“You’ll never be strong enough to pierce my priest’s magic,” the snake god chortled. “Your power is nothing.” It turned its huge head toward Imhotep. “Go ahead and take her, Imhotep. She is yours as I promised.”
Imhotep shifted his gaze toward us, and even from here, I could see him looking upon us with a manic glee. “Thank you, my lord.” The priest turned on his heel and stepped over Khufu who still struggled in his chains despite the fact that it seemed to be having no effect whatsoever.
As Imhotep made his way toward us, he shot one glance over his shoulder at the huge serpent. “What if she resists?”
“Then destroy her,” Apep’s voice spread out over the room in an unending wave of darkness. “She is no match for you.”
Imhotep rubbed his hands together greedily with a look in his eye that turned my stomach. “I have waited a long time for this, girl.” He licked his lips as Sekhmet screamed, the sound so loud it damned near shattered my eardrums.
Flame exploded outward from her in a wave that melted the stone as her face once more became that of a lion. Her talons extended, glinting in the light of the room as flame danced along her flesh.
“You dare call me weak?” she snarled, and before I could say or do anything, she pounced on Imhotep and slammed him bodily into the ground. The priest’s head smacked against the ground so hard it split like an egg, spilling blood and brain matter across the ground.
Only, that didn’t seem to faze the priest much. His hand lashed out, and he caught hold of Sekhmet’s left wrist as she went to rake him with her claws. Frost began to spread out along her flesh, and she shrieked in pain. That’s when I realized the problem. She was still weak from the fight with Frost, and even worse, Imhotep was so close to Apep he could keep drawing on the snake god’s power.
Sekhmet seemed to realize it at the same time because she looked at me and bared her teeth. “Luke, I’m going to teach this bastard a lesson. You take Apep.” She winked at me. “I believe in you.”
“Right,” I said as the ground beneath them melted into slag, revealing a portal of molten energy that reminded me of the gateway we’d used to step into Anubis’s lands.
“No!” Apep cried as Sekhmet pulled him down through it, and I felt a wave of dark power flash by me, but instead of actually, you know, striking the ground, the blast found only stone. Molten rock and debris went everywhere as Apep roared in fury.
“What have you done?” he snarled as I swung around to face the giant snake god. Only he wasn’t there anymore. With his priest gone, he had reverted to something like human form.
Smoke curled off a bald man with skin like polished ivory, but even still, he felt strong. He’d been weakened, but maybe not that much.
He stood then and met my eyes. He wore a pristine set of blood red armor that covered his arms, shoulders, and legs, but left his midsection completely bare. His eyes burned like scarlet fire as he raised one black-nailed hand and made a ‘give it to me’ gesture. When I didn’t comply, his cobalt lips curled into an amused smirk. “Give me the staff, wolf. If you do, I will spare you a most terrible death.”
“Not happening,” I growled, taking a step back as the old man in the throne watched me with dull grey eyes.
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Apep said, his voice whipping around me like the winter wind. Only … only I had felt the winter before. Cold, remorseless, and hungry. This was not that winter. This was but a pale imitation.
I held the staff out in front of me, brandishing it like a weapon. “Be gone, snake!” I cried, and fire leaped from my mouth, scalding the air between us. Apep waved his hand, and the flames died away. The light in the staff faded just a touch.
“Yummy,” he replied, shivering. “Give me more, Luke. Give me all you have.”
“I’ll give you more!” Khufu cried. His ridiculous elephant key smacked into Apep’s skull. Black smoke spewed from the wound as the god reached up and touched the injury, regarding it with the same curiosity one might use toward a giftwrapped package from an unknown relative.
He reached out and touched the key with one finger. It evaporated into a hiss of emerald smoke. The wound fading as he grabbed Khufu by the throat.
“Interesting,” was all Apep said. He squeezed so hard the pharaoh’s head actually popped off his shoulders, shooting into the air like a cork from a champagne bottle. Blood and slime fountained into the air as Apep dropped the messy body. Somehow, his clothing and hand were still pristine.
“Now then,” the snake god said, making a washing motion with his hands. “You were going to give me the staff.”
“Luke!” Aziza cried, and her voice was so faint I could barely hear it over the pounding in my ears. “Give me the staff! Quickly!” I almost couldn’t comprehend the words as I stared at Khufu’s body.
I looked up at the snake god, and all I saw was rage. “You …” I said, and the word was like sewage in my mouth. “I needed him.”
“You need him to go home. I know.” Apep shrugged. “I will return you home, Luke.”
I stopped. My fury vanished in a wave of confusion. I looked at him for a long time before turning my gaze to the glowing staff in my hand. Could I do it? Could I give the staff to Apep in exchange for a ride home? After all, the mummies were all gone …
“You can trust me, Luke. I swear on chaos itself. If you give me the staff, I will send you home. I will offer no tricks in this matter. You will be back in your time within one of your human minutes.” As he said the words, thunder shook the room and lightning exploded from overhead. I turned my eyes upward, staring at the swirling black clouds above because the temple no longer had a roof. All around me, darkness raged like a tempest, and still, I contemplated.
“Luke, please!” Aziza cried, and her voice sounded so far away I could barely hear it.
“Silence, Jailer!” Apep’s head twisted around so he was staring at Aziza. She stood there, looking like a pathetic drowned rat. She was covered in black goo, and her hair was plastered to her skin, and with a flick of his wrist, linen ropes rose from the ground, binding her in place.
“Luke, get the staff to Ra! It’s the only way,” she cried, trying to break free of the ropes and failing.
“Do not listen to the jailer, Luke. She cannot get you back home.” A thin-lipped smile spread across Apep’s face. “I, unlike my brethren, deliver. I always deliver. I am the darkness that engulfs all light. The cold that steals away all heat. The vast emptiness that swallows all things. I am unavoidable and forever. I do not need lies or trickery. I am inevitability.”
Apep reached out, his hand extended toward me. “Give me the staff, Luke. I will trade you whatever you wish. I will even give you the jailer too if that is what you desire.” He turned, gesturing at her, and her clothes vanished into black smoke, leaving her standing there naked and exposed before me. Apep smirked, turning his serpentine gaze back to me. “She will do whatever you wish, Luke. I can make it so.”
A million thoughts swept through me all at once, and I realized that, at this moment, I could ask for anything and everything and it would be granted. I could go home, could be a king, could be a super-powerful god … I could have any woman or all women … I shook my head as a smile spread across my face. I was never really interested in that sort of thing …
“No!” I said, and as I said the word, one weight lifted off my shoulders and another heavier one settled in its place. It was the weight that came with knowing I wouldn’t be going home. Not if I wanted to stop this demon anyway. But, strangely, as I had that thought, I knew it to be right. This was why I was here. To stop Apep from rising. The clarity of it was overwhelming.
I brandished the staff once more, and this time, the flames glowed like melted gold and sun fire. They hit Apep in a wash of heat, flinging him backward. He hit the ground hard, his body destabilizing into a cloud of particles that buzzed like angry hornets.
It reformed a few feet away, only his skin was covered in mottled
black scales, and his features were decidedly more reptilian. “You cannot keep that up forever, Luke. No matter how strong you think you are, I am immortal. A defeat today means nothing to me, for I am eternal.”
“I know you, Apep,” I said, taking a step forward, the staff blazing like lightning in my hand. Light flowed around me like a shroud, banishing the shadows around me into the corners of the room. “We both know that you cannot win. There must always be balance. If you are strong, then Ra must be strong. Those are the rules set down from before time.”
I threw the staff at the ground. It shattered, exploding into a million flitting wisps of light that flapped through the air like liquid butterfly wings. The room brightened as the first rays of sunshine broke through the darkness above. Sunlight slammed down into the ground all around us, the temperature rising so suddenly, it was like breathing in fire.
One ray struck the throne with the old man. He lit up like a Christmas tree, throwing colors every shade of the rainbow into the air and painting the room like a disco ball. I covered my eyes from the glare as the man rose, not as a spindly old geezer, but as a solid black, featureless mass of muscle and sinew.
He stepped from the throne and the light flowed with him like water. His skin was like blackened embers, and his eyes blazed like the sun. His beard was like living flame, shooting wisps into the air around it. The space around him shimmered in wavy lines as he stepped off the dais, the staff inexplicably in his hand. The gemstones glowed like neon lights, banishing all the shadow from the room.
“Begone, Apep,” the figure commanded, and the room around us shook. More sunlight filtered through the clouds and dissolved the smoky darkness left behind by the snake god.
“Ra, give me the staff,” Apep snarled, leaping to his feet and striding toward the figure. “If you don’t, I’ll swallow you whole.”
“Even if you do, I will just cut myself from your stomach and rise again,” Ra said in a voice like the purest sunrise.
Apep stopped, considering this. “Our conflict is inevitable, brother.”
“Maybe so,” Ra replied. “Maybe it will not end here and now. Maybe one day, you will gain the upper hand, but today is not that day.”
“So you say,” Apep said, and as he spoke the words, he dropped to his knees and pressed both of his hands to the stone floor. Black energy exploded up into the air, filling the room with dancing shadows.
Ra peered at Apep, confusion filling his dark features. “What are you doing, brother?”
That’s when I realized what was happening. “Watch out!” The words had barely left my lips when the portal opened up behind Ra like a huge towering purple pustule. Thick black veins crawled across its surface like wriggling worms.
Apep whirled, flinging both of his hands outward with so much force that a sonic boom ripped through the air, the shockwave enough to throw me off my feet. Darkness exploded from his palms, slamming into the sun god full force and flinging him backward. He didn’t go very far, but he didn’t have to go far.
Ra struck the portal, and with a flash of light, he and the staff vanished completely. The portal disappeared a moment later.
“And so begins my reign.” Apep smiled, turning his serpentine eyes on me. “You performed your part perfectly, Lucas.”
I looked out and spotted Khufu’s body, still leaking fluid onto the stone. I turned and stared at the spot where Sekhmet had vanished and felt anger fill me. Apep had defeated all of us without even trying, and what’s worse, Aziza was looking at me like she still expected me to do something. And, more than anything, I wanted to do something.
“Luke, we should go …” my wolf pleaded in my ear. “We must return to our people … You must be ready before the Destroyer awakens …”
“We can’t leave it like this …” I replied as a burst of anger surged through me. I was suddenly so angry I couldn’t see straight. “This will not stand. This cannot stand.”
My wolf looked at me for a long time before licking its lips. “That is true,” he said. “Apep should be punished.” I felt a surge of power rise in me as I settled my eyes on Apep.
“I’m not going anywhere, Apep.” I took a step toward him. “Your reign doesn’t start today. It ends today.”
“You still wish to fight? Interesting. Perhaps, I have misjudged you.” He nodded once. “Then again, it is easy to say that when you have no way home. What if you did? What if I still offered to send you back?” Apep waved a hand, and another portal popped into existence a few feet in front of Aziza. “That will take you home, Luke. No harm, no foul. Memories one hundred percent intact.” He grinned. “Hell, you can take the priestess with you.”
“Okay,” I said and took a deep breath. I walked up to the portal so that I was standing next to Aziza.
“Luke,” she said, her face full of anger as the ropes binding her melted away. “I don’t blame you for leaving, but I can’t go with you … I have to find a way to stop him…”
She looked up at me, eyes rimmed with tears. One dripped down her cheek and spattered on the floor. I followed it with my eyes and looked up at her.
I leaned in close and hugged her, and as she hugged me back, I whispered in her ear. “I would never leave you to face him alone, Aziza.” I reached out toward the portal behind her and could feel its power, but what’s more, I could feel the very fabric of time, the very essence of what is, was, and would be. And somehow, someway, it was mine for the taking.
“Really?” she asked, and her voice was choked and hoarse.
“Yes.” I nodded right before I seized all the power I could and whirled around, flinging it at Apep.
The portal shattered, distorting the space it had once occupied as a blast of energy leaped from my outstretched fingers. It slammed into Apep’s chest, flinging him backward against the far wall with so much force his body exploded like a bag of black paint.
The whole of the world seemed to slow down then, and for one blissful moment, the world was quiet, and while I knew it wasn’t over for good, I knew one thing. Apep hadn’t seen that coming. Not by a longshot.
Then Aziza threw her arms around me and hugged me as tightly as she could.
35
“You didn’t think that’s how I would die, did you?” Khufu asked. His voice startled me so much, I nearly blasted him into a puddle. Thankfully, I didn’t. That might have been bad. Or it wouldn’t have been. I wasn’t exactly sure what would happen if I blasted the mummy since apparently getting his head popped off did nothing.
I spun to see Khufu standing there with his stupid toothy grin on his face. His body was spattered with gore, but his head was attached, and honestly, he didn’t look like a guy who had just gotten decapitated.
“How?” I asked, still staring at him. He smirked and cracked his neck. The sound seemed very loud in the nearly empty throne room.
“I’m already dead,” he replied, waving his hand dismissively. “I know, I look pretty good for a dead guy, right? Also, sorry about locking you in the frost room with an ancient dragon, but I had to give you a chance to get the staff while I kept Imhotep busy. I’d have told you the plan, but honestly, would you have listened?”
“Probably not,” I said, annoyed that he had played me like a fiddle. Still, it was hard to be annoyed at him because it did seem to fit his personality. Besides, he’d had my back, and that was what was most important.
“See, I knew you’d see things my way.” He moved between Aziza and me. Throwing his arms around our shoulders, he began leading us toward what seemed like an exit. I hoped it was a considerably shorter journey out of here. “Which is why I’m just going to assume you’ve forgiven me.”
“Is that so?” I asked. “How do you know I won’t kill you where you stand? I’m a werewolf, we’re prone to fits of rage like that.”
“First, you need my help to find where Sekhmet took Imhotep. Secondly, I have this.” He opened his free hand to reveal an amethyst scarab pendant exactly like the one that was the sour
ce of Aziza’s powers. “Consider it a peace offering.”
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked, my eyes going wide.
“Yep, I took it a while ago in case your priestess here got some stupid idea into her head and tried to betray us.” He nodded, his grin growing even wider. “I have sticky fingers, it seems. That’s also why I hid mine in a place no one will ever find it.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I want you to have it back, Aziza. Consider it an apology gift for thinking you might be working with Apep.”
“You want me to have my own pendant?” Aziza growled as she took the pendant from him. “After you stole it because you thought I was a traitor?” She began checking it over, but after finding nothing of note, she slipped it back around her neck.
“If I say I feel bad, will you believe me?” Khufu asked, raising one bushy eyebrow at me.
“Not really.” I shrugged. “You don’t exactly seem like the most empathetic type.”
“I thought not,” he replied. “Just remember that I don’t really care what you think, Luke.” He smirked at me again before turning his attention to Aziza. “Nor you.”
I didn’t reply, which was rude, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the amethyst scarab hanging around Aziza’s neck. The light had already returned to it, making it glow with life and power. Now that she had it, I felt a lot better.
“So, I guess we go find Sekhmet and then find wherever Apep went to lick his wounds, eh?” I said, looking from Aziza to Khufu and back.
“Yeah, we should probably find your girlfriend,” Khufu agreed. “I’d hate for you to miss out on the chance to hit that.”
“Why do you keep calling her my girlfriend?” I asked, glancing up at him.
“Luke, haven’t you seen the way she looks at you?” Aziza said with a smirk as she gestured to Khufu. “She sure as hell didn’t look at him like that.” She nodded. “Safe to say she likes you.” Yes, she actually drew out the word like.
King of the Gods Page 20