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)
They all seemed to release heavy sighs of relief as Adrian continued through the city at a more sedate pace, matching the flow of traffic as he wound them to the hotel. Tyche shifted in his seat, moving his head from left to right, trying to loosen muscles that were suddenly tense. A weird feeling was creeping across his skin. Not Shey’s electric charge or even the bundle of angry magic living in the godstone shards. This was something else.
He lifted a hand and rubbed his forehead. A dull throb had started in his head out of nowhere.
“Tyche? You okay?”
Tyche turned his head to gaze at Shey, who was watching him with a furrowed brow. His luminous blue eyes looked even sharper in the low light of the interior of the car.
“Yeah. Um…it’s nothing. I—”
“What the—” Adrian shouted. The car jerked wildly to the left, slamming Tyche’s shoulder and head into the door hard. He looked up in time to see a woman in a business suit skip through the busy street, narrowly missing getting hit by another car, but she didn’t even blink at it. A wide grin filled her face, and her arms stretched over her head as she skipped and twirled as if she were moving through an empty meadow of wildflowers.
“Fuck! She came out of nowhere,” Adrian swore.
“Watch out!” Haru shouted, and Adrian stomped on the brakes. Tyche lunged forward, stopped only by his seat belt, and slammed back into his seat. Wincing, he peered about to see that all the other cars on the road had stopped. Some were at weird angles in their lanes, while others were smashed into their neighbors or lampposts. People randomly wove between the cars, dancing and twirling while passengers climbed out of their vehicles to shout.
“What’s going on?” Adrian whispered. “It’s like they’re in a trance or sleepwalking.”
“Fuck,” Tyche swore and attacked his seat belt, fighting to get it unlocked. “We need to get moving. Hurry! Out of the car!”
“Ty, what’s going on?” Shey demanded, his calm voice taking on an edge.
“I’ll explain when we’re moving. We need to be moving. Now.”
Tyche jumped out of the vehicle and searched the area. Everything appeared normal…ish. Some people were acting strangely, but most were unaffected. His perception of the world felt right. No flying elephants nor octopi slithering up to offer him coffee.
“Ty?” Shey repeated, calling out to him.
Tyche’s head whipped around to see Shey staring at him across the roof of the car. Adrian and Haru were also standing by their doors, watching him.
“Cirina is here.”
Shey paled. “You’re sure?”
“Cirina? Didn’t you say she was Yesuntei’s sister?” Adrian demanded.
“The Goddess of Dreams,” Haru filled in.
“Yeah, that’s her. We need to find her.” Tyche drew in a shuddering breath. That was wrong. He couldn’t bring them into this. Not into a fight with a god. That was insane. Even if one of them were a dragon, it was still wrong. “No, I’ve got to find her. Y-You need to get away from here.” His eyes darted to Shey. “Good. You’ve got the bag. Go. All of you. Take the long way back to the hotel. I-I’ll catch up later.”
He reached down and grabbed that pearl of Yesuntei’s powers through his pants. If he could talk to Cirina, get her calm, he could hand it over and let her take it to Brightspire. But he wasn’t expecting Cirina to be calm or reasonable. And if she wasn’t, there was no way in hell he was giving her Yesuntei’s powers.
“I’m not leaving you to deal with her alone,” Shey stated. He lifted the strap of the messenger bag from his shoulder. He held it out to Haru. “You and Adrian take this to the hotel. You can start sorting through the paper work and see if you can get into his electronics.”
“Hell, no!” Adrian snapped. “We came all this way to find you. There’s no way you’re leaving our sight. We stick together.” His eyes jerked to Tyche and stopped. “All of us.”
Tyche wanted to argue with them. Send his new friends away.
Friends.
He froze, his eyes locked on Shey. His gaze drifted to Adrian and Haru. They were all watching him, expectant. Ready to jump in and help him.
In the weeks that he’d spent talking to Shey through a stone wall, in the days he’d spent in the hotel goofing off with Haru and Adrian, they had become friends. He’d actually made friends for the first time in his life.
“Tyche, what’s wrong?” Adrian asked.
“Huh. I was just thinking that you’re my friends. I made friends, and now I’m going to march you off to fight a pissed-off goddess. For the God of Luck, I have really shitty luck.”
A slow grin spread across Adrian’s face, and he chuckled. “Yeah, your luck is pretty bad if your first friend is Shey. You should work on that.”