Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
It’s been a long and awkward journey, and I’m ready to rest for a while. Since we were ran out of Gental’s town, I didn’t get a chance to get better shoes. Mine have almost fallen to pieces, and only a few strategic knots in the leather of my sandals keep them from disintegrating entirely. My dress isn’t much better, but I did find a couple of yellow cloaks in the supply pack we were given, and I’ve huddled in one all week as the skies have rained down on us.
This world really loves to get me muddy.
Worse than the mud and the travel is the fact that things are awkward between me and Kalos. Not that they’ve ever been great, of course. He’s prickly and hard to get to know even at the best of times, and quick to say something cutting. But…at least when he’s being cutting he talks to me. He’s fallen into one of his fugue states since we left and stares out at nothing. He doesn’t move unless I nudge him, and he doesn’t talk at all. It’s like escorting a mannequin around the countryside.
It sucks.
When he finally comes to himself again, he’s cranky and short with me. I suspect he dislikes his fugues as much as I do, and so his mood kills any conversation we might have had. We don’t talk about the kiss. I tried to apologize a few times the first day back on the roads and was met with a resentful stare, so I gave up. He must hate that I kissed him. I’m just a lowly human, after all. He probably thinks I gave him cooties.
Nah, he’s the god of disease. He’d like cooties.
That kiss has changed things between us, though. Before, our relationship was more businesslike. He was my responsibility, and I was his escort. Now, thanks to my lips touching his, the doors have been blown off the situation. When I look at him, I don’t think of him as a job.
I think about how his lips felt, how strong his hand was as it gripped my waist.
I think about what would have happened if I hadn’t shocked him. If he’d actually leaned into my kiss instead of pulling away.
That kiss has proven to me that I’m wildly attracted to Kalos, even if I’ve been trying to deny it. I should let it go. I shouldn’t be thinking about what-ifs because he isn’t interested.
I can’t let it go, though. I just keep thinking about it. Every time he presses his lips together, it takes everything I have not to stare and wonder what those lips would feel like against mine.
Having an unrequited crush is making things incredibly awkward.
We pass through a few decent-sized little towns, but I’m wary of lingering after what happened with Gental’s people. I can’t stop thinking about how I’d forgotten all my duties and frolicked in the streets like an absolute idiot. I’m ashamed that I’m so susceptible. I didn’t even realize I’d let hedonism get to me until Kalos pointed it out. What if it had been a less benign god? A less benign Aspect?
We’d be dead.
Apathy or not, I’ve realized I very much want to live.
We pass through towns at night and sleep on the roadside when it grows light. We’re not the only pilgrims on the roads, either. All over there are travelers on foot or on the backs of the heavy beasts of burden that they call woales. They all seem to be heading in the same direction, which concerns me.
“You think everyone is headed to Balsingra?” I ask Kalos at one point.
“Does it matter?”
“It could if there’s another Aspect there,” I point out.
“We’re going there specifically because one was already there, if I recall. That was the grand plan.”
I chew on my lip, considering. “I’m just second-guessing everything now.”
He flicks an annoyed glance my way. “Should we go live in a cave on the hillside? Hide under rocks until we get the all-clear?”
“Jeez, forget I asked.” I forget how cutting he can be when he wants to be a dick, and right now he clearly wants to be a dick.
We head onward and eventually approach the gates of Balsingra. It looks a bit like one of those nesting dolls, except with walls. The city has high, forbidding stone walls that loom over the countryside, with a large gate and a road leading up to it. The people spread out on the roads are funneled into groups near the gates, waiting to get in. There are men in armor with some sort of banner who are checking people as they enter. My belly clenches, and I hope they’re not looking for aspects. I slow my steps, letting others move ahead of us, and grab Kalos’s sleeve so he’ll stay at my side.