Horus pulled out a chair for me, it was purple velvet, and so soft I let out a sigh as I settled in it and then asked, “Why would he try?”
“Because his power is dwindling. It’s why he needs you.”
“Oh.” My eyes flickered to Set as he discussed something with Anubis and then pointed at me, his smile cruel. “Why is it dwindling?”
“You ask a lot of questions.” He sighed like he was annoyed but he seemed to be enjoying our conversation enough to sit across from me and smile.
I shrugged. “Like you said I’m out of time, I’m curious.”
“Humans are so convinced that anything which is light is pure and good whereas darkness is evil. What if it was the exact opposite? The absence of light is not evil, the mind is evil. It is where we make decisions that alter the course of history. Anubis is one of the purest gods in existence, his darkness protects, it heals, it kills, it gives life. His very existence helps keep the balance between immortals and humans. It bothers my father, has created a jealousy that runs so deep that it has caused a cancer in his soul. A sick soul starts to fester, especially with a god. The baser instincts start to take over. In my father’s instance, and in ours, we turn into something else entirely, a reminder to stay pure, a reminder of who created us in the first place.”
This. This was it. This is what happened to Timber! “So…” I was desperate for more information. Alex, Mason and Tarek had even leaned in. “Out of curiosity, if one of you loses your soul… or if one of you is… cursed, what happens?”
Horus narrowed his eyes. “Is that why you’re here, human?”
“Maybe.” I gulped. “Maybe not.”
He sighed. “Only Anubis can pull a soul from a body.”
“Oh.” Deflated I sat back against the chair.
“Set traps them.”
“What?” I nearly collided with Mason who had suddenly jerked to his feet at the same time.
He ignored me and whispered. “And I, Horus Prince of Light, can set them free.”
TIMBER
Egypt, Same Day
“Something’s not right.” My father paced in front of me. His smile was in place, but I could feel the irritation burning on his skin, pulsing through the air. “Are you sure her soul is pure?”
Paranoid. He was being paranoid, another sign that he was losing his grip on his godhood.
One day, he would wake up and find horns.
I looked forward to that day more than I should.
“She’s pure.” I swallowed the bile in my throat. There was only one reason he would be so obsessed with the purity of her heart and soul—the purity of her body.
He was going to marry her.
And then he was going to suck her soul dry.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How long have you been planning this?”
He jerked his head in my direction, and his skin took on an ash tone. “What?”
“She has the blood of Apollo running through her veins, the soul of a god and lucky for you it lacks the essence meaning she’s no longer immortal. How. Long?”
A shaking hand reached for a goblet of wine. He downed it in one gulp and looked away. “I’m losing my power.”
“Then pray to the Creator for more.”
He snorted. “The Creator has abandoned us. Cursed us to the land of the humans. We do not die, we just lose our power more and more every year until we turn into—”
“Don’t say it.” I hissed
There weren’t many of them, the demons that sucked on human souls, just old gods that had lost their way, a creation that was born out of necessity to stay in our godlike state.
Because the only way to stay powerful was to be remembered.
And people were forgetting.
We didn’t need their worship to stay powerful. We just needed to be needed and as the gods stopped being needed, they started looking inward, getting paranoid, selfish, giving in to their baser desires, just making it worse as their power slowly gave way to the darkness that ran in all of our veins.
Born as gods, not made.
First of the last.
Last of the first to be reborn into the baser race of demons.
I shook my head and stared at my father. “What did you say?”
He shrugged. “Nothing.”
I looked over my shoulder. As long as I didn’t touch her, I would be okay. As long as she didn’t look at me like she loved me. As long as I didn’t have to touch her soul again, to feel the way it tried to wrap itself around my skin… I would be fine.
Her only solace would be the simple fact that I, Anubis, would escort her body after my own father took the one thing he needed to stay powerful.
I could already hear her screams.
I would do that, to my other half.
To my mate.
For what?
To give my father more power he didn’t need?
“She wants to speak with you.” Horus slapped me on the back. “Something about needing time before the ceremony.”
A ceremony I was supposed to perform.
Fantastic.
I turned to my father. He seemed annoyed. But when wasn’t he annoyed? He flicked his hand in her direction. “She has twenty-four hours.”
Hell.
I nodded and then slowly made my way over to Kyra. Her protectors were circled around her, touching her, laughing with her as if we weren’t within the temple walls.
As if this wasn’t sacred.
Dangerous.
I knew her mother and father would have already been led to their rooms while they waited for the marriage.
And I hated that I wanted to tell Apollo to run and never come back, take his daughter with him, and beg Ra for protection.
Trapped. All of us.
“Kyra,” I rasped. Her name felt like honey on my tongue. “You have twenty-four hours before my father makes you his.” The words burned my mouth. “Is there anything else you need?”
She stood and held out a shaking hand. “I need to be alone. With you.”
My knees almost buckled as I stared at that small hand.
So innocent.
Did she know what she was asking?
That gods were never alone with women.
It wasn’t done.
Not in a million years would it ever be done.
Until now.
The man with the orange hair stood, his eyes blazed. “Anubis, you will want to speak with her alone, trust me.”
“My father won’t like it,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Oh, that.” He shrugged. “I’m part siren. I’m a fantastic distraction for males, females, plants,” He started counting off on his fingers
The Watcher chuckled. “He’s not wrong, though I wish he were.”
“Tell me about it.” The wolf winked at me.
Who were these people? And why did they feel so familiar?
The wolf chose that moment to grin and nod his head. “Soon, my man, very, very soon, just be careful.”
“Mind reader?” I guessed.
“Sort of.” He just shrugged. “Trust me, you’ll want to hear what she has to say, and can it please be fast?” He looked around. “The longer we stay…”
“Stay?” I repeated. “You’re leaving?”
“It’s complicated,” Kyra offered and then waved her hand in front of me again. “Shall we?”
“One rule.” I eyed her hand. “You can’t touch me.”
Her adorable nose scrunched up. “Why?”
“Because…” I sighed. “It hurts.”
“Your skin?”
“My heart,” I whispered and gave her my back. “This way.”
Her shocked expression didn’t help the way my blood was roaring through my system as I took her as far away from Set as possible.
The Gardens.
I wasn’t sure why I led her there, but it seemed right, to bring her around as much life as physically possible so she forgot that she was speaking to death
itself.
I wanted to ask the Creator why.
Why now?
Why give me the one thing I couldn’t have?
It wasn’t fair.
I felt like I was in a game of Senet I could never win. Was doomed to lose before I even began.
We walked in silence down the stone paths and into the rose garden. The perfume of the flowers was dense, cloying, almost too much to handle as I led her toward the farthest stone wall, with its fountain and swimming pond. The water was so clear you could see all the way to the bottom. People used to believe that it was the fountain of youth.
Until they drank of it and realized it was just very cold, beautiful water.
“Wow.” She grinned up at me with reckless abandon. I was so dumbstruck, so confused that I forgot to even respond to her, just stared her down in awe. “It’s beautiful! How did you know I loved roses?”
“I didn’t.” I found my voice. “But to be fair, who hates them?”
Her smile was addicting, just like her voice. She tucked her dark hair behind her ears and shrugged. “Lots of people fail to appreciate the beauty of this world.”
“You’re not one of those people.”
“No.” She spread her arms wide and did a little twirl then faced me. “You’re beautiful too. Angry, but beautiful.”
“I’m not angry,” I snapped.
Her eyebrows rose as if to challenge me.
I sighed. “I’m not. Angry that is. I’m just cautious.”
“Hmmm.” She seemed to find that interesting. And I found the way she reacted to everything fascinating. I reached out to touch her then jerked my hand back.
What the hell was I doing?
“Saw that,” she said without looking up at me. “So I have something to tell you, and I’m not sure how you’re going to take it so I’m just going to say it, all right?”
I frowned. “All right…” Even then, my skin buzzed with the need to touch hers, to hold her in that place, against my chest.
I would have fallen in love with every hair on her head if she let me, with every inch of that body, with every flaw, every success. I would have loved her until my life was over.
My soul knew she was mine.
And I wanted so badly to take.
I focused on the smell of roses, on her inquisitive green eyes, on the way that she playfully bounced from one foot to the other without realizing it.
On the smell of cinnamon as she moved the air between us.
“Okay,” She took a deep breath. “Like a Band-Aid. Just rip it off.”
I smirked. “Is that what you meant to tell me? What’s a… band… aid?”
She waved her hand in front of me, “Never mind, look, I’m not Kyra. I mean I am Kyra and I’m here as Kyra, shit this isn’t going well,” I laughed at her curse, wishing all human women were this adorable, and then realizing it would be death to us if they were. “So, okay, my boss…” She winced. “My friend, the person that…” She frowned. “He’s a demon.”
“Demon,” I repeated, looking around. “A demon is your friend.”
“Right.” She licked her lips, I was momentarily distracted by her pink tongue, my focus was horrible, wasn’t it? “He was cursed. He keeps saying he’s the last of the first or the first of the last.”
I stiffened immediately. I knew what that meant… did she?
“Anyway, he’s dying. He has this tattoo in the middle of his hand. It has an eye and then branches.”
My entire body went still. This was bad, very bad. This meant my father had done the unthinkable. He’d trapped the soul of a god, sending it into hibernation. But why?
“The branches are taking over.” She kept talking. “He passed out, and we were sent to fix what he did wrong, to fix…” Her eyes locked on mine. “…what you did wrong.”
I jerked my head in her direction. “What I did wrong?”
“You.” Her eyes welled with tears. “I’m trying to save you.”
“I’m right here.” I panicked at the sight of her sadness. Was she losing her mind?
“No, the you in the future. You’re a Demon King. You look almost identical save the height, and you said you borrowed a soul to feel, and you kept saying I needed to remember, that we needed to remember, so an angel sent us back. We just have to make a different choice about… something, and you’ll be fine, I think.”
I stared her down, my entire body was heavy, because I knew, in that moment, that no matter what she said to me, this woman, I would eventually take her, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I would take her before he killed her, before he sucked her dry.
I would claim her.
I would make that sacrifice.
I stumbled backward. “You.”
“Me.” She bit down on her lip. “I want to save your life, Anubis.”
“It’s too late,” I whispered. “Because of you, I’m already dead.”
KYRA
Egypt, Same Day
I flinched from his words. It felt as if he’d slapped me. “I’m here so you don’t die, not because you’re already dead.”
He shook his head. “You don’t know of what you speak.”
Okay, so now he was making me want to punch him. I pressed my hands against his chest, earning a growl from his lips as he gripped my wrists almost painfully. “Then tell me, because I’m risking everything in being here.”
“Do you love me?” he whispered. “Is that why you’re here?”
“I don’t know.” Tears filled my eyes. “I just know I don’t want to live without you, I want you to live!”
His gaze softened. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make me!”
“This.” He gripped my wrists tighter. “This pulse between us, this push, this pull, we fit.” His eyes flashed gold. “You are mine, daughter of Apollo. Don’t you realize? You are my half. My soul recognizes you and only you. So if I did something wrong, it was in choosing you over my father, choosing you over my blood. I can’t do it again.”
My body swayed toward him, needing more, more skin, more of his voice, more of everything. I saw us then, holding hands, laughing, memories of stolen kisses in the great hall, of discussing children, a future.
He didn’t release me, just stared into my eyes as this movie of our lives played while we watched.
“I’ll love you forever. It doesn’t matter. The worst he can do is curse me, but I’ll find you, Kyra, I’ll find you anywhere!” he pledged.
“I know.” Tears filled my eyes. “I’m yours.”
“You are mine.” He swore against my mouth, touching my belly. “And soon we’ll have a family, we’ll leave, I’ll speak to him.”
Our lives flashed forward.
“Sixty days.” Timber kissed my head. “Sixty days until the curse is upon us.”
I wrapped my arms around his body. “Was sixty days together, worth his wrath?”
“Yes,” he said. “Worth it to make you my wife, worth it to know that one day we will find each other again.”
Memories charged forward. Ra stood in front of us. “I can’t counter what has been done. You made your choices, both of you, choosing each other, going against Set, against the rules of intervention. You will be punished, your souls will be lost, but,” He held up his hand. “The Creator has agreed with my pleas, and one day, they will find each other. One day.”
Anubis nodded. “It is enough.”
I gripped his hand. “It’s enough.”
I slid my hands up his chest as he looked down at me, adoration in his gold eyes. The smell of roses fueled the hysteria, the need to touch him more.
And then his mouth was on mine.
We fell, in that moment, in the garden.
We fell together.
We made the same choice again.
Because the one thing I wasn’t warned—your soul can’t deny its other half, your heart can’t lie.
And love—transpires through time.
No matter the cost.
Timber picked me up into his arms and twirled me around, pressing my body up against the rock wall as his hands moved to the black diamond holding my dress together. It pooled at my feet in an instant.
His hands moved across my naked skin as he ducked his head and kissed me again, his mouth was warm, and it tasted like a fall day. His tongue was so smooth as it traced the outline of my mouth.
This. I would die for this.
I would kill for this.
For him.
He growled. “He can’t have you.”
“Not when I have you,” I answered. Wrapping my arms around his massive neck, he pressed light kisses to my lips only to deepen them as I moved my body against his. “I can’t stop.”
“That’s the thing, Kyra,” His lips moved against mine. “When you find that person, when you hold that gift, you’re not supposed to stop. It’s supposed to be effortless, perfect.”
“Your father.” I whimpered as Timber cupped my breasts like he was weighing them with the same hands he used to weigh souls. “He’ll curse us again.”
“And it would be worth it.” His hands left, I hated the loss I felt. “Again.”
“No.” Tears filled my line of vision. “Not like this. I’m supposed to save you!”
His eyes were sad as he tilted my chin with this thumb. “I got to kiss you, I got to hold you—consider me saved.”
“Anubis.” I tested his name on my tongue, only to have him growl against my mouth again, kiss after kiss. I accepted, I gave in, because I found home in his arms, I found my very existence in those kisses.
Years I had searched for this.
And now I had it.
“Wait.” I gently shoved him away. “We can’t, you know we can’t, we have to find a way to fix the future, not damn it again.”
His chest heaved with exertion. “I won’t lose you.”
“You won’t!” I was naked against his chest, could feel the warmth of his skin, count the beats of his heart. “The tattoo in the future, why would that happen?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his thick long hair. “Moving under the assumption that I took you for myself and left my father’s house, that would mean I intervened, which we aren’t allowed to do. It would mean my godhead would be shed and my soul would be up for grabs. It would mean giving in to the darkness that warred with the good. And if the tattoo is that of a seed it means that I borrowed a soul so I could feel again, because the one I had was most likely dormant or trapped.”
Darkest Sinner (The Dark Ones Saga Book 5) Page 13