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)
Again, I sigh—because clearly, it’s a bribe. And I’m going to take advantage of it because we’ve been traveling for weeks in the most austere conditions possible, and now… this.
All this luxury.
“Do you need anything Jasina? Perhaps a change of clothes?” Xi continues.
I look down at myself—at my dirty shirt, my dirtier pants, and my dusty boots.
“I’ll send you a selection, sound good?”
When I don’t respond, Finn says, “Sound good, Jasina?”
I nod, pressing my lips together. “Yep. I’ll probably just sleep.” I smile up at him. Projecting a sense of good vibes. “See you later.”
We kiss goodbye for now, and I head straight into the bedroom suite, closing the double doors.
A moment later I hear the outer doors closing, as well as the low hum of men conversing.
I shake my head and roll my eyes. “Just play along, Jasina. It’s a game. And your opponent is a god, so… yeah. No rash moves. Plot and plan. It’s what you’re good at.”
I am good at it, so the pep talk works.
But I’m also pregnant and exhausted, so instead of plotting some elaborate way to defeat the god of whatever fucking factory this is, I just flop down on the bed.
I am asleep before my head even hits the pillow.
I dream of spark.
Of places so thick with it, it floats in the air like butterflies. Little bits of magical, blue butterflies. I walk through a city wearing the butterfly dress I made for the First Choosing. When I dazzled the crowd with my display.
I twirl in the middle of this city, standing on the canal itself.
Which isn’t made of water, but cyan-blue stone.
Inside the Little Sister dorm, I look around at all the empty nooks, wondering why there are so many beds when they only choose a hundred girls to come live here.
But, of course, that’s not true, is it?
Tau City, at one time, had thousands of Little Sisters in this dorm. Because the dorm is just another word for factory.
Before our god died, it took the spark from us—just like the God Xi described.
That’s why the dorm is so big.
It takes a lot of spark to run a city.
And then, there I am. In the city.
Not a factory city, but a god’s city.
I lean in, squinting my eyes, trying to see the sign. It is Tau City.
My twin city.
The canal is dark and ugly.
The spires are tall and pointed.
The people are pale and busy.
It’s not a place for Spark Maidens.
But I’m not a Spark Maiden.
So it is a place for me.
I wake up feeling hot and feverish. Sweating under all my clothes. But as soon as I open my eyes, I see why.
My whole body is glowing blue with spark.
It is pouring out of me like water through a sieve.
Power.
That’s what this glow is.
Power.
The kind of power a god covets.
But can only be found inside a woman.
Like me.
19 - FINN
Xi and I are silent as we leave the room and make our way back down to the lobby of the Maiden Tower. But instead of returning to the tunnels under the tower to hide the decay of the city, he leads me outside, pausing in the courtyard to continue our conversation.
“I would like to show you what I’m talking about when I say ‘augment’. Would that be OK? Or would you like to wait for Jasina?”
Wow. Is this guy predictable, or what? Did he really think that I didn’t understand why he was trying to separate us?
Maybe he did.
“No, Xi. That can wait. Before I discuss anything else with you, I want to see those cocoons. The ones with the women inside them that Jasina and I saw on the screen.”
“The woman you saw is not Clara.”
“Nobody said she was.”
“Hmm,” is his response. Which is a passive-aggressive way to call me a liar.
“I want to see how you’re making them—how you’re making us. That’s why I want to see the cocoons.”
“They’re called pods, by the way. But very well. If you would like to see how I make Spark Maidens—” he does little air quotes when he uses this term. “—I am happy to oblige. It’s not typically a process I share with outsiders, but you’re not really an outsider. You’re an Extraction Master. The highest level of human male possible in this realm.”
I sigh, already tired of him and all the little plot points he’s dropping in this conversation. Little tidbits to intrigue me. To make me ask questions. To make me desire answers.
“I understand, Finn. You are in possession of yourself. You don’t like to be controlled. Possibly because the lies you were told, the betrayal—it’s all still very raw, isn’t it?”
“Are you reading my mind?”
“No,” he says. “I’m not capable of doing that. But you’ve been very sheltered. You haven’t learned how to hide your feelings or adjust your body language and expressions. I’m a god. I don’t need to read your mind to predict your thoughts, I just need to watch you carefully. It’s a power I can give you as well. If you like.”