Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66405 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
On second thought, maybe she would just keep on this same gown, she told herself. Only she wished it wasn’t so itchy. It hadn’t bothered her a bit last night, but now she felt an irritation at the back of her neck and between her shoulder blades. Was there a tag in the gown that she’d missed? Whatever it was, it was suddenly driving her crazy.
She reached back to scratch but couldn’t quite reach the right spot. It was maddening. Maybe she ought to take a shower—there was a tiny shower cubical located in the corner of the small bathroom. Rinsing off might help.
She pulled off the black dress and was in the act of hanging it on the hook on the door when she caught sight of her bare back in the mirror.
“Oh, my God!”
The words came out in a horrified gasp. Addie pulled her hair to one side and craned her head around, trying to get a better look.
Right between her shoulder blades, reaching all the way up to the nape of her neck and all the way down to the small of her back, was a brand new tattoo. At least it looked like a tattoo but Addie didn’t remember going to get any ink done. The only tattoo she had was a tiny, tasteful butterfly on her left wrist—she and her best friend in college had gotten matching ink to commemorate their friendship. They had been drunk at the time but Addie hadn’t regretted it even after she sobered up.
This she regretted. It looked like a vast black spider web done in thick black lines and right in the center, between her shoulder blades, was a fist-sized spider with a human head.
“What the actual fuck?” Addie whispered, studying her new markings as well as she was able. What was happening to her? First she grew vampire fangs and now she had a huge new tattoo of a spider web and a spider on her back? Was she turning into a Goth or what?
But was the marking even a tattoo? What if someone had drugged her and had drawn the markings on her back while she was out? Maybe they would wash off?
Addie turned on the water in the tiny shower and didn’t even wait for it to get warm. She jumped in and clenched her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering—she didn’t want to injure herself with her bizarre new fangs.
There was a long-handled scrub brush hanging from a hook in the shower stall as well as a sweet-smelling block of soap. Addie applied the latter generously to the former and started scrubbing her back as best she could.
But she didn’t scrub for long. Whatever the markings were, they were sensitive.
“Ouch!” she gasped as the rough bristles of the scrub brush abraded her back. It felt like she was using a cheese grater on her skin!
She hung the brush back up and turned to let the now warm water spray her instead. Even that made her wince—the water felt like needles piercing her skin. She stood it for as long as she could, but then she had to give up and get out of the shower—it was simply too painful. Also, she was really thirsty—she needed a glass of water before she did anything else.
There was no glass or cup anywhere in the bathroom so Addie wrapped a towel around herself and drank from the sink. At first she used her cupped hands but that wasn’t fast enough—her throat was dry as sandpaper. Leaning down, she swept her hair out of the way and drank directly from the plain silver tap.
The ice-cold water was refreshing…but somehow not quite what she wanted. Addie kept drinking anyway because of the burning in her throat. But finally she felt like her stomach was sloshing with water and had to stop.
Straightening up, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and looked at herself in the mirror again.
“What’s happening to me?” she muttered aloud. “Am I changing?”
If she was, it certainly wasn’t for the better. She had to find out what was going on with her body—now!
At first she thought of asking Sparki, but she had no idea where in the palace her favorite lady-in-waiting was staying. Also, she wasn’t quite as trusting of Sparki as she had been. The other woman had clearly known what to expect from the Choosing Ceremony—why hadn’t she warned Addie about it? Maybe she wasn’t the one to ask for information. Ditto for Lx Sambla, who had been the one to volunteer her for the ceremony in the first place.
But if she couldn’t trust either of the Vargans she considered friends and Drago was MIA, where could she get information?
Suddenly she remembered the large library they had passed through the night before. Hadn’t Sambla told her it was filled entirely with books about Sheelash? Maybe she could find some information on the Choosing Ceremony and its aftereffects there.