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)
“Yesuntei.” The name was a haunted whisper tripping from Shey’s lips. Adrian’s eyes widened, and his gaze snapped from Tyche to Shey. Had they really looked down on the Goddess of Dreams?
“And Cirina,” Tyche corrected in a murmur. “They are twins. A paired set. Cirina is the Goddess of Dreams. Yesuntei is—was the Goddess of Nightmares.”
Shey shook his head. “But she was so sweet. So gentle. I can’t believe that she’d—”
“Be the source of something that is so frightening. Because nightmares hold some of our greatest and most powerful truths. These are the things that we run from, failings we struggle to face in ourselves. But if you’re strong and smart enough to face those things presented in your nightmares, think of how much stronger you can become.” Tyche paused and shuddered. “Dreams—and by extension Teitei’s sister, Cirina—are far more frightening. There’s no truth to be found in dreams. Only fantasies and lies that allow us to escape from painful reality. If you could live in the most wonderful dream, would you ever choose to leave?”
They fell silent, but that didn’t mean a thousand questions weren’t buzzing through Adrian’s head. If the Goddess of Nightmares was dead in an illegal prison facility, where the fuck was the Goddess of Dreams? Should they all be shitting their pants and praying to the God of Family Harmony that the two sisters didn’t like each other because no one wanted another angry goddess on a rampage? They’d survived that with Zyros, and the world was still recovering.
“Yes.” Tyche sighed, his thin shoulders slumped under his filthy shirt. “Please, Tyche, give me good luck so I land this new job. Give me good luck so that I win the lottery. Give me good luck so this cute guy likes me.”
“Wow, I…Wow!” Shey exclaimed, staring at Tyche with his mouth hanging open. “That explains so much. You gave me good luck as we escaped. My aim was never that perfect. There were times we just missed being caught, and I’d think, damn that was lucky.”
“Okay, that is pretty cool,” Adrian agreed. “I could go for infinite good luck.”
That earned him another dark and threatening look from the God of Luck. Really. He needed to keep his mouth shut, or he was going to end up with a lifetime of very bad luck.
“It doesn’t work that way. There’s no such thing as infinite good luck. All luck is finite, and there’s only so much I can do with it. I—” He cut himself off and growled.
Shey cocked his head to the side. “What?”
“I need to explain.” He shoved to his feet and scurried around the meadow, snatching up small rocks and sticks. After he’d gathered a handful, he hurried over to where Haru, Adrian, and Shey were sitting and held out his bounty for all of them to see.
“Now, imagine that this is all the luck in the world—good and bad. It’s a spectrum ranging from fucking-good-luck and you’re-better-off-dead-bad-luck, but anyway, this is all the luck,” he began. When they all nodded, he gave everyone four pieces of luck to hold in their hands, while he continued to hold the rest.
Tyche dropped to sit with his legs crossed in front of them and drew in a deep breath. “A person or animal is born with a set amount of luck. I always imagine it as a glass jar filled with luck. It is not distributed evenly. Some people are born with more bad luck than good luck, and vice versa.”
“Ha! I knew it!” Adrian cackled. He grinned at Haru. “I always thought that Caelan was a rather lucky person. Tyche just proved that it could be true.”
“Can a person burn through all their luck before they die?” Haru inquired.
Tyche’s expression scrunched up as he thought about it. “I’ve never seen it happen, but I guess it could. Humans and dragons are born with a large amount, and a lot would have to happen for a person to burn through all their luck.”
“But you can give a person good or bad luck? You did it with me,” Shey countered.
“No, I didn’t,” Tyche said sharply, his eyes snapping to Shey. “I can’t create luck. Minor gods don’t create. We can’t. We’re not powerful enough to create something from nothing. That’s the realm of the major gods alone. Our magic can only affect what already exists, and only within our wheelhouse. As we were escaping, I tapped into your existing luck and forced up a bit of good luck if some was available, or I used your opponent’s bad luck. The other option—though exhausting—is to steal a bit of luck that’s floating around out there.” As he spoke, Tyche waved a hand in the air beside him.
Adrian’s head jerked up, and he stared into the empty air above Tyche’s head as if he expected to see…something. What the hell would luck even look like? “There’s luck not attached to people? And you can see it?”