Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
He howled, clutching his sides and falling flat on my lap when I stumbled into my seat. “That was incredible,” he wheezed. “You actually thought you were doing something there, only to get humiliated worse than anyone I’ve ever seen. And I once saw a guy’s used and very unclean underwear fall out through his pant leg.”
I wanted to die. Right then, right there. If I really served an all-powerful, all-knowing goddess, let her strike me down where I sat. It was the kindest thing to do.
“Don’t worry, Taia.” Dora leaned over and patted my wrist. “It’s not that bad. I’m sure you’ll do something even more humiliating later, and this’ll seem small in comparison.”
“Oh... okay.” I tried for a smile to match her beaming one. Mine twitched around the edges. “Thanks, Dora.”
His head already where it was going to end up anyway, Ronin eventually stopped laughing long enough to close his eyes and drift off to sleep.
Was it a sloth thing that made this dude sleep twenty hours out of the day? Whether it was or it wasn’t, I had to wonder how he made it this far without someone shoving a pillow over his stupid face.
My eyes drifted over to the discarded markers and pens lying about the table. Speaking of stupid faces... I reached for one. Let’s see how he likes being laughed at in public.
“Donesha?”
“What?” I cried, jerking my hand back. I caught my breath. “I mean, yes, Dora. What’s wrong?”
“Ronin said this is for you.” Dora fished in her pocket and then brought out a brand-new hellphone.
I called them hellphones because even though they looked like their earthly counterparts, they were very much made for hell. The phone could send and receive messages and calls. It had games. It even had social media in the form of DeadDrop, but that was it. There was no internet to connect to. No music apps, no streaming, and no maps or location-finding apps. You couldn’t save contacts. You could take pictures, but you couldn’t record videos. There wasn’t even a flashlight on this fricking thing.
And, Sabrina even told me that at any and all times, our calls and texts were subject to eavesdropping by the lords of hell.
This was a communication device that was terrible for communication. As to be expected of hell.
“Wait, Ronin?” I spoke up. “How can you remember his name but not mine?”
Adora cocked her head, staring at me curiously like she didn’t understand the question.
“Never mind.” I accepted the phone. “Thanks.”
“He also said you’re not to know the number, because you’ll do something stupid with it,” she plowed on. “He said you do a lot of stupid things. That’s why you were on the floor whimpering and wailing like an infant from a little boo-boo in your nose.”
I snatched up the fucking marker. “Thank you for delivering the message, Dora,” I gritted. “I’ve got it from here.”
BY THE TIME CLASS ENDED, Ronin’s face finally matched his personality.
Two big, black, raccoon eyes sat over a mustache resemblant of a certain genocidal dictator who was kicking around somewhere in this hellish afterlife. I finished him off with a scraggly beard, stink lines, and the word LOSER dashed across his forehead in big, bold, underlined and uppercase letters.
Ronin stirred at Connard’s barked order for us to get out of his classroom. He sat up...
...and my little art project vanished before he got to his feet.
Shrugging on his jacket, Ronin flipped his hair as he tossed me a wink—smirking his stupid, handsome rock-band-biker-bad-boy ass right out the door with a look as knowing as it gets.
I was steaming as I got up to leave. “I’m now certain of it,” I said to Dora. “I hate that guy more than anyone I’ve ever met. Possibly even more than Lucifer.”
“You hate my daddy?” Dora asked, a little pout stealing over her mouth. “Why?”
“Because you call him that.”
I walked out the door... and right into them.
“Oh no,” I groaned, heaving a sigh.
“Oh no is right.” Raven seized my collar and dragged me out of the doorway, slamming me against the wall.
“Ow.”
“Shut up!” Incensed eyes burned me where I stood. “Listen up, mortal, because you won’t be told twice. Don’t you dare get ideals above the shit heap you were born in, the shit heap you lived in, and the shit heap you’ll die in. It doesn’t matter what services you were providing Ronin all last night. You’re nothing but a worthless cum bucket in a long line of worthless cum buckets,” she spat. “Ronin will never choose you to be his queen. He’s choosing me.”
“No, me,” Ursula barked, crowding on my left side.
“Nope, it’s going to be me,” Eris chimed in on my right.
“Listen to you three dumbasses,” Sauda scoffed. “It’s going to be me.”
“Wrong as usual.” Kama winked at me over Eris’s shoulder. “He’s mine.”