Myths Come TrueâŠDreams Are Another Story
Heaven is not what Kai imagined. Monsters run free, the sun scorches, and Kai has everything except his true love, Sophia.
To get her out of the perilous city of Asphodel and into Elysium, Kai makes a dubious deal with the mortal council that speaks for missing gods.
He must confront a scourge of mythsâcreatures wrought from the desires of those unsatisfied with an imperfect afterlife.
Kai is no Hercules, but he is able to speak with so-called monsters spanning world mythologies to new legends. Yet, no matter what he does, the council stalls, and he sneaks illegal rendezvous with his love at the fence between cities.
Caught between duty and love, Kai has to overcome more than myth before heaven burns and love decays into death.
Myths Come TrueâŠDreams Are Another Story
Heaven is not what Kai imagined. Monsters run free, the sun scorches, and Kai has everything except his true love, Sophia.
To get her out of the perilous city of Asphodel and into Elysium, Kai makes a dubious deal with the mortal council that speaks for missing gods.
He must confront a scourge of mythsâcreatures wrought from the desires of those unsatisfied with an imperfect afterlife.
Kai is no Hercules, but he is able to speak with so-called monsters spanning world mythologies to new legends. Yet, no matter what he does, the council stalls, and he sneaks illegal rendezvous with his love at the fence between cities.
Caught between duty and love, Kai has to overcome more than myth before heaven burns and love decays into death.
KAI DREAMT OF MORE than heaven. He was already there. Elysiumâs glorious spires glinted in drought-light, rusting orange as morning dust roused, and the only darkness in the day was the wrought iron fence below that divided Kai from the one he loved.
From atop an under-construction temple spire, Kai felt he couldâve flown over the small barrier. Yet, rickety bamboo scaffolding and his task kept him grounded.
Maybe the cat had disintegrated the spireâs golden dragon head decoration and left for a nap. The one time Kai wanted a myth to be real, it was nowhere to be seen. Leaning on a smooth bamboo railing, the slight sway sent shivers down his spine as he tried to steady himself, and looking out was more comforting than looking down.
With Elysium behind, Kai peered over the fence to the city of Asphodel. A tumult of people and buildings and businesses. Wheels rolled over sidewalks and into streets and back again. A river of rooftops tumbled up and down in cascading size. Disparity. Chaos. Struggle. That was life there. Copper-green spires were hollow shells of the past, and no new ones sprouted. The city was too cramped to waste space.
Yet, Asphodel retreated from an unused quarter of the city. There, the streets were wide and vacant. There, pale shingles fell into undisturbed dust. There, it was better to let things lie.
Kai didnât dare think of the myths lurking there.
However, one did think of him.
A creature of snow and ice padded behind himâa stalking snow leopard. Unperturbed by heat, it walked cool. Fur ruffled, bending under a gust like stalks of white-blue wheat. Eyes glared, oceans of terror, not because of violence within, but by the depth. Still staring at Kai, the leopard arched its back into a stretch, and drifting on the breeze behind, fanned scarlet phoenix feathers shivered on the tail-tip, each bristle brandished like sunbeams. The leopardâs whiskers bent forward, inspecting the intruder on its roost.
Kai glanced over his shoulder. âYouâre what I expected.â
He wiped heat-soaked hair off his forehead along with the thought of the black fence below. Despite nonchalance, Kai listened for movement. Even such a silent hunter must make noise.
The leopard unfurled dry lips with a subdued rasping, displaying fangs. It took a breath. Quiet. Calm. Then, the air built and escaped in what shouldâve been a growl, but it was not a growl that Kai heard.
âIâd expect more respect, then,â the leopard said.
âMy expectations were high.â Kai smiled. âAre you surprised to find someone that understands you?â
âShould I be?â The cat yawned; no matter the size, cats seemed to expect all meows, mews, and tail flicks to be understood.
âMost myths are used to swords instead of words.â
The cat hissed. âIf you call me a myth again, Iâll devour you.â
âGo ahead, myth.â Kai faced the cat and opened his arms as if expecting an embrace. âIâm bitter and stringy as they come, and youâd be saving me from a lot of trouble.â
Dark lips tilted, glistening with a tinge of saliva. âWith this heat, youâre already cooked.â
âAnd what would you know about heat?â Kai crossed unheroic arms. If he was to survive this encounter, strength would do him no goodâhe would need calm in the face of fear.
âIâve seen more droughts than youâve seen sunrises,â the leopard said.
âWere you created with a backstory, or are you making it up as you go?â
The creature growled. Even Kai heard it; it had no translation. âI am not one of those new creations.â
Kai frowned. If he was wrong, the goading would end up with a goring. âLook, I made a deal to rid Elysium of new myths. In this case, one born by those who want snow instead of drought. Iâve seen snow and wasnât impressed, but if I had to choose between this drought and a blizzard, Iâd choose the cold until I was freezing in it. But you say youâre not a new myth, so I guess I have no business with you.â
âI still have business with you.â The leopard tensed the hairs above its icy blue eyes like a raised brow.
The nerves made him laugh. âAnd what could that possibly be? In need of a translator?â
âExactly. You know what I am, and I know what you are.â
âWhatâs that?â Kai asked.
âMy maker.â
Triumphant, Kai began to think of how a small success might reverse a smothering tide of failures. âSee, you are what I expectedâa new mythâone I made. But what could I possibly translate from something I created?â
âYou didnât create me. You only remade me. And as you brought me back, Iâm here to bring the world backâto fix whatâs broken. Itâs time people had something to believe in.â
Although Kai did not look behind to the divide between cities, he fell upon a recent feeling, a constant feeling, which inhabited the uncleaned corners of his mind, infecting all other thoughts. âLike love?â
âA different love than you intended.â
With that, the leopard grinned. Pop. The big cat burst into a flash of golden ash. Dust floated on a slow wind, landing in a neat pile on the sun-bleached wood planks. A sunset-red feather floated down on the pile, stuck upright, waiting to be plucked.
Kai obliged, taking the feather as proof that he had dealt with the myth.
âWhat a waste of words. But I suppose you are not a waste.â He twirled the feather between forefinger and thumb, a tightening grip keeping it from slipping to the city below.
Kai headed around the spire to the ladder down. Yet, he waited on the platform, not wanting to descend towards paperwork, family, and his so-called wife, all of which were less routine than dealing with miscreant myths.
Here at the highest point of what others called heaven, Kai couldâve felt like a god. Elysiumâs rooftops, shingles, and streets splotched themselves under him on the cityâs canvas, a tapestry of civility. Spires dominated. Some ornate. Some tall. Some still under construction like this one. Each tower called attention to itself, trying to outdo and outshine the last with precious metals, artwork, and height. But each taller and taller tower seemed smaller and smaller.
His personal life loomed larger.
Somewhere among the white-walled houses and black shadows, his family was out enjoying the day and trying to fit in. Possibly, they were home, and he looked out further towards the well-adorned homes on the hill, but he felt no draw for the smooth stucco and Mediterranean-orange rooftops.
However, as he lingered a little longer, no matter where he looked and what he thought, he kept returning to the iron fence below. In the cause of his misery, he might also find a brief window of happiness.
Kai sped down a ladder and the scaffolding built aside the temple, descending like an archeologist inspecting the architectural record of Elysiumâs patchwork past. Each level built on the last, reaching for the sky as if to see whether the gods were still there.
There were three main levels. The upper tower was decorative, desperate, and propped up by cracked bamboo scaffolding that looked more likely to fall than the construction it held. Steady grey brick composed the middle layer, the times of which Kai could only imagine but would never dream of. Finally, at the base of the temple were Corinthian columns painted clay-red, which besides color, also matched the construction grounds around in the amount of cracks, dirt by drought and foundation by burden.
Fighting anticipation, Kai stopped between the middle and lower floors. The foreman still might be waiting for him, and that would destroy his opportunity.
Kai waited, and as with every time he saw this temple, the artwork that separated these two sections depicting Herculesâs twelve labors captivated him. The band of heroism ranged from lions and boars, triumphs and trickery, legend and godhood, but it lacked the misdeed that mirrored Kaiâs like the glint of the gold figuresâwhy Hercules chose to undertake the tasks.
Guilt.
Without motive, myth was emotionless recounting. Without reason, without failure, without flaw, Hercules was only what he ended up asâa god, a perfect, shining figure to be worshiped, not the fallible hero worth striving for. And Kai, more than anything, felt less like the gold and more like the cracked bamboo holding him.
Unable to wait any longer, he brushed the gold art with a finger as he passed, smudging the fine film of dust. No one saw him do it, but heâd rather be caught touching the gold than the iron fence across the yard.
Down the final ramp and timing it to perfection, Kai stepped onto dry dirt as the foreman left the construction yard for lunch.Â
With no one in sight, the wrought iron awaited. Crossing the dusty, dead yard, he grasped black bars and the metalâs sear in sunlight was nothing to the pain of separation. Like most fences, it was only a barrier to overcome; yet, it was the consequences of crossing that made even the most determined hesitate.
His youthful face wrinkled, his eyes shining like broken brown diamonds, cracks in crystalline irises cooling and carved by another heartbreak, but despite pain, a stubborn glisten betrayed the hope that survived.
A rustle on the other side of the dead ivy blocking his view.
âSophia?â
Her voice snuck through. âIs it safe?â
âThe foreman got tired of waiting,â Kai said. âMustâve thought the leopard ate me and he didnât want to be the only one still hungry.â
âDid the foreman take a good look at you? A leopard would still be hungry.â
âThat explains why he didnât go up and check.â Kai wished the buoyancy of his mood could lift him over the barrier. Failing this, the ballooning cheer met the pinprick of reality, and like that, he wanted more than a sample of true happiness. âI canât see you.â
âImagination is better than reality.â
She mightâve been right. In his head, Sophia was perfect and vague, except for a memory of a single-dimpled smile and mocking eyes, blue as robin eggs. The image radiated the glorious glow of distance. Although he knew breaking beyond the bushes would destroy the perfect picture dancing in his head, his memory of Sophia shifted like sand dunes, and he sought only to renew, rather than maintain, a perfectly false memory.
Yearning for a glimpse, he cracked the sun-bleached ivy, dust raining down like dew, but he only broke through thickets to brown bushes behind. âHow is it only the wildest dreams become real, while the simplest remain out of reach?â
âIâm not your wildest dream?â A smile hummed through her words, but sarcasm settled serious. âAre you sure this is a good idea?â
Kaiâs knuckles whitened around black bars. âIf they catch me here, they might sentence me to a better fate than Elysium.â
âAnd what would Elysium do without their hero?â
He let go of the fence, happiness gone with the grip. âIâm no hero. Iâm just a janitor putting a bucket under a leak rather than plugging the hole.â
âIs it so hard to be satisfied with what you do and what you have?â
âIt is until youâre here.â
A pause lingered, painful. âI know.â
The gap between them seemed greater as the words dissipated in the distance between them.
âIâve got to get back,â Sophia said. âSay hi to your wife.â
âEx-wife.â Kai suppressed the annoyance that came with a reality he didnât agree with.
âIâm your ex-wife.â
âYouâre my wife.â
âAccording to the gods, Iâm neither.â Truth ended the argument. âGoing to the temple later?â
Kai nodded, even if she couldnât see him. âMy mom insists. I might be an adult and the gods might be gone, but she always had more power over us than any god. Can I see you at the garden?â
âI donât like that spot. Anyone could see us talking. Besides, the council said it would only be a few weeks.â
âUntil they make it a few more weeks.â
Silence, then Sophia said, âAlright, Iâll see you then. But I better go before my lunch is over and my stew goes to waste.â
Kaiâs hands clenched as if it would hold onto the moment, too. âEating stew in this heat?â
âItâs cold stew now.â
âIâd say thatâs an improvement.â
âJust like this was an improvement on my day,â Sophia said. âSee you soon.â
Her footsteps drifted away on loose dirt, and Kai was left lonely again, but this time, with a hopeful smile that would last him through the unpleasantness that awaited him in heaven.
Yes, I know, yet another myth-related story. But, I'm not mad. Not mad at all. Till Myth Do Us Part is the first of a series, and the follows the story of Kai, who lives in a version of Heaven called Elysium and must rescue his One True Love from the neighboring city of Asphodel. Based loosely on the story of Orpheus and Euridice, he must face monsters called "myths" created by the desires of those who are unsatisfied with the world amongst a whole host of gods and other creatures that all stand in the way of him and his beloved.
I really, really wanted to love this book, and I kind of did! The writing was beautiful, and the world is creative -- which is difficult to accomplish in a reality painfully oversaturated by myth retellings and myth-adjacent stories. Color me impressed! However, I will admit, the storytelling itself was a bit confusing. I found myself unable to follow some of the storylines as they were progressing and overall, I feel like it was a rather disjointed kind of story. There was an epicenes to the premise -- gods and monsters and a protagonist that has to go against them all in order to save his lost love. However, I'm unsure the execution could really support the breadth and width of the story that the author wanted to tell.
There was a lot of "info dumping" in the beginning chapters, and in way that felt a bit rushed. It felt more like I was reading a gorgeously written travel-log than a story, the descriptions of the cities of Asphodel and Elysium were more than breath-taking, but I was a little lost in all the little details that were given, to the point where I almost couldn't find the rest of the story.
In the end, this is one of those hit or miss reads for sure. Personally, I had a good time with it because I enjoy myth-related things, and I think in general, for an open-minded myth-loving reader, they'd also greatly enjoy it. But for someone who's not as well-read in the genre or perhaps first dipping their toes in, I wouldn't recommend this as a first book to pick up. A solid 3/5 stars for me; a great, enjoyable read, but sadly did not blow me out of the water.