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“How long do I have?”
The voice whispered,The time is soon. The dragon man, shedevil, and the god can’t stop what is coming.
She snapped back to reality when Os sloshed a bottle filled with glowing purple fluid in front of her face. “Ella, I want you to drink this. It should help ease the stiffness, maybe let you move ae bit. It’s by no means a cure, just something to make you more comfortable. But first I’m going to take a sample from your leg, okay?”
She couldn’t answer, so whether it was okay was moot. She watched as he carefully cut into her leg with a black blade and seemed to pry up a black chunk of her skin, it almost looked like a giant snake scale, but she tried to black that image out of her mind. That probably wasn’t the best way to describe it, but it was all she came up with.
He placed the sample along with a few others in a jar and slipped it into his pocket. “Adam, I’m gonna need you to come down to my place while I look over these samples. Is there anyone who can stay with Ella while you’re gone?”
He nodded. “Melody, I can give her a call.”
* * *
While Adam paced justoutside the door with his phone pressed to his ear, Os pulled up a seat next to Ella and popped the top off the bottle he’d shown her. “Drink this, slow. Don’t choke.”
He held the bottle to her lips and slowly poured a tiny amount into her mouth, waiting for her to swallow, before feeding her more. Ella felt ridiculous having to be given the medicine like a baby bird, this wasn’t how she wanted to go out. Weak and pitiful. The whole point of her Bucket List journey was so when she died, she’d be alone. She’d cut all ties, went out on this adventure to die alone instead of being a burden on others. She’d carefully crafted her lie, she had a few months and was going to live it up. It’s even the same lie she’d told Adam when they first met. But in reality, she’d known all along the doctors had given her twoweeks at most, and she wanted those weeks to be in complete solitude.
She’d wanted to live on room service and caviar and die in her beautiful room in The Chalice hotel. Did she feel bad for knowing some poor housekeeper would find her body? Yeah, but she’d left a big chunk of money in the room safe for the housekeeper as a tip, hoping that would make up for the trauma.
But then she just had to go to that stupid speed dating event and meet Adam, and he utterly took her breath away from the moment their eyes met. All her plans unraveled at that moment. She couldn’t say no to his offer, she felt like she was supposed to meet him and at the same time she had an anger boiling up inside her that the universe would put him in her path days before she was supposed to die. It wasn’t fair.
Ella clinched her fist at the stream of thoughts running through her head, to which Os made a distinct sound. Her eyes met his, and he smiled and pointed at her hand.
“It seems the elixir is working.” A knowing grin spread across his face as he leaned closer and whispered. “Anger is a great motivator to get the body to move.”
She inhaled deeply, knowing full well her face betrayed her stillness with a wild look of panic. She wanted to speak, wanted to say something. How had he known she was angry? Could he read her thoughts?
Os chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret. And I can’t read people’s thoughts, but I do know the thoughts of the dead.”
Her mouth moved, forming an O shape. Instinct demanded she say his name, but nothing more could pass her lips beyond. “Oooooh.”
He finished giving her the rest of the liquid and patted her hand. “You don’t have to acknowledge me, little one. I see the reverie in your eyes.”
With that he left. He just dropped that bombshell and sauntered out of the room as if he’d simply told her the sky was blue. She blinked, trying to sit up, trying to see where he’d gone, but instead Adam walked back in the room looking confused.
“Os said you’re already regaining some movement, that’s great.” He leaned down and placed a light kiss against her forehead. She could feel it. Even if she couldn’t feel anything else, she could feel him, and she hoped to carry that feeling with her into the afterlife.
Adam stood at the sound of the doorbell rang. “That’s Mel, I’ll send her up here, and I’ll be back as soon as Os has some answers. Okay?”
This time she was able to nod her head, and he beamed with pride at her progress. “We’re going to figure this out, don’t worry.”
She ached at that moment. He would never know how much this time with him meant to her. But she knew what she had to do, and as soon as she could move she’d have to act fast.
CHAPTER9
“Ella!”Melody’s enthusiastic voice echoed up the stairs before Ella could even see the delightful demoness enter the room. At least she thought the young woman was a demon, but as Melody made her way over to the bed, she looked like a normal woman. Maybe Ella had been wrong. Maybe the voice in her head was wrong. She almost snorted in disgust at herself, of course she’s wrong. There’s no such things as biblical characters, demons, Egyptian gods, or…dragons.
“Hi.” Ella managed to croak out with a hoarse voice and a cough.
“Oh good, you’re getting your voice back. Adam said you were slowly coming around after Osir—after Os gave you some medicine.”
Ella struggled to sit up and Melody helped prop her up on some pillows. When she looked back over at her newly made friend, she saw it again. Horns, tail, red skin, and eyes that looked like fire. She swallowed had and recoiled a bit. Melody took immediate notice.
“You okay there, El?”
Ella took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She counted to ten and then opened her eyes again, and the demoness was still there.
This is real. This can’t be real.
