Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Leaving me sitting at a table filled with dirty breakfast dishes.
Later, back in the room, I replay this morning over and over in my head. The looks on their faces.
The sneering attitudes of Elsha.
Maelis and her almost pitying manner.
That stupid city motto—Every spark has its purpose!
Veyra’s threat.
That’s how I took it when she said I’m going to end up just like Lilika—which is missing, I guess.
I only sat at the table for a minute—probably less. But when I got up and tried to find them again in the lobby—I mean, we had tea scheduled, they can’t just leave—they weren’t there.
Maybe the days aren’t structured like I assumed. Maybe book club and tea aren’t always paired together. But I went to the beach, and the movies, and the art studio, and the shops, but I couldn’t find them anywhere.
I even did the whole powerwalking route backwards, hoping I’d bump into them.
Nothing. They were gone. At this point, it was well into the afternoon and I figured I’d just go home. That’s probably where they were the whole time.
I walk into an empty room, sit on the bed, and flop back, wondering how this day went so wrong. Bored, and so not in the mood to do anything but nap, I reach over to the bedside table and grab the remote for the big screen on the wall across from the bed.
They have these big screens all over the city, and I’ve been enough places now to understand that they’re… well, stories, but in vids. Which is a new word I feel weird using in context, but there it is.
The point is, people watch these screens when they’re bored because they tell stories. It’s a way to pass time Maelis told me.
Since it’s only two in the afternoon, Finn won’t be home for many hours. Well, well past dark. So I might as well use the screen to pass time like everyone else. The girls and I will work things out tomorrow, so I put the weird morning aside and let out a breath, resigned to an afternoon of well-earned laziness.
I’ve used the remote before, and after pressing a few random switches—which are actually called buttons here, weird—the screen finally comes to life, and sound booms through the room.
Music over a black background. A slow, dramatic organ swell that reminds me of a wedding march. Then a woman’s whispered voice: “Vows are forever…”
Violins—high and tense—screech, then go silent as a sparkling sound, like crystal wind chimes, fills the emptiness.
Then a boom, and a desert appears on the screen. Cracked and golden under a sunset sky. Something blows across the sand—a wedding veil? And then, an altar appears, glowing with spark. Three men stand behind it. Three women in front. Like they’re about to get married.
A deep male voice cuts through the music—
“In a city ruled by gods… where power is sacred, and love is lethal…”
A montage of absurdly beautiful people flashes across the screen.
Then: a single woman standing on a balcony in a silk robe, makeup streaked down her face. The name Sophie Beaumont lights up just below her chin. She’s sobbing when she says, “He didn’t just cheat… he swore on Xi.”
I blink. Sophie Beaumont? Why does that name sound familiar?
“One heart betrayed…”
A heartbeat sounds as the scene shifts. A shirtless man, slick with sweat, slams his hand down on a stone table. His glowing blue eyes stare straight at the screen. The name Dominic Castille flashes underneath him. His voice is low, almost a hiss. “You can’t vow yourself to two gods, Delilah!”
Dominic? Who the hell is Delilah?
Right on cue, her name appears. She’s running barefoot through a misty garden in a flowing white gown. Clearly panicked. She looks over her shoulder and gasps, “I don’t remember who I am—but I know who I love!”
“What the actual—”
“And one vow…” the narrator booms, “that could destroy them all.”
Back to the desert: a burning wedding veil. A masked man holding a ring. A god statue cracking down the middle.
Then it hits—ONE GOD, MANY VOWS appears in shimmering gold across the screen, the spark flickering across the O.
“One God, Many Vows,” the voiceover says. “This season… betrayal has never burned so bright.”
I sit on the bed, blinking in confusion. “What is this?”
The screen comes to life—beautiful people at a beautiful house. Or maybe it’s a hotel? I’m not sure. They’re having breakfast and a tense conversation about—
“Holy shit,” I mutter. Because I suddenly remember where I heard all these names before.
The maids. Back in my room. In the lower dimension, helping me dress. Chatting like it was gossip. Casual. Real.
But now, after sitting through the full hour of this show, I know the truth.
They’re not real.
None of them are real.
It’s fake. The whole thing is fake.
It’s like the movie I watched the other day, but… different.