Only her wings and tail were that of a dragon. The rest of the female was human. She shouldn’t be so strong and fast. Certainly not stronger and faster than him.
He chased her. She didn’t go far, just around in a pointless circle.
“You and your demons stole a father and daughter from me and killed my mate. As Dragon Queen of Nebty, daughter to earth dragon Geb and sky dragon Nut, mate to rock dragon Osiris and twin sister to moon dragon Nephthys, I, rightful ruler of the preternatural realm, have judged you guilty of murder, hundreds of times over. Your penalty is death by my hand.”
“I’m a king, you have no right to judge and punish me. This is my land, my kingdom. Here, you are the trespasser, so it is I who will punish you.”
He flew at her again, tired of the dragon’s games and wanting this battle over. Two dragons watched him from the air. He didn’t know if they would interfere, and he feared the rest of his hordes wouldn’t arrive in time to engage the dragons before they all turned on him.
A part of Sansabonsom knew no more demons would come to Kumi, even to rescue their king. If they were, they would’ve been there by now. So be it. If this were his judgment day, then he would take the baby queen with him.
Slashing with all his might, he cut through the air, satisfied when claws met flesh. He slashed again, drawing spurts of blood. Yes, he loved when his victims bled. Sansabonsom cut the dragon again, pushing her back with his wings and claws.
Killing Nut’s hatchling and stealing her powers would be easy. Easy? Wait, nothing about this dragon had been easy. She’d survived Effiom’s attack. She hadn’t turned back when she’d seen her father’s torn-apart body. No more than she’d backed down from the older and bigger time dragon.
She’d run but hadn’t fled for her life. There was a difference. A difference Sansabonsom was only now realizing.
The laughter came again.
“Are you done?”
He stared at her, bleeding from his claws. Her hands and arms were a mess. Deep incisions ran the length of them, jagged openings that spilled dark blood he wanted to lap up.
In the air, Sansabonsom backed away from her. In his flurry of attacks and his primal satisfaction at the smell of her blood, he’d missed something important.
“You blocked my attacks.”
She raised her bloody hands to him, several fingers severed but growing back right before his eyes.
“Is this what you wanted, demon?” The cuts on her hands and arms closed. “This power? I can see why you would. For the first time in my life, I truly feel the scepter’s powers coursing through me. It speaks, and I listen. It tells me what Nut did before I came here to kill you and reclaim dragon’s rightful place in this realm. I am the spark, the first, life incarnate of this realm, gifted by the goddesses. I am the first demon. The first Yumboe. The first goblin and troll. The first harpy and griffin. The first time dragon and rock dragon.” She patted her knee with a healed hand. “You got a taste of the rock dragon. Just a sample, but I’ll let you have more. I remember how badly you wanted to taste me. The thought alone made you hard, made you come. Let’s try that again. With my help, this time.”
Sansabonsom backed down from no foe, and he’d never fled in fear. But when the psychotic female flew at him, he scrambled back and away. Wings snapped, and he sought a desperate escape. A hand wrapped around an ankle and brought him crashing to the bloody ground.
Fists bludgeoned him. Fists as solid as boulders.
Sansabonsom fought back, but that didn’t stop the rapid-fire punches. She turned him onto his back and straddled his waist as if they were lovers.
Crack.
Nose twisted and bled.
Thud.
Fingers dug into scalp, pulled head up, and smashed it to the hard ground.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Snapping jaws grabbed the hair that fell on his face, as she leaned over him, his head in her vicious hands.
He yanked, taking hair with him. That didn’t stop her attack. She kept hitting him, breaking bones with furious strikes.
Hands grasped his hooked iron teeth. Using them to drag him to his feet, Isis lifted them into the air. With a hard, brutal yank, she wrenched his fangs from his gums, which sent him collapsing to the rough dirt.
Blood pooled in his mouth. Sansabonsom gasped for air, spitting out the crimson liquid.
The awful dragon landed beside his head. He could only stare up at her. The fight almost beat out of him. He swiped with his hooked feet, but his pathetic attack was too slow and Nut’s daughter too fast.
“I could finish pummeling you to death, which would give me a sick satisfaction to dismantle your paltry body. I could also leave you here, defanged and dethroned. I doubt if you’d live long once we left. Something tells me demons aren’t forgiving of the weak.”
Sansabonsom coughed up more blood, and Isis knelt beside one of his broken arms.
“Isis ‘King Killer’ Philae. How does that sound? Huh, nothing to say? Well, let me explain. My mate, the one you sent your hordes to kill, has started referring to me as a mobster and mob boss. Bugsy Siegel, Jack McGurn, Albert Anastasia, Angelo Bruno. Terrible males, like you. They hurt so many people, ruined families and lives. Again, like you. They were also murdered for their crimes. Their enemies came looking for them and got their revenge. Now, back to my mobster name. I don’t think it suits me, and my mate and I will have to have a long talk about, well, stuff that’s none of your business.”
“You’re as insane as the time dragon.”
“Not insane, although I felt that way when I realized my baby was gone.” She raised a hand to her stomach. “I wish I could make you feel my pain. The way the bullets pierced my skin and ripped into my body. The exit almost as painful as the entry. You have no idea, and you don’t care.”
The same hand that had been on her stomach raised into the air.
His eyes followed, and he saw the moon dragon pull something from her side and hand it to the crazy female with her mouth.
“You could never really know my pain, but I’d like for you to try.”
Her hand slammed into his stomach, and he screamed. She yanked out the black dragon’s horn and drove it into his stomach again.
“This is for Asim.”
When the horn came down the third time, she pushed it all the way through his body and into the ground underneath.
Face emotionless, she watched him, unable to breathe or even shriek his agony. Blood seeped out and down his sides.
“I’ve never hated a living soul. You changed everything about my life, including the moral lines I crossed to get us both to this point. I think I despise you for that most of all. Because seeing you bleed out and die, while I watch, is depressingly rewarding. Which, in a way, makes me as depraved as you and those human gangsters.”
He wished he could tear his eyes away from the dispassionate red orbs that watched him. Isis’s gaze never wavered. Sansabonsom didn’t know how long it would take for death to claim him, but it seemed excruciatingly long. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen. She hadn’t hit a major artery, which would’ve sped up the process and put him out of his misery.
Sansabonsom closed his eyes. She wanted him to suffer for as long as possible and with no chance of healing from his wounds. The black horn she’d impaled him with was as unnatural as the Dragon Queen. He felt them, ravenous specters burrowing through tissues and multiplying until the organ couldn’t contain them and exploded.
He cried out each time, and the female watched. Blood and spit expelled from his mouth, and still she watched. Tears flooded eyes and urine streamed from him, and she never looked away.
Explosion after explosion wracked his body, the pain unbearable.
“K-k-ill me. K-kill me.”
She laid her hand against her stomach again, her eyes filling with tears.
He begged her. “Please. Please.”
She shook her head, stood, then peered down at him. Blood from an arm fell into his mouth, a
nd he tasted the power of the scepter in the single drop. Divine. He craved more.
A red-tipped white wing swung down and toward him.
Slice.
Blood.
Death.
“You decapitated him.”
“You have a way of stating the obvious, Osiris.” She leaned against one of her mate’s huge legs. He and Nephthys had landed after she’d killed Sansabonsom. “His head isn’t a soccer ball, Nep, stop kicking it around in the dirt.”
“You’re the one who cut it off. You’re also the one who tortured the stupid demon until he pissed himself. Epic. I can’t wait to tell Mother.”
“Your new spiked horns are wicked.”
“I know, right. Did you see me in action against the demon horde? I can shoot the horns like an arrow. Aim, fire, and kill. The best part is that they grow right back. One of the demons thought she could get the drop on me. She attacked from above. I shot a horn at her like a missile. The force of it striking her sent the demon hurling backward. She hit another demon, and that demon careened into two more demons. It was great.”
“Damn, I missed it. I would’ve loved to have seen the look on their faces. And the horns grow back. Nice.”
“Not as nice as your finger action.”
“Which one?”
“Ha, I almost forgot about you flipping Sansabonsom the bird. I was talking about re-growing your fingers. When we get back, will you let me shoot off one of your hands with a horn? That way, Mother can see both our new tricks.”
“I’m not letting you shoot off my hand. What if you make a mistake and take my arm off? I don’t know if I can re-grow a hand, no less an entire arm.”
“Do the two of you hear yourselves?”
“Stop acting so self-righteous. We’re just blowing off steam before we have to deal with the time dragon.” Isis rolled her eyes when her sister kicked the demon’s head between the branches of two trees, which reminded her of a football goal post. “Why don’t you tell us what happened to the demon you chased. Did you eat him, burn him alive, or devise a more, umm, creative death for him?”
“I gave the bastard what he earned and deserved.”
“That’s what I thought.” She patted his leg. “Was that your father the demon rode?”
“Yeah. We fought, and I remembered.”
She had to know if he meant what she thought he did. Isis rose into the air and close to Osiris’s rock dragon face.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I remember everything. Everything I made myself forget, I now know. Set was responsible for my death and your shooting. He waited a year into our marriage to start asking me about the scepters. I knew he wanted them. He only hinted at them when we dated. He would ask if I’d seen them. After a while, he tried to convince me to steal them from Nut. I didn’t tell you because there was nothing for him to find or even to steal, if he ever went looking. I also didn’t think Set’s small obsession would turn into anything serious.”
“You didn’t want me to think the scepters were the reasons you mated yourself to me. Is that what you’re trying to say?”
“It is. I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t know how much Set coveted the scepters or the extent he would go to get his hands on them. We’ve been through this before. I know what I mean to you, just as you know what you mean to me. Where are your brother and father now?”
“I don’t know. Set attacked Dad when we were fighting. Shocked the hell out of me that he would come to my defense. But he did, Isis.”
For all that Set had done to Osiris, he still loved his brother, which made her ache for him, even more, when Nephthys said, “He’s on my side now. They both are. I’ll take you to them, if you like.”
Father and brother dead. How had it happened? Did they kill each other, or had what’s left of Sansabonsom’s hordes found and attacked them? Isis couldn’t care less how Set met his end. At least now she wouldn’t have to lie to Makara. Her son had died protecting his older brother. An honorable death he’d earned with his sacrificed life.
“That was his way of apologizing. He could’ve run away, when we were preoccupied, but he didn’t. Set stayed and spared your heart, which would’ve filled with guilt if you were forced to kill your father. He was awful, but a part of him loved you. I don’t know if that helps.”
“Now it doesn’t. Later, I think it will.”
She kissed the tip of his nose. “We should get back up there. I think I figured out how Sansabonsom learned about the full scope of the scepters’ powers and what happened to Geb, his warriors, and northern Nebty.”
Isis climbed onto her rock dragon. It took them mere seconds to reach the Tyets and Serqet’s cell of mists.
“How is he doing in there?”
Serqet poked her thin head inside the mist, although Isis didn’t think that act was strictly necessary for her to know.
“Now that the former Demon King is dead, he’s quiet. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was asleep.”
“Release Zaman from his prison.”
“I know that name.” Aset looked from the mist and to Isis. “No one liked to talk about the time dragon who killed his family, but my mother told me a couple of stories about him. I also remember Nut doing the same, a few times. I can’t believe he was alive all this time. How long, after he left Nebty, do you think he was taken in by Sansabonsom?”
“I don’t know. He probably wandered, his mind slipping even more as the years went by.”
“We need to help him if that’s possible.”
As usual, Nephthys and Isis agreed.
They watched as Serqet recalled her mists, growing longer and thicker the more she reabsorbed the clouds of water droplets into her lithe body. Well, lithe for a dragon. Just as she’d said, Zaman hovered in a state somewhere between mental exhaustion and lazy obedience.
“Zaman,” Isis said, her voice as soft and soothing as she could make it. “Zaman, you don’t know me, but I’m the daughter of Queen Nut and King Geb. Will you talk to me?”
Isis feared, being alone for more than a century then living among demons might’ve done irreparable damage to his brain. His control over the other dragons proved he possessed enough mental faculty to use his magic, even if manipulated by Sansabonsom.
She waited. No one spoke. In fact, everyone, except for Nephthys and Osiris, gave Isis room to deal with the time dragon. Isis didn’t think Zaman would attack her, but a dragon couldn’t be too cautious. They were also in the Demon Kingdom, and while the opposition to their invasion seemed to have past, none of them would dare lower their guard while in enemy territory.
Three sets of black, white, and gray swirl eyes focused on Isis. Zaman’s quick perusal of her hybrid form didn’t take long, nor did he seem shocked by her appearance.
“Finally. Earth and sky birth life.” The eyes from his right head, the gray one, took in Nephthys. “Earth and sky birth death. Finally. Twins.”
Zaman slumped but didn’t fall from the sky. The white head on the left shifted to Osiris.
“Life, death, and rebirth. Past, present, and future. I see all. I am time. No forward. But backward.”
“Zaman, King Sansabonsom is dead. He no longer has any power over you. You’re a free dragon.”
“I’m beholden to time. I want to go back. I want to see them again. I want to go home. But I can’t. I don’t know where it is anymore. Will you take me home, daughter of King Geb and Queen Nut? Will you stop time?”
Stop time? Was he asking Isis to kill him? She couldn’t do that. Not only was Zaman a victim of his magic and Sansabonsom, but he also wasn’t her enemy deserving of death. More, his death would end the time dragon line. He was the last of his type. The problem was that, if Isis wasn’t mistaken, Zaman was also the first time dragon. He’d survived longer than all others, which made his mental and emotional state even more fragile.
“I know you want to go home. We’ll take you back to Nebty. Tell me, did you change the
time in northern Nebty?”
“King Geb said I could return home. He said I was welcome. Didn’t blame me for telling secrets of scepters. I was lonely.”
“I don’t understand. When did this happen? Two centuries ago?”
“Life, death, rebirth. I want to go home.”
“I know. We will. I just need you to tell me about King Geb.”
Isis flew up to Zaman, ignoring Osiris’s warning growl for her to keep her distance. Her small hands reached out and touched the time dragon’s center black head. Beyond repeating life, death, and rebirth, he’d also said past, present, and future. Once she made physical contact, Isis comprehended why time dragons eventually went insane.
They not only possessed three heads, they literally saw the world from three different but simultaneous perspectives. How could any dragon be expected to cope with that level of constant and differing stimuli?
Pressing her hand to the forehead of his black head, she said, “Present.” Moving to the right, she placed her hand on the gray head. “Future.” The white head on the left blinked those swirl eyes at Isis when she appeared in front of it. “Past. You’re a very special dragon, Zaman. King Geb knew, didn’t he?”
Isis stayed with the white head. She hoped by narrowing her focus to one head and time, it would help Zaman’s concentration.
“Tell me when King Geb said you were welcome in Nebty.”
“After all the other dragons were gone. So quiet. So lonely.”
Isis glanced over her shoulder at her sister and the Tyets. They shared a heartbreaking and proud moment of understanding. Their parents had beaten back the demon horde attack. Sansabonsom hadn’t won. Yet, with the gateway destroyed, the victorious dragons had no way of contacting Nut.
“How long did you live on Nebty after it went quiet?”
“Ninety years.”
Isis closed her eyes. Geb and his warriors were alive as little as ten years ago. Families could’ve been reunited, and all of this prevented, if Nut hadn’t destroyed the Gateway of the Two Ladies. Under the circumstances, Nut had made the right decision, but she wouldn’t view it that way in light of this revelation. She already felt guilty about leaving her mate. This news would make her feel worse.
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