by N J Adel
“And two…is for people to forget about Seratis and the ugly lies that ruined my reputation for good.” My eyes bore into his turquoise ones. “I shall not have this mythological tragedy repeated because of you, Drusus, or anyone else for that matter.”
He nodded, chewing on his lips. Pure lust radiated from the heat of his body. I was never a woman controlled by her desires, but today, with all the heightened emotions and inexplicable energy coursing through me, I was struggling to bridle them.
And despite all the changes and surprises happening today, seeing my power on a man again made me feel so…alive.
I dragged myself away as my own heat flooded my cheeks. I stood among my friends and took a deep breath. “We need to get out of here, rebuild my experiment hall and study Ari’s notes as soon as possible. A lot of research is ahead of us. Hopefully, these thousand years have produced enough scholastic progress and tools to rely on while we try to understand the nature of our changes.”
“Yes, please, Majesty. Let’s get out of here. A thousand years in a tomb is too long,” Tia said, her voice urgent. She never spoke much, neither now nor before, like all maids. But when she did, it meant she really needed what she was asking for.
“We do need to breathe some fresh air,” Nur agreed.
“And see the new world,” Redamun added. “One where Bessen Ra no longer exists.”
I smiled. That alone was a blessing for which I should be thankful for the rest of my life. A life I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t gone through with this journey.
No more wars. No more hatred. No more…
Drusus’s gaze met mine, and a terrible sensation reached me from him.
“What?” I asked him, a wave of sickness hitting me hard.
He puckered his lips. “The air is getting really…heavy. We should just leave. You’ve had enough surprises for one day.”
“Speak,” I hissed.
His jaw flexed, and then his forehead and eyebrows scrunched as if he was about to cry.
“It’s about my half-brother, isn’t it?”
He just stared at me for a moment. Then he nodded, pressing his lips.
A dull tingling started in my shoulders, down to my arms, and then quickly spread to my whole body. To my very core.
“Don’t say it,” I barely whispered. “He can’t be…”
“I’m so sorry, my Queen.”
CHAPTER SIX
Unsure how long I sat on the edge of one of the sarcophagi, grasping onto what Drusus had thrown in my face, I squinted through the mist disseminating inside my skull. Dark shadows with fiery edges loomed in the back of my head. And then inside my soul.
Scorching.
Corroding like acid.
In this instant, I was nothing but a thousand shreds of flaming wrath.
“There is no possible way for Bessen Ra to be alive after one thousand years, unless…” Nur seethed.
“He found out about the formula and tortured Ari to give it to him? Yes. That’s exactly what happened,” Drusus said. “He even ordered his men, hired mercenaries and drowned them in gold to kill Ari after the process. Thank the Gods the gold Majesty has left Ari was more than enough to bribe the assassins and buy his life back.”
The menacing energy blazed in my chest, rapidly searing into my shoulders and arms. Dizzy, with no more control over my feelings or thoughts, I growled as my fingers burned. Instead of smothering whatever that was—as I’d been trying since I woke—I had to let it out.
Before it consumed me to bits.
I had less than a moment to register the fire balling, literally, inside my fists before I hurled them across the tomb wall in panic.
The world stood still. My hands remained in the air, fingers spread. The fire subsided, but not my apprehension.
The next noise sickened my stomach and launched me into a bigger state of panic. There was a bang, a huge chunk of the wall crumbled down, and Drusus fell from my view. I was stunned for a second, frozen. Then tremors hit me, heart pounding at what I might have done.
I listened carefully for heartbeats. All five distinct rhythms were there, but one was severely fading.
Had I just shot fireballs from my hands and…killed a man with them?
In my head, I screamed. But my throat was too tight to speak, and my body continued to shake involuntarily.
“What in the names of Basset, Amun and Ra…” Someone said, another coughed, and then feet scampered forward.
A cloud of debris and smoke had filled the place, but I could breathe and see clearly. Panting, I stared at my hands, and then at Drusus’s body on the ground. Redamun and Nur surrounded it, inspecting the poor man’s breath and pulse.
I studied my men’s startled faces. “Is he…”
Unable to say it, I ran toward Drusus. Now was not the time for shock or talk. If I hurt this innocent person, the one who believed in my existence and kept my secrets for a thousand years, I’d never forgive myself. He came all the way here to help me, and this was how I repaid him? By taking his life?
I knelt, and the men made enough room for me to hold Drusus’s head in my hands. Gray and dark red shades stained his half-scorched face, the smell of his burnt flesh unbearable.
I tore his tunic off his chest, only to see that his body wasn’t safe from my outburst. Blood streamed out of a big gash under his ribs. The left side of his chest was seared, the skin blackened. His heart was barely audible, and he wasn’t breathing at all.
“Nur, hit right above his heart with your fist,” I said. “Careful not to break his bones. You’re much stronger than he is now.”
My apprentice clenched his hand and beat Drusus’s chest. It bounced, but nothing changed.
“Keep doing in,” I commanded.
Nur hit him ten times, but his heart wouldn’t regain its beat. My instincts kicked, telling me to breathe into Drusus. Without thinking, I opened his mouth and blew my heated breath inside it.
“Majesty…” Redamun objected.
I withdrew and glared at my guard. “I cannot let him die. I have to do something.”
“By kissing him?”
“By giving him my breaths to evoke his lungs!” I shouted, my nerves a tangled mess. “Do you have a better idea?”
He shook his head. “If Majesty thinks this might save him, then let me do it. My Queen shouldn’t be kissing strangers.”
I backed away, allowing my men to work on Drusus’s body, one stimulating the heart, the other the lungs.
The moments seemed longer than the thousand years I’d spent in this tomb as I waited to hear Drusus breathe again.
Yet nothing happened.
No air coming from his mouth. The faint heartbeat vanishing.
Redamun and Nur turned their heads to me, hope slipping from their faces.
“This can’t be happening. There must be something we can do.” Tia squatted next to me. “Aren’t we bestowed with the power of healing now?”
“Only on ourselves.” Nur banged Drusus’s chest one last time. “And we don’t even know how it functions.”
“What if we can heal others, too?” I examined my hands, the ones that had caused this catastrophe. “If I can shoot destructive energy from my hands, then I can transmit a good energy like healing as well, right?” I stared at Nur, desperate for any sort of validation, even if it was from my student.
“It doesn’t hurt to put this theory…”
Not waiting for Nur to finish, I placed both my palms on Drusus’s body, one on his face, the other on his chest.
“…to test.”
Holding my breaths, I focused only on Drusus. I had no idea how my body had the power to heal itself or how I could summon it to heal someone else. So I prayed.
To the Gods of the past and the present.
For my energy to manifest and reach Drusus.
To save his innocent soul.
To save mine from eternal torture and damnation.
“Please. Please wake up,” I pleaded to wh
oever was listening. “Don’t die, Drusus. Please.”
My heart contracted when I felt nothing coming out of my hands and the sound of his pulse seemed nonexistent.
“Majesty, I think he’s gone,” Redamun said.
“No!” Squeezing my eyes shut, I concentrated all my thoughts and feelings on saving Drusus. I envisioned his features. His beautiful skin and eyes. His amazing lips. His perfect cheekbones. Sound. Undamaged. “You can’t die. Not like this.”
“Majesty—”
“Don’t leave me now, Drusus. It’s not your time yet. Come back. Please. Just come back.”
Drowning in my despair, I felt something crawling from within. Then it turned into a jolt in my stomach.
“Hold on… Do you see what I’m seeing?” Tia asked, and my eyes shot open.
Blue light.
Shining underneath my palms. Spreading in a net of rays from my fingers toward Drusus’s wounds.
A overexcited laugh burst out of me. “It worked!” My gaze wandered among my companion’s faces. “Look. He’s healing.”
“Magnificent,” Nur murmured, and the other two hummed with him, marveling at the cobweb of light repairing Drusus’s burns and closing the gash.
The fifth heart rhythm found its way back into the chamber. The sound of Drusus’s breaths was music to my ears.
I removed my hands—no longer blue-lit—and tilted my head back, allowing myself to breathe again. Then I looked at him.
His eyes were open, a turquoise ocean staring back at me. “What happened, my Queen?”
I placed my palms on either side of his face, my gaze dipping to his lips, and I couldn’t resist crushing mine against them.
His skin was still gray with dirt from the smashed wall, and the blood stains remained. But I didn’t care. Not after those scary moments I had thinking he was dead.
I tasted his fleshy lips vigorously, releasing the quake of messy feelings inside me.
Taken aback.
That was how he felt as our breaths danced in unison.
He didn’t exchange my kiss at first, but then his mouth moved with mine. And I could feel a lot more than surprise in him.
Desire. Need. Passion.
Someone cleared his throat. Redamun, of course, yanking me out of the moment.
I was glad, though. My control over that flood of energy and emotions surging through me was pathetic. Who would have known what hidden power I might be releasing when I was sexually aroused?
And I was.
Aroused by that kiss. Lost in those skilled lips.
I pulled away, but I didn’t bother looking at my overprotective guard. I didn’t wish to leave Drusus’s gaze. “I almost killed you, Drusus. That’s what happened.”
Dazed, Drusus was having a hard time focusing on either my eyes or my mouth, his lips swollen. He set one hand on top of mine and planted a soft kiss on my palm. “You should do that more often, my Queen.”
I laughed. “Looks like I’ve only healed the external damage and haven’t touched your brain. You must be concussed to say something like that.”
“You certainly didn’t need more wrecking up there,” Redamun mumbled.
Drusus grinned. “I might be stupid most of the time, but not now. You’re telling me you wouldn’t die for that one kiss?”
Redamun gritted his teeth, the sound too loud in my ears. “Be quiet before another fireball hits you right in the heart and burns it to flames before Her Majesty can heal it.”
I exchanged a quick glance with Tia, and we sniggered together.
“Wait. You think you, too, can do that?” Nur asked.
“I surely feel that way at the moment.” Redamun glared at Drusus. “And when I shoot it, it won’t be an accident.”
“Redamun,” I warned, only because I didn’t wish for Drusus to get hurt again. Yet on the inside, I’d always been amused by my escort’s jealousy. Even if he couldn’t act upon it.
However, a mere show of anger or affection on our sides, all four of us I presumed, had hazardous consequences now.
Lethal.
We couldn’t afford to take the luxury of feeling for granted anymore.
Drusus sat upright, his hand still on mine, debris falling off his body. “Let me get a clearer picture of what happened. Your Majesty shot at me with…fireballs. Then…healed me?”
I nodded. “I didn’t mean to, though, shoot at you.”
He chuckled. “That’s… You have amazing powers, Goddess.”
My eyes rolled.
“I mean, my Queen,” he amended.
“For Gods’ sakes.” Redamun arched a brow. “Stop calling her that as well. You may address her as Her Majesty or Queen Meha not this stupid my Queen you keep saying. She’s our Queen, not yours. ”
“Of course she is my Queen! That’s a line I shall not allow anyone to cross, mighty being or otherwise!” Drusus bellowed before I could intervene. “I almost died for her, by her hands, and I don’t care. Anyone else would be running through those doors, wouldn’t be here in the first place, but I’m still standing before you all. Because she is my Queen.”
Despite his flaws and rather absurd beliefs, I was growing fond of this man by the moment. He might have a simple mind, but it was open and accepting. His courage unmissed. His heart pure.
Not to mention he was amazingly beautiful, strong…and a very good kisser.
He stood and helped me up with him, both my hands in his now. His gaze traveled among my companions, who, too, rose to their feet. “You might have all served Her Majesty for years, stood by her side, sacrificed your lives for her cause, but my family and I believed in her for one thousand years, without even seeing her, not once.”
He kept the eye contact with them until he was satisfied, and then looked at me. “We’ve dedicated everything we own, our time, our souls, just for you, my great Queen Meha, the sole ruler we’ve vowed to serve for all eternity.”
I smiled. “And I shall be forever in debt to your loyalty and your family’s, Drusus.”
He bowed and kissed my hand.
“Then, at least, learn the rules of being in her Majesty’s presence.” Redamun slapped Drusus’s hands off of mine. “No touching your Queen without permission.”
Drusus winced, shaking the pain off his hands. “That hurt. You’re too strong now to do things like that to humans.” Then he bit his lips, glancing at me. “Apologies for my indiscretions, my Queen. I should have asked permission before kissing your hand.”
“I think I have more pressing matters to address at the moment than to worry about your kisses.” I glanced from Drusus to Redamun. “Or the rules. Or even becoming a Queen again.”
“Her Majesty is right. There is a plight looming over our heads,” Nur said, and I was glad I could hear someone else’s voice other than these two.
A voice of reason.
“Bessen Ra is alive. He is going to wake from a tomb just like us,” Tia said.
“With powers and abilities like the ones we’ve displayed,” Nur added.
Redamun glanced at me. “A second war is inevitable I presume?”
I sighed, unable to fathom that all I’d worked for had been for nothing. The kingdom I was supposed to rule was gone. And not only was the enemy I was supposed to escape still alive, but he was going to be more ruthless and evil with powers no one like him should ever possess.
“We can’t give him a chance to even know about the new abilities.” Redamun shook his head. “We must capture him and end him, Majesty, before it gets a lot worse than the last war.”
“Is he buried alone?” I asked Drusus.
He shook his head. “With High Priest Sekhemre.”
Of course. Who is a better suited companion for this expedition than the traitor who helped him usurp my throne?
“The bastard’s mother?” I asked under my breath.
“No. That wench is long gone.”
Thank the Gods. Finally, a piece of news that wasn’t disturbing. That serpent of a w
oman was the mother of all evil. The plotter of the whole conspiracy. “How long do we have before they wake?”
“Sixty-two days from now, my Queen.”
A pang set in my chest. “He tortured Ari that long?”
“If it had been for Ari, he would have let that merciless arse torture him till his demise. It was only when Bessen Ra started to threaten the women and children—”
I raised a hand, ordering him to stop. I couldn’t listen to any more of this. “I realize I have caused Ari and his family a lot of nuisance and pain. If I had just fought till the end and accepted to die in that war, none of that would have happened.”
“My Queen, not once have we questioned your decision or thought in those terms. We all have been serving you gladly, generation after the other, learning, waiting for the honor to serve you alive, and help you defeat Bessen Ra once and for all.”
“And for that, I have made my decision,” I said, my voice thick with emotion but firm. “For Ari. For you. For this land. For the world that won’t be safe as long as that evil man lives.”
Taking in the faces before me one by one, seeing that their determination was as strong as mine, I took a deep breath and lifted my chin up. “This time, I will not run. I shall fight, and I shall retaliate.”
The men roared in unison, and Tia bowed her head with a smile on her face. Then the four knelt before me.
“We are all with you, Your Majesty,” Drusus said.
“Together and forever.” Nur smiled.
“Together and forever,” Redamun repeated, and then Tia.
They stretched their hands and put them above of each other’s, and I put mine on top of them all. “Together and forever.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The sun shone in my bones as I exited my tomb. I kicked off the sandals Drusus had given me of my feet and sank them in the scorching sand. My head lifted to the sky, yellow rays penetrating my lids ever so brightly.
Too brightly for my new eyes when I opened them.
But it didn’t matter.
I closed them and breathed the pure, clean desert air.
How I’ve longed to see you again, Mother of Gods. To drink your eternal power. To thrive under your protection and flourish with your might.