Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
“Know of any gods living in places like this?” Shey inquired in a whisper as he leaned toward Tyche.
“Centuries ago. Long before kingdoms like Damardor and Caspagir were even dreamed of. But now…” Tyche paused, gazing at the enormous house that rose in front of them. “If there are any living like this today, I don’t know them, but I think they’ve lost what remained of their minds.”
The car fell silent as they drove the last of the way up to the monstrosity. Adrian parked right by the stairs, creating what should be an easy getaway after they wreaked chaos and havoc with Ruben. The butler blinked and hesitated as his eyes lifted to Shey and Tyche standing behind Haru, but the man still welcomed them inside and led the way to Ruben without giving away to his master that he had some extra guests. It appeared Adrian was right in the man’s urgency to get his hands on the other godstone shard.
Tyche’s eyes traveled over all the shiny surfaces and expensive objects—all of it undoubtedly more important to Ruben than the countless people who had died because of his actions. Anger boiled in his stomach, and he tightened his hands into fists at his sides. He wanted to see all of this burn. Haru was right. It needed to be ash and rubble.
“Yujian, finally!” Ruben exclaimed the second Haru stepped into the room. “We should have met days ago, but the Milway fiasco took longer to clean—” His words seemed caught in his throat as Shey and Tyche followed a few steps behind him. His dark, bushy eyebrows slanted down hard, and heavy lines cut through his face.
“Forgive me, Ruben. Some friends of mine were in town and I thought I’d bring them,” Haru said with a careless wave of his hand. His lips shifted into a smile sharp enough to slit a throat. Behind them, the double doors to the study thumped softly as the butler closed them, shutting them away from the world. Adrian wandered away from Haru’s side, positioning himself along the wall halfway between Haru and Ruben.
“What—” Ruben gasped. His narrowed eyes lit on Tyche, snapped to Shey and stuck, but Tyche couldn’t see any light of recognition. Why should he? The couple of times Ruben had looked in on him, they’d been pale, filthy shadows of themselves. They were piles of trash he was hoping to extract a tiny bit of useful ore from before discarding.
Yet, the people who’d strolled into his study today were clean, immaculately dressed, and so very free. Of course, he didn’t recognize them. But he would soon enough.
“We’ve met, actually,” Shey stated. His hard voice was like a rumble of thunder.
Haru gave the fakest gasp Tyche had ever heard, and Tyche was left struggling not to laugh. The dragon was enjoying the game.
“Wait? You’ve met Crown Prince Shey Thrudesh-Vo of Caspagir?” Haru asked.
“W-what?” Ruben’s mouth bobbed, and he managed to get out only that soft stammer.
Shey approached and briefly laid a hand on Haru’s shoulder. “No, he didn’t meet me as Prince Shey. But he held me captive and threatened my life at his illegal facility in Milway.”
Joy rushed through Tyche, stealing his breath away as he watched all the color drain from Ruben’s face. Sweat beaded on his broad forehead and glistened in the afternoon sunlight that poured through the windows.
“Oh! Then that means you remember my other friends too!” Haru continued with wicked glee.
Tyche walked closer, stepped on the cushion of one chair positioned in front of Ruben’s desk, and planted his ass on the back of the chair while bracing his other foot on the arm. He leaned forward and grinned, flashing clenched teeth. “Remember me. I believe on your last visit you promised to deal with me. You still wanna deal with me? The God of Luck?”
Ruben grunted as if he’d been hit in the gut. His face went from pale white to mottled red, his dark eyes bugging out. He opened his mouth and started to shout for help. Tyche easily tapped into his magic and flicked a finger at him. Ruben just so happened to have a beautiful pile of bad luck sitting at the top of his personal collection, waiting to be used.
The rich man choked. His shout fell into a harsh fit of coughing and wheezing. Shey turned his head to Tyche and lifted one eyebrow in silent question.
“What? He choked on his spit. You’ve never done that? So embarrassing.”
Shey snorted.
“No! No! That can’t be!” Ruben choked out at last. He looked at Shey, but his eyes kept straying to Tyche as if he were afraid to glance away from the man who called himself a god. Tyche smirked.
Go ahead. Doubt me. That little trick was nothing. An accident. Not magic.
“Y-you can’t be Prince Shey!” Ruben stammered out. He took a step closer to his desk and was sliding out his right hand toward the edge.