Nephthys had been afraid to ask about the baby, keeping her questions isolated to her twin.
She sank to the floor. This couldn’t be happening, not to Isis and Osiris. Few creatures, save monsters, would deserve this fate. Monsters, yes, that’s who’d done this to her sister, ripped her heart out by taking away her mate and child and nearly stealing her life. Even now, Isis could still die.
Serqet knelt beside Nephthys and held one of her hands. “You’re death to Isis’s life. Night to her day. Decay to the sun dragon’s growth. Don’t forget who you are and what you can do for your sister. There’s nothing any of us can do to help Isis hurt less once she awakens and learns the horrible truth. She’ll be in pain and mourning for a long time. But today, together, as sister dragons, we can take care of her mate in death.”
Two warm, reassuring hands touched her shoulders. Aset.
“Makara will want to bury her son. You can give that to her. But Isis, once she’s well, she’ll take care of his spirit. Your twin needs you, moon dragon, more than she ever has before.”
Her friends were right. Whether she liked it or not, she had to finish what she started. Nephthys stood.
“I’ll stay here and watch over Osiris’s remains.”
She appreciated Hathor’s offer. Someone did need to stay behind. Right now, the Tyets and Nephthys were the only ones who knew about Osiris. She would need to relay the news to Nut soon, but not until they’d found every piece of the rock dragon.
They could have an enemy in their midst. A member of any of the other clans could’ve orchestrated last night’s attack on Isis and Osiris. Considering they didn’t know who they could trust beyond the Philae and Ombos clans, Nephthys wouldn’t take any chances.
“We’ll need canopic jars for his internal organs.” Hathor rose. “Limestone would be best.”
This was really happening. They were going to store and preserve Osiris’s viscera in canopic jars just as the ancient Egyptians had done during the mummification process. They were dragons so the process would differ. The purpose wouldn’t be to prepare Osiris’s body for the afterlife.
In human form, very little distinguished Nephthys from Isis. They could, and had, passed for each other. As dragons, they couldn’t be more dissimilar, from size to color to magical ability. They were, literally, opposite ends of the metaphysical and corporeal spectrum of life and death.
While it wasn’t rare for humans to have multiple births, twins were unheard of among dragonkind. To date, Nut was the only dragon to lay two eggs at the same time, making Isis and Nephthys the first and only twin dragons.
When Nephthys, Merit, Serqet, and Aset left the wine cellar, she’d had no idea their search for Osiris would take a week and them all over the world, including Cairo, Egypt, and into the murky depths of the Nile River. The moon dragon had dived into the ancient water, swimming deep and finding what she sought.
Osiris’s body had been butchered into fourteen pieces and cast to every corner of the earth. If not for Nephthys’s otherworldly power, Osiris would’ve been lost to the cruel ether of murder and sin.
Missed and missing.
Every day Nephthys would stay with Isis, normally with Nut sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed or one or more of the Tyets holding up a wall. Funny how peaceful slumber could mask the appearance of a coma. Isis was never left alone, even when the clans gathered to lay Osiris to rest. Makara was inconsolable and Set quiet and gloomy.
The day of the funeral, Nut had left Bek and Lateef with Isis, one inside the room, the other on guard at the door. They were the same border guard ice dragons who’d helped Nut stall the demons who tried to prevent them from escaping Nebty.
Fourteen pieces of Osiris and fourteen days of stillness from Isis, who hovered perilously close to the slippery edge of death. Dragons were long-lived, despite what happened to Osiris. Not much, in either realm, could harm, no less kill them. At a century, Nephthys was a young dragon with many centuries before her. Yet, she knew, on the fourteenth day of Isis’s coma, when her sister had awakened, that the soul-deep ache in her heart would never be rivaled by what she saw and heard.
Following the tide of bodies, the Tyets, Nut, Makara, Set, and Nephthys squeezed into Isis’s recovery room. She’d opened her eyes thirty minutes ago. The human doctor examined her vitals and asked Isis questions, not pleased with the number of dragons in the room but unable to do a damn thing about it.
Isis didn’t answer a single question posed by the doctor. Her eyes shifted, frantically, around the room, looking from one face to another and then back again. With each circuit, the more agitated Isis became until she began to shake, first her head and then her entire body.
“Where is he?” she screamed, searching each of their faces again and not finding the one she wanted. “Where’s Osiris?” The same question came out as a high-pitched dragon wail that had the doctor and nurse slamming hands over their ears and stepping away from Isis.
“Mother. Mother.” Before Isis’s frantic cry for Nut reached a crescendo that would leave the humans deaf, Nut rushed to Isis’s side and took her in her arms.
The humans slipped from the room, which was for the best. When Isis’s shaking didn’t stop, and she began to hyperventilate, Set excused himself. Nephthys understood, but Osiris’s younger brother had always had a weak stomach.
“Where’s Osiris? Tell me, where is he?”
“Not now, Isis,” Nut soothed. Stroking braided hair and damp face, Nut tried, in vain, to calm the sun dragon.
Isis sucked in deep breaths as if there wasn’t enough air to breathe. Tears were endless, and her body jolted as if a thousand volts of electricity surged through her.
Aset and Hathor helped Nut hold Isis down, when she began to thrash in earnest.
Nephthys hadn’t moved from her spot on the right side of the room. She’d never seen Isis out of control. Witnessing the emotional disintegration of her twin turned her insides to acid, so painful was it to watch Isis’s profound grief.
Nut’s lack of response was answer enough. Isis knew, even if none of her family had been strong enough to give voice to the truth. Her sister knew her mate was dead, which was why she thrashed and cried and bayed her grief.
Red scales with an undertone of blended rainbow colors began to pockmark her skin. Nephthys feared Isis would shift or grow too hot for anyone to restrain her. From the looks on the faces of the other dragons, they shared her concern. Not only could this room not contain Isis’s sun dragon, but her turbulent emotional state would also make her a danger to everyone.
An emotionally wrecked sun dragon would be like detonating hot plasma. The magnetic field alone, from the explosion, would damage anything within a five-mile radius. Worse, she didn’t think any of them, even combined, could stop Isis’s sun dragon without resorting to extreme violence.
“Isis, my hatchling, listen to me. I need you to calm down. Please, baby, calm down.”
Nut repeated her words. For a minute, when Isis stilled, Nephthys thought her mother had reached her sister. Hathor and Aset had even released the arms that restrained Isis. But when Isis’s hands flew to her childless stomach, Nephthys knew her mother had spoken without thought, her normal terms of endearment triggering Isis’s memory.
Frenetic fingers tore at the plain white gown Isis wore. Cotton shredded under nails that had lengthened into sharp, deadly points. Before anyone could stop her, Isis’s claws had left bloody marks across her abdomen in a hopeless search for a baby that no longer existed.
Nephthys thought there would be another round of bellowed questions about where the doctor had taken her hatchling, followed by a choked demand to have the baby brought to her. When Nephthys had heard her sister’s soul-drenched cry of agony over her deceased mate, she thought her heart incapable of breaking further.
But when Isis shifted onto her side, curled into a ball, and covered her face with her hands, Nephthys’s heart crumbled. Isis didn’t cry, shriek, or even whine. She jus
t laid there, face tucked to her knees and her tall, thin frame shivering as if she lay naked in a snowbank in the Arctic.
In a sense, Nephthys supposed Isis did. Her layers of love had been ripped away, leaving her bare and vulnerable to the harsh elements of life.
Through a curtain of tears, Nephthys watched Nut cover Isis’s prone body with a blanket. Aset and Hathor wore twin expressions of helplessness, while Merit and Serqet stared at Isis with empathy and devotion. Poor Makara had run from the room in tears, her own pain over losing her son as fresh as Isis’s.
Five hours later, with the Tyets and Nut gone, Nephthys stood in the same spot. Her mother had tried to convince Nephthys to return to the manor with her. She’d shaken her head, unable to speak or take her eyes off her sister.
Once alone with her twin, Nephthys removed her shoes and slid into bed beside a sleeping Isis. They’d shared a bedroom until the age of sixteen when Nut put her foot down about them being “too old to share the same space.” She’d tried, many times, to move one or the other to the room next door. But Nephthys had always balked, finding a reason to visit Isis at night.
Over the years, they’d learned that being twins didn’t mean always being together. But they were more than twins. Their connection was deeper and more complex than even Nut understood. Nephthys stared down at Isis, kissed her cheek and held her hand.
When the tears came, she let them fall. Silent and plentiful.
Valley of the Kings, Egypt
On the west bank of the Nile, opposite Luxor, or what the ancient Greeks referred to as Thebes and the ancient Egyptians, before them, called Waset, the rock dragon left large footprints between the dense limestone and the sedimentary rock, as he paced the cliffs in the valley. In this open space, despite the lateness of the hour, he felt exposed. However, he did relish being in the resting place of so many Egyptian pharaohs.
The tombs had long since been explored and excavated, grave robbers getting to the burial grounds long before archaeologists showed up, who were a different kind of tomb raider. Everyone wanted to touch greatness, but few had the power and will to be great. Humans, in their arrogant, little minds, thought themselves smarter and more capable than any other species. They dominated this realm: the land and air, animals and water, even each other. Humans didn’t even fear dragons, although they should have.
Nut’s weak leadership was to blame. She’d brokered treaties with governments the world over, when they’d taken up residence in the human realm. While the rock dragon didn’t know the details of the pacts, it wasn’t hard to figure out that Nut had agreed to too many dragon limitations. No one, especially not a pathetic species like humans, had a right to dictate terms to the mightiest beings of both realms.
Their wings always gave them away, no matter that they were much smaller than the wings of a dragon. Shifting to his right, the rock dragon watched as the demon glided to the ground, a smooth landing despite the iron hooks for feet. Long iron teeth, with a curve at the end, reminded him of hooks used to hang meat.
He’d seen recently, and up close, what those iron teeth and feet could do to the body of a dragon. The demons were like wolves, dangerous yet defeatable in small numbers but deadly as a pack. Even with his injured shoulder, the rock dragon could take down the demon with little effort.
But he’d learned, in the six months since this demon had broken into his home, cornering him in his living room and threatening to eat him if he didn’t “shut up and listen,” that demons rarely, if ever, hunted alone. The sound of their wings may have preceded them, but that was only because they used the distinctive sound to evoke fear in their prey. When prey couldn’t hear them coming that’s when demons were the most threatening.
Compared to his size, the seven-foot demon, who stared up at the rock dragon without an ounce of fear, looked nothing short of an ant in need of squashing. The rock dragon didn’t have a death wish, so he quelled the impulse. He knew he couldn’t trust King Sansabonsom and his demons, but the alliance had already proven fruitful. Yet, what they’d done to Osiris hadn’t been part of the plan. He may have wanted the dragon out of his way, but he’d never imagined the vicious fight between the rock dragon and the demon hordes.
Even now, days later, he couldn’t prevent the feeling of nausea that came over him when he remembered the brutal scene. It wasn’t until a group of demons had swarmed Osiris, their ferocious iron teeth going for his massive wings and attacking like sharks that scented blood, that the rock dragon began to lose the fight. Once the first wing was bitten away, a macabre battle that left many demons dead, Osiris was at a grave disadvantage.
Even with his broken shoulder, he could’ve intervened, fought by Osiris’s side. But there had been no going back after his betrayal. He couldn’t allow Osiris to return home with news of his treachery. So, he’d hovered in the sky and did nothing when the second demon horde converged on Osiris.
When they’d sliced the rock dragon’s head in two, he’d closed his eyes and flown away. Becoming king was nasty business and not for the faint of heart. He had much heart, which the dragon nation would soon discover.
“Isis is alive, and you didn’t get the scepters.”
The demon snorted, his burnished face set in a sneer and arms crossed over his naked chest. On this night, they’d come in their natural form. This wasn’t the time or place to act the role of human.
“I used the gun like you asked. She didn’t really see me. She was so scared, I doubt if the sun dragon knew I was a demon. Does she know?” The demon lifted into the air, stopping when his tiny form was level with the rock dragon’s eyes. “Has she mentioned a demon?”
He’d been one of many dragons at the hospital that night. The Philae clan, as usual, shared little beyond their tight-knit group. One thing was certain, though, if Nut knew a demon had almost killed her spoiled daughter, King Sansabonsom would have an enraged sky dragon, quite literally, breathing down his neck.
“She just woke up from a coma.”
“Should I go back and finish the job?”
“You’d be a fool to risk it. We got lucky that night. I was in the right place at the right time. We won’t be that lucky again. Unless your king wants an all-out war with the dragons, I suggest you stay far away from Isis and the Philae Manor.”
“My king wants the scepters.”
“I know. I’ll find them. But I must be careful. They trust me, so I can get into the manor and search for the scepters.”
Hell, if he were lucky, he’d get Nephthys drunk, and she’d tell him everything he wanted to know. The dragon, since Isis’s near-death, walked around DIG like a damn zombie. The twins, as far as he was concerned, were too damn close. It wasn’t natural for sisters, even twins, to rely so much on each other for their happiness. Yeah, maybe he’d ask her out for a drink.
“Fine. Do you have the king’s payment for my work?”
“You didn’t finish the job.”
“And you needed demon help with Osiris. I’ll call us even. Where’s the payment?”
He had the monster’s damn payment. It had been a pain in the ass, and on the ears to acquire, but he’d managed.
With his snout, the rock dragon gestured to the Theban Hills, a pyramid-shaped structure to his right. “Up there.” He waited for the demon to fly to the peak of the ancient hill, which didn’t take him long. A few minutes later, the demon was back, part of the payment in his clawed hand. “What’s with the frown?”
He shook the payment at him, and he still didn’t see the problem.
“It’s dead. They’re all dead.”
Despite his apparent dissatisfaction with the payment, the demon bit into what he had in his hand. Even as a dragon, who ate raw meat, the sight of the snacking demon turned his stomach.
“Fresh and warm is better than cold and dead.”
“Do you have any idea how loudly children cry or how hard it is to steal them without getting caught?”
The demon took another bite, devouring
the baby’s head and crunching.
“Next time, fresh and warm. We demons don’t mind the crying. It makes for great pre-dinner music.”
Shoving the rest of the baby in his mouth, the demon finished off his meal, smacking and licking his lips the entire time.
The rock dragon assumed cold and dead couldn’t be all that bad, considering how fast the demon had downed the child.
“Once I’m King of Nebty, your king will have an entire realm of fresh and warm human children. Humans procreate nearly as much as demons.” Everyone knew that’s how the demons defeated Geb. They had overwhelming numbers on their side. Other than eating, demons must spend their time screwing and having babies to add to their hordes. “With the scepters, no dragon, not even Nut, will be able to stop King Sansabonsom from using this realm as the demons’ personal buffet.”
He couldn’t give a damn about this realm and its children. Once he and his clan were back on Nebty and the rock dragon installed as king, he would deal with the Demon Kingdom. But first, he needed to find the scepters.
Nut eased from under the comforter and slid out of bed. Foregoing slippers and a robe, she made her way to her bedroom door and opened it a crack. It was enough for Nut to see a glow of light from under Isis's door.
She opened the door wider, took a single step into the dimly lit hallway, then stopped. Every atom in her body screamed for her to go to her daughter, to offer what comfort she could and to cradle Isis in her arms as if she were still a tiny hatchling. Nut didn't give into the yearning. Instead, she stepped back into her room and closed the door, feeling helpless.
The sky dragon paced, as she did most nights after bringing Isis home from the hospital. This may be the Philae Manor, Isis’s childhood home, but Nut owned other properties, as did her daughter. Isis could’ve elected to stay in any number of family-owned dwellings, in the United States or abroad. Hell, even a hotel. But no, she’d wanted to return to the manor and refused to listen to reason when Nut, as gently as she could, questioned the soundness of staying in the place where she’d been attacked, no matter that it was her home.
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