“Why would you want this?” she asked, tossing it underhand to me. It sailed through the air, disturbing the still falling snow.
“To awaken Ra.” I reached out and caught it. Warmth spread out over my flesh, warding off the chill. I watched in amazement as the blue faded from my fingernails.
“Well, you can’t awaken Ra without the other eye of Ra.” Frost gestured toward the empty hand. “And I doubt my brother is going to give up that rock easily. Then again …” Frost tapped her chin again. “I heard he lost it in a game of chance so maybe you can get it from the new owner, assuming that rumor is true.”
“Wait, why did you have the staff in the first place?” I asked as I touched the tip of the staff to my wounded leg. A wave of euphoria surged through me, and I swear to God, images of flowers and singing birds flashed through my brain. There was a flash of blue-white light, and the bandage fell off. Beneath it, my skin was as normal as it ever had been. I sat up, and it didn’t hurt. Score.
“Ra entrusted me to guard it for two reasons. No one else knew I was here.” She held up one finger. She added the second finger. “And who would be dumb enough to fight the frost dragon for it?” She threw an annoyed glance at Sekhmet. “I’m quite powerful as you can see.”
I swallowed. “So … uh … why are you giving me the staff?” I asked, already hoping the answer wasn’t “because I’m going to eat you now.”
“Why not? Is there a reason I shouldn’t trust you?” she asked, sidling up to me and sitting on the bench next to me, a little closer than I’d have expected. “Should I make you pay for it in some way? Is there anything you have that could possibly interest me?”
I’m not sure what the look on my face was because a second later she pushed me lightly on the shoulder. “The short answer is ‘you have nothing I want,’ but I expect you will. There’s something about you that’s making a chill run down the back of my neck, making the hair stand up just a little.” She wiggled, brushing my shoulder with hers. “It’s positively electric.”
“Okay …” I murmured, not sure how to respond to that. It was starting to seem like every supernatural entity that came near me was trying to get all up in my business. It was a little disconcerting, though admittedly if they were all as attractive as Frost, I’d be all for it.
I shook the thought away and looked down at the staff in my hand. It hummed with power, and while I can’t describe what it was like holding it very well, it was sort of like having a cage full of bloodthirsty tigers and knowing I could press a button that would release them upon my enemies. Only like times a billion.
Frost leaned forward and pulled off one of her gloves. Her fingernails were like polished glass, and the skin of her hand was so pale it was like freshly poured milk with veins of sapphire running through it.
She touched my cheek with one naked finger and gooseflesh sprouted on her skin. She shivered, eyes going a little glassy. “Electric …” she murmured, licking her lips. Before she could do more, I slid off the bench. My feet hit the ground with a sort of wet crunching sound as the snow crackled beneath me.
I glanced at Frost, but she was still sitting there, a dreamy look on her face. It was weird because she was essentially staring at empty space. A very small part of me wondered what was on her mind, but about ninety-nine-point-eight percent of me really didn’t want to know. I looked around the ice cave, noting how it had no obvious exits and let out a small sigh.
I turned and stared at Sekhmet trapped within her frosty tomb, and somehow, I knew that the staff could release her. The thought crept along the back of my eyes like an icy spider. I could save her, and if I could, I would.
“I’m going to let her out now,” I said, raising my voice just a touch, and surprisingly, my words bounced off the ice and reverberated in the room.
Frost didn’t so much as blink. Which was a little weird, I’ll be honest.
“Okay …” I mumbled to myself and reached out with the staff. The moment the sapphire touched the ice, cracks webbed across its surface, reminding me of the one time I’d thrown a baseball and hit my neighbor’s windshield on accident. That had taken a long time to work off, and let me just say, cleaning a pool in my swimsuit in front of a sixty-year-old lady was not exactly an enjoyable experience, even though my father had insisted it ‘built character to work off one’s debts.’
The ice crashed into the floor with a sound like an avalanche. Sekhmet fell forward, slumping into my arms. Her lips were blue, and her skin was so cold that just touching her made moisture crystalize along my arms and clothing.
A short, wheezing breath wisped out of her lips as she nuzzled her head against my chest like a cat. I pulled her closer, allowing my warmth to seep into her because what was I supposed to do? She grabbed hold of me with hands that numbed my flesh and pulled herself against me, lips barely moving. “You saved me, Luke,” she murmured.
I wrapped my arms around her, and she snuggled closer, her lips slightly parted, eyes closed. I hadn’t noticed how beautiful she actually was. She wasn’t hot, exactly, but there was something about her that made me want to hold her close and never let go. Now wasn’t the time or place for it though.
Taking a quick glance at Frost, I let out a sigh of relief. She didn’t seem to have noticed us, probably because she was lying on the bench I’d occupied, staring at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure whether or not she’d snapped out of whatever weird funk she’d gotten himself into, but I was mostly happy she was leaving us alone. Now … how to escape?
I shifted, picking up Sekhmet and cradling her against my chest like a baby with one arm. She wormed against me, stealing all my heat, sucking it out of me in an instant and leaving me shivering. It was a little weird because I could feel warmth traveling from the staff in my other hand through my chest and into her like an electric current coursing through my body.
That’s when I realized I was holding her with one arm, and she felt light as a feather. Was it the staff? Or was she just light? I mean I’d never carried her before so for all I knew, goddesses actually weighed nothing. Either way, I wasn’t about to ask her what she weighed.
Her eyelids flickered open, and in her pupils, I could see just the faintest trace of burning embers.
“Thank you, Luke,” she whispered, and her breath was weak on my neck.
“Don’t mention it,” I replied, swiveling around so I could survey the room. Unfortunately, the room remained stubbornly exit free.
“I will not mention it again,” she replied, lips curling into a faint smile. Her eyes fluttered closed again.
I stared at her for a moment and shrugged. That had been a weird exchange …
I shook off the feeling that I’d inadvertently done something foolish and walked up to the nearest wall.
“Well, here goes nothing,” I said to myself because the goddess in my arms was sleeping and the dragon was, for whatever reason, trapped in a me-induced stupor.
I touched the staff to the wall. Nothing happened.
“Well, damn,” I muttered, glaring up at the ceiling. “Can’t you guys just help me out once?”
The jewel on the staff pulsed, and I was sucked through the ceiling.
33
Sekhmet and I were spat out on a black metal grate that reminded me of a video game I’d played. It had fire spitting out from beneath the slats and a huge demon-creature with a giant bloody hook and everything. Thankfully, the demon didn’t seem to have noticed me.
I hopped to my feet, leaving Sekhmet slumped against my leg, and pointed the Staff of Ra at the creature.
“Stay back,” I said, and my words were more determined than I meant them to be. I waved the staff, not sure how to make it do something.
The demon looked up from his workbench, his six beady black eyes squinting as his emerald-green jowls curled into a confused sort of “o.” He cocked his head, regarding me closely as his horned helmet fell over his eyes. He reached up, pushing the helmet backward with one three-fingered hand. It m
ust have pushed too hard though because the helmet slid off his head and hit the ground with a loud clang.
“Who are you?” he asked in a high-pitched squeak that reminded me of the voices given to small woodland creatures in movies.
“I’m Luke,” I replied, having nothing better to say. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise,” the creature said before shaking himself like a shaggy dog. “Where are my manners? Do you want something to drink? Or are you hungry?”
“Um … no,” I replied despite the sudden rumble in my stomach.
“Are you sure?” he asked, spinning and pulling out a giant gleaming platter covered in what looked like bloody meat. “I have meat. It isn’t cooked yet.” He gestured toward the grate. “But all I have to do is throw it on the grill and pull this lever. It won’t take but a minute.”
That’s when he noticed Sekhmet laying on the ground next to me. Her eyes were open, and she was staring at the huge creature with horror plastered across her face.
“We’re screwed …” she muttered. “Now, help me up.”
She reached out with one hand, and I took it, pulling her to her feet. She squeezed my hand and took a wobbly step forward, shielding me with her body.
“Hi, Tom,” she said, her voice loud and strained as she stood before the demon, clutching my hand for balance even though she wasn’t wobbly anymore. Still, I wasn’t about to protest even if we were about to be eaten by a monster. If she wanted to hold my hand, I was cool with that. More than cool with it, actually.
All the eyes on the left side of Tom’s face widened into trashcan lids while the ones on his right side narrowed into thin, angry slits as they fixed upon Sekhmet’s and my intertwined hands.
“Sekhmet,” he mumbled and put the platter of meat down on the bench beside him. That was when I noticed the ginormous cleaver just inches from his now twitchy fingers. “How are you?”
“Cold,” she replied as she moved forward, pulling me along with her. As she stepped across the super-heated grill, the flames seemed to die down so that as I followed behind her, the metal was about the temperature of lukewarm bathwater on my bare soles. “I’ve had a long day.”
He glanced at her hand entwined with mine once more, and the smile on his face slipped just a touch. “Would you care for a refreshment? Heated chocolate perhaps?” He spun back to his workstation and rummaged around for something. His huge back blocked my view, which was a little disconcerting because he was wearing a thong, and his huge green butt cheeks were, to put it mildly, quite disgusting.
He spun back around with a huge, industrial-sized bag of marshmallows in one hand and two five-gallon buckets filled with steaming black liquid. He moved toward us, walking gingerly on his warty, three-toed feet so as not to spill a single drop of fluid from his buckets.
When he reached us, he held up the two steel buckets, offering them to Sekhmet. “Sorry, I’m out of beer, but I have marshmallows.” He waggled the bag in front of her.
She released my hand and snatched the bag from him and looked into the bucket on her right. I stared down at my hand. It suddenly felt cold and empty. I sighed and, not having anything better to do with it, shoved it in my pocket.
“I’m going to take this but know that I still remember what happened last time,” Sekhmet said, glaring over the steaming bucket at Tom.
“Look, I didn’t know it was going to turn you into a toad.” Tom shrugged sheepishly. “At least not for that many years …”
“It turned you into a toad?” I asked as Sekhmet poured the entire bag of marshmallows into her bucket. I’m not sure how, but none of them fell onto the floor.
Without so much as an acknowledgment of my question, she unhinged her jaw like a snake and emptied the contents of the bucket inside. She dropped the empty bucket on the floor, and it rolled across the grate. She grabbed the other one from Tom.
“I get both,” she added before dumping it into her gullet as well. Then she burped loud enough to actually shake the room. It was so ladylike.
I tore my eyes away from her as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. Tom was looking at her with a mixture of shock and disgust plastered across his fat face.
“Must you always be so disgusting?” he asked.
“Okay,” I said, holding my hands out in front of me and gesturing unconsciously with the staff. “What the hell is going on here?”
Tom’s eyes went huge as he fixated on the empty hand at the end of the staff.
“Your staff is broken. I have just the thing,” he said, and before I could even say a word, he clomped back across the room and started rummaging in a giant iron chest beside his work table.
He spun around, a ruby the size of my head in his hand. “I won this in a poker game a while back, and it seems like it might be the right size.” He reached out toward the staff. “May I?”
His fingers closed around it, and he tugged it out of my hand without waiting for an affirmation.
“What the—” I was suddenly cut off by Sekhmet’s hand over my mouth. Tom looked up at us as she gave me a “don’t say a word” look.
“Don’t mind him,” she said, voice not even slightly strained.
“Yeah, don’t mind me.” I shrugged.
“Oh,” Tom replied, his gaze lingering on us for a long while before he went back to fitting the ginormous gemstone into the staff’s hand. It finally slid into place with an audible pop. A flash of scarlet light filled the room, making spots dance across my vision. When my eyesight cleared, Tom was holding the staff out to me.
“I fixed it,” he said, waggling it in front of me. “Here you go.”
I took it. I mean, what else could I do? The moment I touched it, power surged through me again, exploding through each and every cell in my body and turning them into overdrive. Before it had been like a strong cup of coffee. This was more like someone dumped one of those five-hour energy drinks into my triple espresso and served it to me with a side of Red Bull.
“What do we say, Luke?” Sekhmet asked, glancing at me and nodding her head very slightly.
“Uh … thank you?” I offered, unsure of what else I could say. Admittedly, it was hard to even say those words because I was pretty sure the air was talking to me, whispering in my ears and willing to divulge all of its secrets if only I listened just a little more …
“You’re very welcome,” Tom said, grinning from lack of ear to lack of ear. That’s when I realized that instead of teeth he had a mouth full of baleen. He caught me staring and winked at me with one of his eyes. “Now I’ll be seeing you around, Luke.” He nodded to Sekhmet. “Wife.”
My jaw dropped as I stared at the thing before me. I couldn’t even speak, couldn’t form a rational thought. The only thing that went through my mind was, “This is Sekhmet’s husband?”
“Husband,” Sekhmet replied, reaching out and touching his shiny green arm with her fingertips. “Thank you.”
He smirked, all six eyes fixing on her. “Don’t mention it,” he replied, and her cheeks got as red as a pair of coals freshly snatched from the fire. Then he jerked on a huge lever a few feet above his head. I hadn’t even seen it before. The floor beneath us opened up, and we fell through the grates into the fire below.
Only … only it wasn’t like any falling I’d done before. The air currents swept us up, buffeting us as we fell so it was more like gliding. It was actually kind of fun.
We touched ground about thirty minutes later in a giant throne room. It was so large it actually reminded me of that room you see on television when the president talks. Sitting on a throne made from bones was an ancient man with skin the color of old dust. His face was fixed on the two wriggling figures in front of him.
I follow his gaze to the two people, and my breath exploded from my lungs. Lying there bound and gagged in black chains were Khufu and Aziza. They struggled, writhing in their chain cocoons. Beside them was a man I recognized from my visions with Thoth as Imhotep. He looked over at me and smirk
ed.
“Hello, Lucas,” Imhotep called, waving at me with one hand. “Glad you could make it.”
“What have you done to them?” I replied, momentarily ignoring the fact that Khufu had ditched me and left me to die in a giant ice cave. It wasn’t like he’d been the one to impale me to death in a vision shown to me by Thoth.
“Me?” Imhotep asked, touching his chest with his bony fingers. “I haven’t done anything … yet.” He laughed, a sort of evil warble that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and a chill settle in my belly.
Imhotep smiled, revealing a mouth with exactly three teeth and pulled a flute from the pocket of his dusty green tunic. He put the instrument to his lips and blew a cord that was mostly whistling.
“Oh no,” Sekhmet said and swallowed hard, her entire body rigid as she pulled her bow, Nesert, from the nothingness in front of her. Imhotep kept playing, and with each note, the feeling of dread in my belly increased.
“What’s going on?” I cried as moments before the roof of the room exploded, raining black rock down around us. I’ll admit, I was slightly relieved that I hadn’t been crushed by all the rock, but every time a piece fell more than a few feet, it disintegrated into thick, black smoke.
The old man in the throne seemed unconcerned with what was going on as the smoke above our heads cleared to reveal the huge fanned head of a cobra as black as pitch.
“So, we meet again, Lucas,” Apep hissed, his huge serpentine body snaking down into the room and filling it with choking black smoke. “And you brought me the staff. How nice of you.”
34
“What do you plan on doing with that, Sekhmet?” Apep asked, his huge black tongue snaking out of his mouth to taste the air.
The goddess took a deep breath, her face fixing with resolve. “Shooting you in the face.” She raised her bow and fired, but as she did, Imhotep raised a hand. A frigid blast of cold rippled through the air, extinguishing her arrows before they got anywhere near Apep.
King of the Gods Page 19