Soul Reborn (Key to the Cursed Book 1)

by Jean Murray

  “Man, we’re fucking screwed. What happens when he finds out Dad opened the tomb and unleashed all of this? Huh, what then? You think he has it bad for this goddess—wait until he finds out the girl he slept with is partly responsible for causing his curse. Oh shit, we’re in trouble.”

  Lilly cringed. Little did Kit know, it was even worse. Only two people truly knew who opened the tomb —the individual who released the goddess, and the redheaded goddess herself. She wanted to take care of Kepi before the truth got out. And more importantly, pay a debt of conscience by getting the heart and gate key back to the man she had fallen in love with.

  “That’s why we have to do this,” she said to Kit. “We owe him and all the humans affected by this curse. We need to make things right again.”

  Kit growled and stalked off several steps.

  “Fuck, Lilly. Just… fuck.”

  Kit’s shoulders rose and fell before expelling another curse. Despite this, Lilly knew her sister’s sense of duty would prevail. Kit returned to the van and grabbed her sword. “Well, for all the trouble we’re gonna get into, please tell me he was good in bed.”

  Her sister always had a way of lightening the mood. Lilly tried to suppress her smile. “Very good.”

  “He better be because this is going to fuck all of us over in the end.” Kit jogged off to place her charges, leaving Lilly and Kendra at the vehicle.

  Lilly sighed and turned back to Kendra. “I’m sorry to get you involved with this. If I could avoid it, I would.”

  Kendra smiled and tilted her head. “You love him, don’t you?”

  Lilly looked down at her boots and kicked at the loose pavement. “I’ve never felt this connection with someone before. It’s so strange. I can’t quite explain it.”

  “Well, if it is any consolation, Asar was one of Dad’s favorite deities. Second only to Mut, the Mother Goddess. His notebook is filled with references of her.”

  Kendra grabbed Lilly by the hand. “I know you promised Dad to find a cure, but don’t do it at your expense. Mother has only kept him alive because she needs us. He’s her bargaining chip. I want to find this cure as much as you do, but it’s stupid to take unnecessary risks when we need more information. We are fighting more than revens here. We have no idea what power this goddess has. Asar may be able to help us.”

  Lilly shook her head. Kendra’s words left a sour taste in her mouth. Her baby sister had grown up into an intelligent woman. Despite her unwillingness to admit it, her sisters were right. In over their heads, they needed his help. Although facing Asar topped the list of least favorite options next to death, Lilly nodded and radioed Kit to let her know she needed to talk to the Underworld gods before they proceeded.

  Kit positioned herself opposite Kamen with her arms crossed over her weapon. Lilly focused on the dirt floor while Kendra showed Asar the ceremonial knife and ancient prayer Nebt gave them. She didn’t have to look at him to know he was furious. The temperature in the room dropped several degrees. Kamen’s posture stiffened, his gaze locked onto Lilly.

  “Leave us.”

  Asar’s stern voice resonated in the small room. Kamen and Kendra exited immediately, but Kit lingered for a moment before complying with his command. The wake of frigid air hit Lilly’s body. She straightened, but couldn’t gather the strength to meet his gaze. Finally, she sighed and looked up into his vacant black eyes.

  “Please don’t be angry with Nebt. She did it at my request.” Lilly heard his teeth grind together. “This may be our best chance to obtain both the key and your soul.”

  “Why would you do this? Our bargain was only for you to obtain the gate key, nothing else.”

  She couldn’t hide her irritation. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

  “You would risk your life to do the right thing for me, someone who owns you like a slave?”

  She flinched at his words, but didn’t back down. “Yes. Why do you find that so hard to believe?”

  “No one does anything for selfless reasons. There is always a motivation behind it,” he growled.

  Her anger flashed like light in the darkness. “If you want to hear I’m ensuring my sisters’ safety before I leave then fine, I’m being selfish. This carnage has to stop. If I can help you in the process, all the better. You may just be looking out for your gate key and your son, but I have my sisters to worry about, and I’m not going to leave them to fight this on their own.”

  “This is my war. I will not have you sacrifice yourself for it.”

  She turned away from him to hide her expression of guilt. “It is our war. I need to do my part to make things right.” Despite her efforts, her voice broke. Her neck tingled with the gentle and unexpected brush of his cold fingers.

  “Lilly,” Asar whispered against her skin before he backed away. “Why does this pain run so deep within you?”

  She took a deep breath before turning to face him. “We really don’t have time to get into my psychological underpinnings. In the end, it won’t change what happened and continues to happen. It’s not important.”

  He strode toward her. “Gods damn it. Answer me!”

  She started to speak and then stopped, frantically searching for the words to dissuade his line of questioning. God, she wanted to tell him everything. She wanted him to understand and forgive her. She needed forgiveness so badly, it hurt. A goddess already betrayed him. She couldn’t take him hating her too. He wanted an answer, so she told a partial truth.

  “I told you my father was dead.” She rubbed her forehead in agitation. “He is a reven. I promised him I would find the cure.”

  “He still exists in reven form?”

  She nodded and leaned against the dirt wall. “He has been in special confinement at the Nehebkau fortress for five years.”

  “Five years? That is a very long time for a reven to exist.”

  “Mother keeps him alive as long as I serve the Nehebkau.” She met his black eyes, praying he couldn’t see the rest of the story.

  Asar wasn’t the only one who’d staked claim to her. The threat to kill her father motivated Lilly to keep serving Mother. Not to mention her own emotional slavery to her father in the form of her promise.

  He remained quiet for several moments. “If we proceed with this, Lilly, we do it on my terms. I need your total and utter compliance with my commands. You must trust me, and do as I say.” He lifted her chin, forcing her to look him straight in the eyes. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes, just tell me what you want us to do.”

  She swiped away the beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Her whole body felt like it was on fire. Her leather uniform stuck uncomfortably to her damp skin. It had never been an issue before. Always cool and centered before a fight, she rarely broke a sweat. Today, her skin prickled under the warmth of a five alarm fire. She ignored the uncomfortable sensation as best she could in favor of the mission.

  Instead of answering her, he kissed her lightly before the burn of her lips made him pull away. It was much shorter than she would have liked.

  “Just stay alive. Kamen and I will hold off the revens. I will need your and Kit’s help to restrain Kepi. Kendra must not touch her or she will suffer the same fate as your father.”

  Her chest ached with the thought of Kendra getting hurt. Or worse, turning into a reven. Swallowing back bile, she nodded. “You’ll protect Kendra, if things go bad. Please tell me you’ll protect her.”

  “She will be under Kamen’s watch. He will not let her be harmed.”

  When he turned to leave, she gently grabbed his arm. He flinched and yanked his arm from her grasp. His skin blistered instantly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

  “I’m fine. Is there something else?”

  “I think the key is hidden inside her body. She would want to keep it close and tucked away.”

  Asar bared his teeth. “It would be so like the odjit to keep the key wrapped around my dead heart.”

  Lilly gripped the hilt
of her sword. She was about to face her one and only chance to reclaim the key that would close the gates. And more importantly, the heart of a god she intended to capture and keep her herself.

  If she could keep Kepi silent, she just might get out of this alive.

  CHAPTER eighteen

  Lilly led the group down the long metal steps into the warehouse’s basement. Asar followed with Kendra in the middle of him and Kamen. Kit brought up the rear.

  Steam pipes ran the length of the ceiling and walls, leaving plenty of places for revens to hide. The protective light outside would not shield their group inside the building. Lilly shook her head at the thought of how many abandoned buildings—deemed too costly to destroy—still existed within the city, even though it was well known revens flourished in these havens. Stupid politicians. If they lived one day in her boots, they would blow these things up in a second. But no, they sat behind their secured buildings with personal body guards, unlike the rest of the world.

  The usual heat of conversion spread down her already feverish body as they descended down into the home of the damned. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness. The Underworld gods controlled the revens for extermination. The bodies dropped with a clank against the metal grated floor, leaving their group to travel through the long, dark corridors with little threat to their lives.

  The whispers echoed in Lilly’s head. The voices, louder and more urgent.

  She diverted the group’s course to avoid several large pockets of revens. The nest was much larger than expected—no doubt Rebecca’s faulty intel. She hissed under her breath. The bitch should be fired for incompetency.

  Now sweating profusely, she wiped a hand across her face. The humidity in the tight quarters didn’t help. The space narrowed allowing only one person to pass at a time. Lilly stopped to switch out her katana in favor of two short bladed swords. Turning to Asar, she whispered, “There is no way these revens were created recently. Some show signs of advance decay. Any possibility the goddess is bringing them in from other locations?”

  “It is possible to control them over great distances, especially if they have been imprinted on a master.” He held his hand out to deflect another reven which Kit decisively terminated.

  “Are you doing okay, Kendra?” Lilly leaned around Asar. Her knuckles white with fear, her little sister clenched the loose fabric of Asar’s tunic.

  “Yeah, fine.” Kendra croaked. “Are you okay? Your face is all red.”

  “I’m fine. We need to push on.” Brushing off her sister’s concern, she peered around the corner to where a pair of revens fed off an animal carcass. At least, she hoped it was an animal. Their heads flashed up, sensing Lilly’s heat signature, and began to hobble down the metal grated floor to her location. Positioning her blades to kill, she stepped around the corner ready to strike, but the revens stopped their progress. They stood motionless for a moment, then turned and walked the other direction, passing their last meal without even a glance.

  She looked over her shoulder into Asar’s black eyes. He shook his head. She stiffened, detecting more movement to her right. Half a dozen revens walked by without even looking.

  Kit stepped in front of Kendra to prevent any contact. “Something’s happening. Why would they be all going to the same direction?”

  “There is only one way to find out. Time to join the party.”

  Lilly followed the last group of revens until she reached a traffic jam of undead bodies trying to push their way into a large room.

  Asar pointed to the second story gang plank. She nodded and reached for the steel beam, but a cold hand touched her shoulder and, in a flash, the whole group stood on the next level. The Underworld god smirked.

  “Must be nice,” Lilly muttered under her breath.

  She found a window that looked down on the large room where the revens had gathered, and cataloged the layout and exits. Two steel tables in the center of the room encircled by approximately five hundred revens. The one on the left had a female with black hair strapped to its shiny surface. Her whimpers carried up to their level. Lilly motioned to Kendra to come forward. Her sister took a quick look and squatted down.

  Her brown eyes ebbed with a mix of horror and fascination. “The goddess is taking on a new body. They will transfer Asar’s heart from her old body to the new one.”

  “When the heart is out we move,” Lilly said to the group.

  Kendra swallowed and her face paled. “Lilly, the woman down there will have to have her heart cut out of her chest while she is alive. The heart will still be beating when he pulls it out. Only when the woman’s heart is removed will the reven open the goddess’ chest.”

  Lilly’s stomach churned and sweat broke out on her lip. Kit swore under breath. The only two showing no concern were the deities. Asar scowled. “The plan does not change. We go when the heart and key are out.”

  Lilly wiped her hand across her hot face again and glared at him. “Hell, Asar. A woman is going to die down there, and we’re going to hear her screaming.”

  Sweat stung her eyes, but she looked to her sisters for consensus. Kit nodded. Kendra put her hands over her ears. “Shit.”

  She crouched next to Asar in front of the window but had to look away when the reven raised the knife in the air. Asar’s dark gaze shifted to the ceremony. As the victim’s screams filled the air, Lilly’s entire body began to shake in protest. It took all her strength to hold her position and not dive in the fight too soon.

  Asar examined her a moment. She thought she caught a flicker of sympathy in his eyes, but it was so fleeting she might have imagined it. She put a hand on Kendra’s shoulder. Tears streamed down her young sister’s face, dribbling over the fist she’d stuffed into her mouth.

  Finally, the screams ceased, and the reven put the young woman’s heart into an organ jar. He turned to the goddess’ body and made an incision into her left chest. Lilly’s mouth gapped open upon seeing the black heart pulled out of Kepi’s chest. She glanced at Asar, who fixated on it. The priest placed it in the jar and turned back to the chest cavity. He reached in and pulled out the key.

  Lilly gasped half a second before Asar transported them exactly between the two tables. She nailed the reven in the chest, shredding its heart where it stood. Before the body hit the floor she ripped the key from its hands. On either side Asar and Kamen controlled the swarm of revens. Kit transferred the black heart to the container they had obtained from the goddess during the previous mission. Kendra started to recite the binding spell. Lilly’s sense of relief fled quickly when the revens pushed inward, overpowering the two gods. Despite her inanimate body lying on the table the goddess commanded her army to attack.

  “Hurry up, Kendra.” Lilly jumped up on the table over the goddess and killed several revens. Kit stood over the recently deceased woman, creating a circle around their young sister.

  Kendra finished the prayer. She yelled over the feral hollers of the revens. “Did it work?”

  As Lilly looked over her shoulder, the goddess lurched up, grabbed her legs, and shifted her off balance. Her body crashed down on top of Kepi. The revens grabbed her arms. “Asar!”

  He swung around, grabbed the goddess by the throat and slammed her down onto the metal table. Lilly kicked at her and the revens trying to release their grip on her. Finally, she rolled off the table and grabbed Kendra. “Kamen, get my sisters out of here.” He nodded and they dematerialized.

  The room started to spin and Lilly’s vision dimmed. She blindly swiped her blade in the air hitting anything that moved. Grabbing on to the table to balance herself, she called out, “Asar!”

  He turned in time to catch her fall. “Lilly!”

  She struggled to hold onto her senses and not pass out right in his arms. Breathless, she grabbed onto his tunic to steady herself. “Move your hand.”

  With darkness threatening to overtake her, she swung her blade one last time and severed the goddess’ neck. Disconnected from Kepi’s control, the re
vens’ attack faltered. A wave of dizziness slammed into her and buckled her legs. She plunged face first into Asar’s chest.

  He shifted her weight in his arms.

  The goddess’ head rolled off the table and hit the floor with a crack. Unexpectedly, the deceased black-headed female snapped her restraints and reared up off the second table. She reached for Lilly’s arm.

  Lilly tried to scream, but the terror stagnated in her throat from the fire burning her from within. Tears trickled down her cheeks. The distant echoes of Asar’s voice bounced in her head.

  Landing in the basement of the museum, she immediately emptied her stomach contents in one long, protracted retch. She rolled onto the cold floor clutching her stomach and gasping for breath. Fire raced through her veins and throughout her body.

  She inhaled sharply when Asar placed his ice cold hand on her head. He pulled it back quickly and shook it.

  Kit’s black hair waved over her. “Get Kendra out of here. I have to get Lilly back to the fortress and put into quarantine.”

  In the flurry of flashes in her vision, Lilly heard the distant rip of leather and the tugging on her lower extremities. Kit stripped her down to her panties. The strong smell of smoke and fire filled the room as her clothes burned in the old fireplace.

  Her sister pulled her hair back from her sweat drenched chest. “What the hell is this?” Kit growled. Asar’s mark of ownership was now fully revealed. “Mother fucker, what did you do to my sister?”

  Lilly tried to speak but every breath hurt. She needed to explain to her sister why she had given herself to Asar. And by doing so, she fell in love with a god. She had given more than her body, she gave him her heart. Kit’s voice trailed off in the distance.

  “Lilly, do not leave me now. Not now,” Asar whispered close to her ear.

  “Get away from her. It’s because of you she’s in this mess.” Kit hissed and pulled Lilly away from him. “Nehebkau’s medical team will be here shortly. You have your key and fucking heart. Shut the damn gate!”

  “What is wrong with her?” Asar demanded. “She should be immune to the curse.”