oxygen.

But that rumble—no. That growl….

I let my breath out and for a moment I can’t even remember how to breathe in.

Then, the next thing I know, flames are shooting out towards us.

Pell throws his torch and yells, “Pick it up! Distract it! I’m going on the—”

But I can no longer hear his words. Because the monster in front of me right now is no hot guy working out on a balcony. He’s no dragon chimera getting high with us and playing truth or dare. He’s not the man who showed me how to use Grant’s kitchen spells, or the friend who made steaks for dinner.

He’s not him.

That’s what sinks in as Pell disappears. And suddenly I understand why all those old fairy tales and storybooks make the dragon out to be the evil monster.

Because the dragon is the evil monster.

Tomas is red. I’m not talking some reddish-brown color. I’m not talking some bright valentine-heart color. I’m talking hellfire red with a healthy dose of orange and yellow. I’m talking rivers of lava flowing over brimstone. That’s what color he is.

His eyes are black. And then, suddenly, they’re not. They’re yellow. Not some sunshine yellow, either. They are sickly green-yellow. The color of a disease.

He opens his mouth and that stench… it’s not just the den of filth he lives in. It’s not just the nest that reeks of demons. It’s him.

He exhales poison.

And his teeth. Yellow-orange and blue-gray. Sharp. So fucking sharp. Like shark teeth.

I’m stuck in place. My feet have no chance of moving. Ever again. So when he opens his mouth, this is all I see. And it’s like… 4-K fucking ultra-sharpness and clarity. Because this isn’t some sci-fi special effects going on here, this is fucking real.

The fire. His mouth is wide open, so I see it. It lives inside him. I watch the tiny flame as it ebbs back in his throat, and then I move. Because it grows.

I truck up those stairs so fast, I take four steps at a time and get around three bends before the flames catch up with me. They shoot up the wall and this is when I notice that the walls are black. They are charred with dragon fire.

But even so, the fire licks at my clothes and then… I am on fire.

I scream and pat at my back, but it’s no good. I have to rub up against the stone walls to smother it.

The dragon roars down below and the entire stairwell shakes. It’s not some deep-bass rumble. It’s fucking shaking. Parts of the walls actually begin to crumble.

I’m in shock. I can’t even move. I just press myself up against the stones and look straight ahead at the opposite wall, waiting for the next barrage of fire.

It doesn’t come. In fact, things calm down a little and I can take a few breaths. I no longer care about the stench. To hell with the stench, my mind is only on the fire.

Then, from down below, I hear Pell calling for me. “Pie! Pie!”

Shit. “I’m still here!”

“Come down a little. Let him see you so I can get past him. I’m done. I have the scales. But I need to sneak past.”

“He’s going to fry you!”

“No. He’s not. He can’t. I’m made of fire too. But he can eat me. And I’d rather not be eaten today, Pie! So distract him!”

I’m burned. I know this for sure because my back is screaming in pain.

“On three,” Pell yells. “Let him see you. Ready?”

“No!”

And then all I hear is, “Two!” Like where the fuck did one go? And something comes over me. I have to do this or Pell will be eaten. So on three, I actually find myself back down at the bottom of the stairs, waving my arms around and yelling at the dragon, who is not looking at me, but behind him where Pell must be.

“Hey! You disgusting smelly shitbag! I’m over here! Look at me! Come get me!”

At first, I think, Well, that’s not gonna work. Because the dragon doesn’t move. But then its head—that massive, armored, spiky head—slowly, like ever so fucking slowly, turns in my direction.

And I see it again.

That tiny flame that will unleash the fires of hell.

And I scream like a stupid teenager in one of those predictable horror movies. It’s shrill and, yeah, I’m embarrassed. But I do not freeze, so I don’t care what I sound like. I run. And again, I take those steps four at a time and even though my legs are burning with effort, I go fast and I get one spiral further up than I did last time.

But even so, the flames catch up with me. Lick at me. Tease me. Taunt me.

And then they burn me.

Pell comes rushing up through them and grabs my hand. Pulling me up more and more twists of the stone staircase until the fire is gone and the heat is mostly tolerable.

And then I pass out.

When I wake I’m lying on my stomach, topless, on the lounger inside the apothecary, and Pell is rubbing that cooling lotion from the steam cave pots all over my back.

“You’re gonna be OK,” he says, his fingers gentle as he applies the cream. “He got you good, but this will take care of it.”

I don’t want to look. I really don’t. But it’s impossible not to see the burned flesh covering my right shoulder.

“Does it hurt?” Pell asks.

I manage to croak out a, “No.”

“Good. Then I got the cream on in time. It’ll heal up.” He pauses, then lets out a long breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I made you do that. It was—”

“Necessary,” I finish before he can. “You got what we need?”

He nods. Then he gets up, walks over to the closest apothecary benches, and picks up three giant red things, which I’m going to assume are scales.

Pell walks back over to me, bends down, setting them on the floor just below my eyes so I can get a good look at them. And then he resumes his care of my back.

I just stare at them for a little while, enjoying his attention as I study all the different colors in the red. There is silver in there. And yellow. And green. Even some blue. “Wow. They’re pretty.”

“They are. These things are worth like…” He pauses to think. “Fuck. These days? I don’t really know. Millions, possibly billions of dollars. That book we’re gonna get, this is why it’s so special. Everything in that book runs on dragon scales. And he’s the last one. Tomas is the last living dragon. So even if other magical people have these spells, we’re the only ones who can use them.”

“Pell, why couldn’t Grant break the curse?” I have to turn over a little to see him. But my back really feels great from the lotion, so it doesn’t hurt. “If the spellbook is that powerful, surely there is something in there that can free you.”

“Grant never got a look at that book. It’s inside Tarq’s tomb, remember? You still have to go get it.”

“Shit, I forgot about that.”

“I never trusted Grant. I never trusted any of them, actually. But especially Grant. He was way too nice when he came here. Way too eager to please me. And that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”

“How’s it supposed to be?”

“Me trying to please him. Eros, remember?”

I think about that for a few moments. My brain isn’t a hundred percent yet, but finally I catch up. “Wait. You didn’t act like that with me. You hated me immediately.”

“Yeah.” He breathes out a little sigh. “I’ve been thinking about that myself.”

I sit up a little, self-consciously rearranging my hair so it covers my breasts. “So”—I pause again—“you should’ve acted with me the way I acted around the sheriff?”

Pell and I stare into each other’s eyes for a moment. His are yellow, the color of lava, and they are asking the same question. “Yeah,” he finally says. “I should’ve… loved you.”

“And you didn’t.”

“I mean”—he pauses—“I just wasn’t prepared to wake up that night and find Grant gone. It was a shock.”

“But that doesn’t explain why you didn’t swoon over me. If I’m an eros, you should’ve swooned.” My mind doesn’t even need to be a hundred percent to take this idea to the next level. It’s just kind of obvious. “And if I was an eros, then I should not have swooned for the sheriff.”

It takes him several beats, but finally Pell nods. “Yep.”

“So. What am I?”

“I don’t know.” Pell has a look of ‘uh-oh’ on his face. Like he’s expecting some big freakout from me.

But I’m not freaking out. I nod. “I’m not an eros.” And then I smile. “I’m a human.”

Again, he pauses.

“What?” I ask.

“Maybe?”

“Maybe? There’s no maybe. I was born a human so I’m just human.”

“With magic moths and a talking bird.” He smiles. “Pie. I don’t care either way. I’m swooning over you now. Whatever you end up being, I love it.”

It’s a nice response. But it doesn’t answer any questions. “So why are you trusting me with this information now?”

“Well. The simple answer is, I don’t think you’re going to fuck me over. I think we’re on the same side.”

“OK.” I like this answer.

“And I’m telling you, the answer to my curse is not in that book, or I would’ve taken my chances at one point. It’s not in there. That book holds the spells of all the gods and it belongs to the great alchemist, Ostanes. But she didn’t put this curse on me. Juno did.”

“Juno?”

“The goddess. Saturn’s wife? They had a nasty divorce—”

“What?” I huff. “This curse is some kind of settlement issue?”

“Not quite. But a little bit, yeah. Saturn and Juno sponsored the chimera breeding program. Ostanes was the alchemist who did the work. This is her book and it holds a lot of secrets. Not just how to make chimera monsters, other secrets too. She belonged to all the gods—but Saturn and Juno head up the pantheon, so they were kind of her bosses.”

“And she didn’t want to take sides.”

He points at me. “That. And, well, you can’t ever trust a god, ya know? They have enough powers already. It needs to be spread around a little more fairly. Ostanes was the balance.”

“What happened to her?”

“I think they killed her. But I don’t actually know. She’s certainly not in here with us.”

“How did you get in here?”

“Juno. Well, it started with Ostanes banishing the gods from the sanctuary. Then Saturn got the eros involved and made sure they could get inside—that’s how I got caretakers. But then Juno countered with a spell to lock up the tombs so only I could get inside. Then Saturn hid the doors from me.”

“Oh.” It suddenly makes sense.

“Right. So we got ourselves a paradox.” He picks up the dragon scale and the flower. “This is the only way around that curse.”

I run his explanation back and forth in my mind for a few moments, then decide I have one more question. “Where does the Book of Debt fit in? And all those pleasure tasks?”

“Juno cursed the caretakers and came up with the Book of Debt to fuck them up.”

“That was her doing?”

“That was all her. That’s how I know that Book of Debt is real.”

“And the pleasure stuff?’

He shrugs. “I really don’t know. Payment? For me being stuck here?”

“Or”—I point at him—“a way to bond you to the caretaker?”

“Why would Juno want that? It makes it more likely that I would help the caretaker get inside the tomb, not less.”

“But that’s not what happened. You never liked them.”

“They were just not my type.” He’s grinning when he says this. So I know he’s making a joke. But he’s missing the most obvious part of this whole thing.

“Pell?”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t you think it’s odd that I show up? A woman. A woman you like. You don’t swoon over me, you get angry. Then, over the course of a week or so, we do bond. We bond so well, we have sex. And then, right after that, you’re ready to hand over your secret.”

He lets out a long breath. “I know.”

“So. Maybe this is a bad idea? Maybe I was sent here to steal this secret from you, only we don’t know that yet.”

“Here are our choices, Pie. We do nothing and hope the sheriff doesn’t come back—”

“That’s not likely.”

“Nope,” he agrees. “Or we could go into town and kill the sheriff, I guess.”

“If there’s a secret family of eros living in Granite Springs, don’t you think they’d retaliate?”

“I do. So our only choice is for me to send you into the tomb to get the book from Tarq and we banish him.”

I reluctantly agree. But then I have another thought. “What happened to them?”

“Who?

“The gods. After the whole battle of Saint Mark’s.”

Pell shrugs. “I don’t know. I was in here, remember? I’m sure more happened.”

“They are gods,” I say.

“Vengeful ones too. It’s highly unlikely that they just gave up. Maybe Saturn gave his caretakers more power? And that’s why Grant didn’t age when he left? But I’m not buying it. Every caretaker before him left, right? And they all got old and died. So. That’s new.”

I sigh and lie back down. “I don’t have any room in my head for that stuff. It’s confusing me.”

“That’s OK. I’m gonna let you rest while I cook up the spell.”

“Don’t you need my help?”

“It’s not that hard, actually. Boil the flower, extract the oil, rub it over a scale, then you put the scale on and wear it like armor and boom. You can walk into the tombs.”

“I’m having mixed feelings about that.”

Pell chuckles. “This is the easy part. Tarq’s a cool dude. You’re gonna like him. And you’re so cute. He loves cute. He’s gonna help. I know he will. Then we’ll ward off the sanctuary, none of those townie assholes will be able to get in, and then…” He sighs. “Then.”

“Then what?” I look over my shoulder so I can see him.

“Then… back to normal, I guess.”

“Normal?” I snort. “OK.” It’s not normal. Nothing about this place is normal. But… on the other hand, it’s not bad, either. I don’t mind it here. Hell, who am I kidding? I had a chance to leave yesterday and I put the damn ring back on.

The truth is, I don’t have a home. Have never had a home.

Until now.

And maybe, just maybe, this place is worth all this trouble. And I get it. Pell and I aren’t even the same species, but there are forests and party rooms upstairs that kinda smooth out all those wrinkles.

We could make this work. Couldn’t we?

I must fall asleep after that because the next thing I know Pell is shaking me by the shoulder. “Wake up, Pie. It’s time to go.”

I sit up. I’m topless—and don’t have all the extra hair I did in my wood nymph chimera form to cover my tits—and Pell is handing me a new shirt. It’s not the red one that said Come Hell or High Water. That one must’ve burned up. This one is a too-big baseball jersey that I bought to wear to bed.

I make a face at the shirt, but put it on without making a big deal.

Then Pell hands me the scale. It’s big. Big enough to actually wear like a plate of armor. And he’s attached a silver chain to it, so I just put on like a necklace and the scale hangs down my front. “It smells good,” I say, picking it up and putting it to my nose.

“That’s the bloodhorn oil.” Then he’s pulling me to my feet and leading me out the door.

“Whoa. We’re not gonna, like… discuss this first?”

“There’s not much to discuss. Just go in there, talk to Tarq, explain the situation, and get out as quick as you can. Make any promise he asks of you. Just get that book and come straight back. I’m anxious to get this part over with because we still need to make the spell.”

We’re already walking down the stairs and for some odd reason, the bottom is coming very quickly. Every other time I go up and down these stairs it feels like it takes forever. But the next thing I know, we’re nearly to the bottom.

Pell stops, looking out the massive windows at the tombs. Then he points. “Do you see that tomb right there? The one in the middle? With the dome?”

I see it. But I don’t say anything.

Pell just continues. “That’s the one.” We resume walking down the stairs and soon enough, we’re walking across the hall and he’s pulling the cathedral door open for me. “Just walk right up to it and go in.”

“Those are your final instructions?”

He smiles at me. “You’re gonna be fine. I swear. Tarq is a good guy.”

My face crinkles up into a dubious expression. “When was the last time you saw him?”

“It doesn’t matter. He’s Tarq. We’re tight.”

“Pell—”

“Two thousand years, but—”

I stop listening. I’m gonna die in there. And if I don’t, that’s OK too. Because then I’ll just get pitchforked by the townies.

I start walking. But when I look back, Pell isn’t following.

“I can’t come,” he explains. “Or you won’t be able to see the door.”

I sigh, giving in. Because what choice do I have? It’s not like I could come up with a better plan.

So I give him a little wave, turn to the cemetery, and start weaving my way through the tombs. I try not to look at all the monster statues, but it’s kinda hard not to notice that they are all chimeras. Almost all of them look like satyrs, their oversized dicks a dead giveaway. But some of them are four-legged, like a… centaur, and some of them have wings.

When I finally find the tomb with the gold dome, I pause and take in the statue of the monster called Tarq.

He’s sleek. Nothing about him is shaggy. He is jet black from head to toe and his horns are definitely those of the infamous Minotaur. They are thick and span out and upward over the top of his head. He’s holding a whip in one hand and some kind of plant or flower in the other. This might be a crocus bulb. It’s hard to tell, since it’s been carved out of black marble, so maybe it’s an onion. Could go either way.

Against my better judgment, I glance over at the dark shadow that is the door to his tomb and stop breathing for a moment, so I can listen for sound.

But there’s nothing there.

Slight variations of light tell me that’s not true, though.

There is definitely something inside that tomb.

I take one more look over my shoulder in the direction of the cathedral and spy Pell hanging off one of the gas lampposts. He salutes me.

And with that, I turn away and step through the door.