by N J Adel
Something was dragging me down. The Holding Force. My arms stretched. My feet kicked. Yet I was falling.
Was I going to hit the ground? Die?
A sudden jolt of dread hit me, and I pushed my cold body forward as hard as I could.
To reach the water, at least. It would reduce the impact, minimizing the damages.
My eyes flickered at Redamun as he mouthed, “You can do it.”
Then at the approaching ground.
That is going to hurt.
I shifted my gaze quickly and focused on Redamun’s hazel eyes and the dark water, fear powering me forward.
Not the fear of death. Even if I broke every bone of mine, I would heal. I would not die. It was the fear of failure. Loss. Humiliation and pain.
Two arms away from losing my pride and falling to pieces, my vanity ripped something inside me. Triggered a new power that transformed my physicality and chemistry.
The air felt lighter, easier to course through. Manipulate. As if I could touch it. Feel its parts. Put them together and make a path.
And I could…walk it.
Precisely, crawl it. On it.
A chill ran through my spine while I thrust forward and flipped in the air, my laughter filling the silence of the night.
Redamun lifted his gaze to me with a smile, and I dove in the pond.
He was absolutely right.
What a rush!
I surfaced and flung my arms around him. “This was amazing. I bet we can walk on water, too. With this ability, the possibilities to what we can do are limitless. Amazing.”
He squeezed me in his arms and kissed me on the head. “Your Majesty is amazing.”
I heard something melancholic in his voice, which his feelings confirmed. My head tilted back so I could look into his eyes. “Why aren’t you as excited as you were a moment ago?”
He pulled away. “The fire. It’s restarting.”
The sorrow and regret dulling his expression pierced me. I wished I could have told him I didn’t care about what might happen if we touched again right away.
But that would have been a lie.
We could light this house on fire and raze it to the ground.
We could hurt an innocent soul that possessed no powers to stand ours.
That was not a risk I was willing to take. No matter how much I desired this beautiful, perfect man before me.
“I wish I’d said to hell with the rules and had you when I still could,” he said, his pain and regret spearing my own chest.
I held his hand and tried to smile. “It’s only our first day in the new world, and our first attempt together. We have sixty-one more days to try.”
“When I drank you, my flesh was melting off of my face, and my arms were set aflame. What happens when I’m inside you?”
The answer, I didn’t have. Only hope. Refusal to surrender to despair.
“There has to be a way,” I reassured myself before him.
“How, when we are no longer human, my Queen?”
I gave him a warning stare. “Yes, we are. Don’t ever forget that, Redamun. Do you not remember what happened the last time I was called inhuman?”
“Yes, Majesty, but—”
“No! I have sacrificed everything for my principles, refusing to delude my people and live an atrocious lie. I have not been buried alive for one thousand years to be called a goddess again, and neither have you. Do you understand?”
He nodded, his head bowed.
I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes to stave off the rage ball burning inside me. “I know it’s frustrating. I feel the same way and more. But even if we can’t behave like one now, I know in my heart we shall find a way to act human again. Because that’s what we are.”
Footsteps from the house hurried toward us, and Redamun glanced over my shoulder. “It’s Nur and Drusus. Let the water cover you, Majesty. No one should see you like this.”
I rolled my eyes, not knowing whether to like my guard’s overprotective possessiveness and eagerness to defend my honor at the moment or give him a hard time about it.
Either way, he was right. No one should see me naked without my invitation or permission. I swirled, my body lowering in the pond, and peered at the two men coming forth.
“Are you well, my Queen?” Drusus darted a look at Redamun, suspicion lacing his expression.
“I’m standing right next to Her Majesty. If she wasn’t well, do you not think I’d be doing something to help her?” Redamun scoffed. “What brought you here in the first place?”
“I saw the fire in the sky, and then heard Majesty shout. I was worried.” Drusus approached the pond rim. “Am I not allowed to worry about my Queen, Guard Redamun?”
“Of course, you are.” I elbowed my escort before he would utter another word. “Thank you so much, Drusus. I am more than well. However, I’d like you to bring Guard Redamun and myself more clothes. Ours were destroyed during an experiment.”
“With pleasure, Majesty.” He gave Redamun a pointed look and wheeled back into the house.
Redamun gritted his teeth. “What about you, Master Nur? You, too, saw the fire and heard Majesty? From the underground?”
“I was stacking our belongings to have enough space for setting the experiment hall when I felt something peculiar.” Nur frowned at him, crossing his arms over his chest, his dark tunic straining against his well-built figure. “I felt you. You were…in heat.”
In more than one way. I bit my lips on a laugh.
Bewilderment and embarrassment filled Redamun. “How could you… Is that a new power?”
“No.” I ran a hand through my wet hair and smoothed it backwards. “It is a power but not new.”
Nur’s gaze shifted toward me. “Majesty can feel him, too?”
“Not just him. Tia and Drusus as well.”
“Drusus?” Redamun stared at me. “But he’s not one of us.”
“Not all our induced powers are exclusive to the four of us. Apparently, we have the power to sense people’s emotions, read their energies in general. Can either of you sense me?” I glanced at both men.
“No, Majesty,” Nur answered as Redamun shook his head. “What about, Tia?”
“She can sense Redamun.”
“Great! Everybody can read my emotions.” The water heated as he slapped it. “I reckon you all can know how I bloody feel about it.”
“It is a violating ability but can be very powerful,” Nur said.
Redamun jabbed his index finger in the air, water droplets splattering. “It’s an evil ability. That’s what it is.”
“You need to calm down.”
“You’re not the one whose soul is exposed for everyone to see, Nur. Tell me about how calm you would be when I was the one reading you.”
“You’re right, Reda. I certainly wouldn’t be pleased if any person could know how I felt whenever they wanted, even if that person was one of you—my trusted three.”
“Thank you, my Queen! Finally, a voice of wisdom.” He shook his head. “I bet Majesty’s handmaid had felt me while we experimented. That’s why she hasn’t come running for help like the others. She knew exactly what was happening.”
The idea alone put lustful images in my head. Tia sensing Redamun’s desire, knowing he was with me, getting aroused herself, especially after our encounter in the bathroom. What if she was enjoying it in the privacy of her own chamber? Picturing us? Touching herself for sweet release?
What if I got to see that? Let her join us next time we united in bed? To watch and be watched? To participate?
“Majesty, the water is boiling.” Redamun yanked me out of my filthy wonders.
I chortled as I realized I was too consumed in my sinful wishes to feel my own fire was about to blaze. Good thing I woke from the Long Sleep and was not sent to the afterlife. If I had, I would have been burning in hell and tortured in the Netherworld.
At least, when I burned now I could heal.
Drusus appeared, a s
tack of folded clothes and towels on his spread-out hands. “The things you demanded, my Queen.”
I nodded at Nur to take them. Then I plunged my body in the hot water from head to toe for a moment or two, willing my fire to still and my mind to clear.
When I surfaced, I had more prominent thoughts that didn’t involve my nether lips.
I had to know why none of the trusted three could read my energy while I could sense them all except for Nur. Was it connected to the wild energy? Did Nur even have it in him?
We all had gone through the same mummification process. We all had to have gone through the same changes. So what was causing the discrepancies?
Too many variables to test, but I was certain of one thing. Whatever was standing between the others and my emotions, and between Nur and his fire, was the means to control our powers.
The key to summon them on demand and put them to a halt whenever we wanted.
To conquer our enemy.
To live.
Without anger.
Without fear.
With love.
All I had to do now was find that key.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Led by Nur, I climbed down the narrow staircase that led to the underground cellar. The walls slick with humidity. The sound of water flowing in Roman pipes everywhere.
“That’s the cellar?” I squinted with the flickering torch lights on the walls.
“No, it’s a drained irrigation tunnel called an aqueduct, Majesty. A little dingy here but it gets better.”
We marched through the dim shaft, a colonnade and many statues escorting us along the way.
“Who are these?” I pointed at the granite forms.
“The new Gods. Apollo, Hades, Aphrodite and… I don’t know.” He waved a dismissive hand.
One virtue I admired about my student, he never fell under the divinity spell of our ancestors. Like I, he knew beyond doubt no human was born a God.
“No Seratis?” I chortled.
“According to Drusus, his brothers wanted to make one, if not all of the statues, a tribute to the Goddess of Sleep. But they refrained, following Majesty’s strict instructions scripted in Ari’s scrolls.”
“How magnanimous and obedient of them,” I mocked. “I can’t believe this. If the descendants of Ari, the priest who had all the true answers about my nature, still believe I am a goddess, what does that leave the common people?”
“Regardless of the truth or how clear and evident it is, people will believe whatever they want to believe, Majesty.” Nur turned at what seemed to be a small cave that ended with a door. “Who knows? These delusions they choose to believe might serve us well in the future.”
I didn’t favor the underlying inferences of his words, but I wouldn’t address them now. I had more important issues to attend.
He grabbed two of the lit torches on the stone walls and pushed open the door at the end of the shaft. “After you, my Queen.”
I lifted my dress above my feet, bent and crossed to the other side. Nur entered as I straightened, the light spilling in the darkness, revealing what seemed to be an entire wing of the villa, not just a cellar, buried here.
A labyrinth of corridors, vaulted chambers, and a domed hall entombed underground.
I took a few steps, studying the area, and then I stopped. “Is it just me or this place truly follows the structure of an authentic Egyptian tomb?”
“That’s precise, Majesty. It looks an awful lot like one of our tombs.” He waved one of the torches to illuminate the wall. “Except for the art.”
Mythological beasts and odd figures extended along the walls and down to the floor. What artists would clamber down here with torches and go through the trouble of painting these drawings in a forsaken, unused place such as this?
And why?
Did Drusus’s brothers forestall I’d be using this place for my research purposes? If so, why had they decorated it with foreign art and not Egyptian embellishments like they had done with my chambers? No stranger was allowed in my experiment hall without permission either.
I sighed, making a mental note to seek clarification from Drusus about this matter. “Have you explored this place, Nur?”
“Mostly, yes. Drusus gave us a map.” Nur reached inside his pocket and brought out a small scroll. Unrolling it, he stood next to me and placed it in front of my eyes. Then he pointed to one of the vaults. “Redamun and I stored the gold, papyri and our belongings down here.” His finger moved to the second. “And here is where we can set the experiment hall.”
My eyes traced the map lines, reading this maze. “There are five passages but only two vaults in here. I assume one of the other three passages is a back exit.” I lifted my eyes to him. “To where?”
“The back garden. There’s a hidden door under untrimmed shrubberies. Completely covert.”
I tracked another passage on the scroll. “This one is false and leads absolutely nowhere.”
“True. In fact, it’s a trap.”
“What kind? A hidden hole?”
His eyes narrowed as he smirked. “With a head wire. Egyptian Royalty style.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Drusus and his family might be avid believers of the divine lies, but they surely don’t take the security of their Goddess or her secrets and treasures lightly.”
“I see.” I took a deep breath, my lungs unbothered by the stiff, humid air. “And what lies at the end of the last passage?”
“I haven’t reached that part yet, Majesty.”
“Has Drusus not informed you about it?”
Nur shook his head. “He only showed us to the first vault and warned us about the false passage and hidden traps. He said he had to cook.”
I grunted. “Are you hungry, thirsty or sleepy?”
“Not at all.”
“As far as I checked, none of us are. Do you not find this fact strange?”
“Very much. It’s as if our bodies are still…sleeping, mummified.”
“But we are not. We’ve exerted enough effort today to consume energy, to need restoration.”
“I have two possible theories to be tested. The first is based on an expectation rather than an assumption. We’ve anticipated that our bodies might need an adjustment period to function regularly and consume energy at appropriate levels.”
“Unlike what they’ve been accustomed to in the Long Sleep as formulated, yes. It’s taking so long, though. It’s been hours.” I started through the corridors that led to the second vault. “Unless… All the mummification equations were meant to last for one hundred years, not a thousand…”
“The time error could be the reason why the adjustment period is taking longer than we anticipated.” He finished the thought for me.
“What’s your second assumption?”
He passed me and gestured for me to stop. Then he lowered one of the torches to the mosaic floor and jumped to cross the three tiles painted as a snake.
After that he held the two torches with one hand and stretched the other toward me.
One thing I loved about Nur was that he didn’t need many words to communicate with me. We’d always understood each other well through silent gestures such as now. He didn’t have to explain I was facing a trap—from the look of it, it seemed like a pitfall—and he trusted I’d take his hand without a question.
With his grip firm on mine, I hopped to where he stood.
I must have underestimated my new body strength and jumped too fast. My landing was so embarrassingly off balance that Nur had to catch me before I crumbled us both to the ground.
Enfolding me with his arm, pressing me to his chest, he stared at me with his deep, brown eyes, the torch flames dancing in them.
He was tall and large enough to cast a shadow over me while I stilled in his embrace. Apart from an occasional, formal hand holding or kissing, this was the first time we were physically close.
Suddenly, his heart throbbed…and I saw something I�
�d never seen before in the eyes of my student.
Everyone else received the calm—sometimes cold—calculating side of Nur. With me he was warmer. More open. A hungry learner. A good friend.
When necessary, a protector.
Our bond was far from constricted by our statuses, yet not once I’d noticed his eyes steal a glance at my lips and smolder with a forbidden secret as they did now.
Lust.
For his teacher.
For his Queen.
In a heartbeat, his look softened as he hid his emotions behind whatever barrier he’d built inside him in all these years.
Too late, though.
I’d seen it.
Even if I hadn’t, his body betrayed him.
Firmly.
Body to body like this. Our hot breaths clashing against one another. My breasts pressed into his broad chest. His manhood throbbing against my belly.
Undeniably fire-stirring. Completely inappropriate.
I should pull away, but I wouldn’t move a finger.
I didn’t wish to.
Neither did he.
My gaze succumbed to my desires and lusted over his sculpted lips. The distance between our mouths shrank, and my hammering heart started my fire.
And just as I was about to abandon all tradition and cross the last boundary between us, his lips parted…to speak.
“According to the formulation, in case of casualty or lack of immediate support, Majesty has designed a precautious practice. It allows our bodies during the Long Sleep to accumulate and store enough energy to last and survive without food, drink or sleep on Awakening Day.”
I blinked, and then blinked again. “What?”
“The second assumption.” He swallowed.
A laugh burst out of my mouth as I retreated, leaving his grip, my cheeks warm with embarrassment and desire. “Uh…yes. That.”
His arm slid off of my back, and he covered his mouth, clearing his throat.
I twisted my lips, my brows hooked, allowing myself some time to recover from this…whatever that was, and think in scholastic terms. “The allocated time for that precaution is one day at most. I couldn’t make it function to store enough energy for any moment longer.”