Reignited Page 7

  Wrenching her toward the wooden rail, Seth forced her to watch as he unmade the creature she’d become so recently enamored with. “No. Please!” she cried, and stretched out her hand just as it disappeared.

  When she collapsed in a heap at his feet, sobbing, a surge of pleasure ran through him. Seth crouched down next to her and lifted a fingertip to her wet cheek. He rubbed a tear between his fingers and the corner of his mouth lifted. He enjoyed seeing the glorious goddess reduced to a weeping supplicant.

  “Perhaps you need just a bit more convincing,” he said. Closing his eyes, he stretched his power further than he ever had before, testing the boundaries of his ability and unmade every single one of the strange little creatures that Isis adored. They winked out of existence in every dark corner of the cosmos.

  Then something interesting happened. The life energy of hundreds of thousands of creatures entered his being at once. The feeling was so overwhelming, so utterly shocking, that he couldn’t absorb it immediately. In his mind the screams of countless innocent creatures railed upon him as he stole their life essence. His head throbbed worse than it ever had before.

  The unmaking he’d done in the past had been disturbing, but the suffering was usually so brief he could easily ignore the twinge of guilt that came with it. This time he had to look at what he’d done with an all-seeing eye, and what he saw made him tremble. He clutched his hair and pulled.

  Then, though it felt like an eternity, the pangs of death passed through him. The pain subsided, and he realized the effects had lasted just a few seconds. When it was gone, the power of all the lives he’d ripped away filled him, effectively snuffing out the waves of guilt that threatened to bring him to his knees. The raw power was unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

  Seth was stronger. Bigger. His eyesight had improved a hundredfold. And he was hungry. His body shook with new energy, and then he began to transform. One moment he was himself, and the next his body had become one of the very creatures he’d blinked out of existence.

  The effect was disturbing, but it was also very, very interesting. After a terrifying moment where he was trapped in the body of the creature he’d unmade, wondering if it was the cosmic punishment for his actions, he shifted back into his normal state. It had happened so quickly that Isis hadn’t even noticed.

  Her wings had curled around her body, shielding herself from his view. Seth flexed his fingers and ran a hand over his ears. In his mind he could still sense the long ears of the creature and feel the air as it passed over the sensitive hairs on the insides of them. He imagined the stench of the creature still permeating his skin, and he longed to immerse his body in a warm pool and scrub the memory of it from his flesh.

  But almost immediately he wondered if he could transform into the creature again. If he retained such an ability because he’d made the animal extinct, could he not do it again, with a different species? Impatient to practice this newfound power and make a list of potential animals to test, Seth rose.

  “What have you done?” Isis whispered from the shadow of her wings, still fixating on the one animal when so much more had happened in such a short period of time. When Seth didn’t immediately answer, Isis lifted her tearstained face to look at him, praying he hadn’t done something horrible to Osiris or her sister.

  “Oh, that.” Seth had long since moved on and was ready to quit the tiresome conversation. “I’ve unmade every single one of those creatures. You’ll never come across one again. They’re now extinct.”

  Isis’s mouth dropped open in silent shock. Her body shuddered. Her wings quivered and Seth lifted an eyebrow, wondering if this was the moment she’d fight back. But then her jaw trembled and she tucked her head beneath her wings again. What a delight to twist the emotions of the great goddess Isis beneath his thumb.

  Seth boldly took hold of one of her soft wings and tugged, brutally exposing her face. “I’ll leave you alone now to ponder your choices, Isis. See that you make the right decision. I expect you’ll come to it eventually.”

  Taking his leave of the stables, Seth crossed the barrier to the mortal realm, looking for the next animal species he could experiment on. Perhaps the next time he saw Isis, he’d be able to transform at will into a great cat or a bear or even a dragon. Imagining the myriad of ways he could torture Osiris and tame Isis to his will brought a delighted sneer to his face.

  Osiris found the weeping goddess a short time later. “Isis?” He knelt next to her. “Are you all right? What has happened?”

  “It’s Seth.” Isis reached out and took hold of Osiris’s arm as she told him what had happened. Uncharacteristic rage filled the gentle-natured god. When she told Osiris that Seth had destroyed not only the sweet creature but every one of them that existed in the cosmos, Osiris’s hands shook. To stop them, he drew Isis up and into his arms.

  “It was called a typhon,” Osiris murmured as he stroked her hair.

  “And now they no longer exist,” Isis said. “You were right,” she admitted, blinking the tears from her eyes. “He desires me. Seth thinks he can rip my heart from my chest and keep it for his own just as he ripped his way out of his mother’s womb.”

  Osiris cupped her face in his hands. “He cannot take what you do not offer.”

  “His power is great and terrible,” Isis said. “You didn’t see it. And I worry that he—”

  “What is it?” he asked as she stepped away from him.

  Wanting to comfort her but not knowing how, he simply moved closer. She shifted her wing behind her, wrapping her arms around his waist, and laid her head on his shoulder. “I fear that he will try to unmake you.”

  Stiffening, Osiris asked, “Do you think he can do such a thing? Unmake a god?”

  “I don’t know. I only know that the possibility exists and that he intends to take me as his own. If he threatens to harm those I love, I’ll have no choice but to accept his terms.”

  “You will not!” Osiris stated abruptly, and when Isis’s eyes shot to his, he tried to calm himself. “You will not,” he said more gently. “I will not allow him to force you into such an arrangement. We’ll go to Amun-Ra.”

  “No.” She shook her head and stepped out of his embrace. “You know Amun-Ra. He’d come up with a wait-and-see strategy. Either that or he’ll just add more rules to his long list. Even if Amun-Ra wanted to do something about Seth, he might not be able to. Meanwhile, while we rest on our laurels, Seth will harm living creatures—plants, animals, even mortals. Do you want him to destroy your great rain forests? Your fields and your orchards?”

  Osiris sobered. “That must have been what happened to the nut trees.”

  “You mean the place we were together last night?” A chill shot ice through her veins. Had Seth been watching them?

  Osiris nodded. “It suddenly disappeared. Nothing in the entire area is growing. There isn’t a weed, a nut, or a worm to be seen in the whole place. What’s more, the ground is now infertile. Barren. Nothing will ever grow there again. Such power . . . it’s . . . it’s unimaginable. We’ve got to find a way to stop him.”

  “We do,” Isis agreed. “I won’t have him erase the people I love from existence.” The goddess bit her lip and then sucked in a breath, turning to Osiris. “Why did you summon me?”

  “What?”

  “Why did you summon me here? Was it to show me the animal, the typhon?”

  “Yes,” he answered automatically. Then seeing her crestfallen expression, he clapped a hand on the back of his neck and rubbed. “No.”

  Her eyes lifted. “Why, then? Tell me, Osiris.”

  “I . . . I did want to show you the animal, but it was just an excuse to get you to talk to me.” He glanced at her face but couldn’t read the thoughts behind her stormy eyes.

  “What did you want to talk about?” she asked pointedly.

  “Us.” He sighed.

  “Us?”

  Osiris settled his hands on her shoulders. The sparkle of a forgotten tear lingered on h
er sooty eyelash. He hoped he would never be the cause of her tears. Not ever again. Steeling himself, Osiris said, “You’ve shared your feelings openly with me and I haven’t been as forthcoming. But now I see that it would be wrong for me to deny you from knowing mine.”

  She sucked in a breath. “Then tell me, Osiris. How do you feel?”

  The way she looked at him was intoxicating. She was the perfect mix of power and vulnerability. He found he couldn’t resist touching her and cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb over the still shiny trails of her tears. “I told you I needed to think, and I did. All night. When you told me of your feelings before, it shook me. I’d never considered such a thing. But even as I tried to set thoughts of you aside, I found I couldn’t. Your face haunted me. And last night, when we kissed . . .”

  Isis shifted closer and Osiris took hold of her hands and brought them to his chest. “Yes?” she encouraged.

  “Last night I realized that in denying my feelings for you, I was denying myself happiness.”

  “Then are you saying—?”

  He pressed her hands flat against his chest. “I’m saying that I love you, Isis. That my heart beats for no one but you.”

  Isis found it difficult to breathe for a moment. Osiris stood before her declaring himself, and she couldn’t bring a single word to mind in response to his declaration.

  He squeezed her hands. “Isis? Did you hear me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “So . . . that’s it? You have nothing to say?” Osiris asked a bit nervously.

  She grinned. That she could make the handsome god uneasy gave her a tiny boost of joy. Isis slid her arms up around his neck and touched her lips to his in a brief kiss, delighting in the small shudder that ran through his body. “I love you, too,” she murmured against his mouth.

  Isis felt his smile but was soon lost in his passionate embrace. Each touch was a new discovery; each kiss she committed to memory. When his hands stroked the sensitive feathers on the insides of her wings, her body trembled with pleasure. She had longed to be held by this man. Now that she was finally in his arms, Isis recognized that her imagination had been sorely limited.

  Being able to express her love for Osiris and feel his love in return with every touch of his hand, every kiss, and the tender way he gazed upon her was a magic all its own. This was what she’d always desired—someone who would hold her heart as she held his. This fragile, new, and glorious thing they had discovered together was so precious to her, so perfect, that there was only one thing that could mar it—Seth.

  Pressing lightly against his chest, Isis broke the kiss. “Do you pledge your love to me and only me, then?” Isis asked.

  Her expression was intense, the colors in her eyes churning. It pained Osiris that she could still doubt him. “Yes,” he answered softly. “Whatever the consequences may be, and for as long as the cosmos allows our love to exist, I am yours, Isis, as you are mine.”

  Isis took his face in her hands. “Then, Osiris, let us make an unbreakable vow.”

  Chapter 5

  Husbandry

  “An unbreakable vow?” he echoed.

  “Yes. I’ve given the idea a great amount of thought.” Taking his hands, Isis pulled Osiris deeper into the stables and cast a spell to make sure they were truly alone. When she was satisfied, she explained, “You know that Amun-Ra sent Shu to separate Geb and Nut?”

  Osiris nodded. “She was his secret wife, but the stars exposed their relationship and Amun-Ra used the god of the wind to keep them apart.”

  “I will not have such a thing happen to us.”

  “How would we stop it?” he asked. “The stars are everywhere.”

  “That’s not exactly true. There is a rift in the heavens when the night succumbs to the day. If you stand in just the right spot, the stars are blind.”

  “Where? And why have I never heard of this?”

  “It is at the pinnacle of Mount Babel. I heard of it from my sister. Nephthys told me it is the only place she finds peace from her visions.”

  “But Babel is a forbidden place. The gods aren’t supposed to go there. It is an area of great confusion and contradiction. The harmony of the cosmos is fragmented in that location. How has she managed to remain sane?”

  Isis frowned. “She might not be. At least, not fully. Nephthys has been affected by it, I believe, but she suffers for her visions more than she shows, and I wouldn’t take away a thing that gives her comfort. I certainly wouldn’t betray her to Amun-Ra. Besides, I have been able to heal her mind when she returns. Mostly.” Isis shook off thoughts of her sister and focused again on their own problem. “Babel comes with its dangers, certainly, but that is exactly why it suits our purposes.”

  Osiris touched her face. “I’ll not lose you to the mountain’s madness,” he said softly.

  “You won’t. Even if we are lost, we will find one another.”

  “How can you be certain?”

  Isis waved her hand and two small vases appeared. One was a blue glazed faience with a silver feline head for a lid, and the second was carved alabaster with a golden cobra on top. Carefully, Isis removed the lids of the jars and circled her arms over them, murmuring a spell as she did so. “We will each hold a piece of the other’s heart. They will guide our steps until we find one another.”

  She placed her hand over her heart and closed her eyes. When she drew it back, a lovely amethyst heart scarab sat in her palm with wings made of gold pounded so thin they were almost transparent. She held it out to Osiris, who took it. He marveled at the luminous gem and traced his fingers lightly over its facets.

  As he did, he could feel the beat of her heart. It both soothed and frightened him. The idea that he could lose her—and what’s more, lose himself—scared him to the depths of his being. But more than anything, he wanted to prove himself worthy of her love and trust. The least he could do was trust her in return.

  With great care, Osiris placed her heart scarab in the alabaster vase and closed the lid. Then he murmured a spell of his own to seal it with the sap from a tree that was so sticky, he’d never found a thing in nature to dissolve it. When he was satisfied, he called forth his own heart scarab—a gleaming, golden diamond framed with shafts of ripened wheat stalks the color of sunshine instead of wings.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said as he handed it to her.

  It was such a strange sensation to have your heart seized by another. Besieged would be a better word, for Isis had surrounded him. Captured him, body and soul. As he stood there in the shadow of her wings, he perceived that he was her willing prisoner, he’d offered up his wrists to shackle himself, and yet he knew there was no place in the cosmos that could offer him such contentment.

  What they were doing was mad, impulsive. But wasn’t love a form of madness? For a fraction of a second, he wondered if perhaps the love he felt was a spell she’d cast upon him that caused him to leap where he would normally be cautious. Then he cast aside the notion. He was still the master of his own desires. Besides, even if Isis had bewitched him, he no longer cared.

  He’d seen the sickness of love in others before, but Osiris hadn’t understood it then, not fully. Now he recognized the condition in himself. Isis was an intoxicating flower and he was a helpless bee mesmerized by her. Now that he’d tasted her, he was dusted. Filled with her honeyed pollen. If the weight of it dragged him down so he drowned in her embrace, then he’d consider his life well spent.

  Isis was his purpose.

  Isis was his everything.

  All his life he’d been looking for her, and he hadn’t known it.

  Osiris watched Isis put his heart scarab into her own blue vase and seal it shut before turning to him. “We’ll need to be careful with Seth,” she said, pulling him from his thoughts. Isis walked away a few paces and then turned back. “It is nearly time for the swelling of the Nile. Am I correct?”

  “Yes. I oversee its rising so that the crops will grow. It’s still a little early
, but the time is at hand.”

  “Then this is what you will do. Go there today and raise the Nile, even if it is a bit early. Water unmakes and then makes anew. I will be able to channel this power into my spell. Besides, it will be a good omen.”

  When Osiris agreed that this could be accomplished, she continued, “When the sun sinks below the horizon, make your way to Mount Babel. Keep my heart with you at all times. I will use the hours ahead to traverse the skies, sweep our deeds into hidden corners, and prepare my spell. After the sun sets, I will go to Babel and seek you out. When we find one another on the mountain, we will hide in the dark shadows until the space between the night and the dawn, and after that nothing will be able to keep us apart.”

  Isis knew she was asking much of him, and yet there was no other way for the two of them to be together. In truth, she wasn’t sure if she could channel the power she’d need to cast such a potent spell. If he wavered in any way it wouldn’t work and she’d lose him in more ways than one. “Are you sure this is what you want, Osiris? Once we are bound, nothing can come between us. Even death. It is a weighty thing I ask of you. If you have doubts . . .”

  Osiris slid his hand up her neck and dipped down to kiss her lush lips, stopping her midsentence and hoping he was conveying the depth of his emotion in his embrace. He pulled her against his body and when she softened into him, the tension finally leaving her shoulders, he murmured, “I will take my leave of you now as we have planned, but until I see you again, know that this kiss is my secret vow. Let Seth move against us. Let the stars try to thwart us. Let Amun-Ra forbid us. We will unite by the force of our wills and the force of our desire, and slake our solitary souls in the light of our love for one another.”

  “And if I fail?” she asked softly.

  “It won’t matter,” Osiris answered as he stroked her hair. “Tonight my heart will be pierced with either terrible joy or terrific sorrow. Either way, it belongs to you.” With that, Osiris kissed her, his lips sealing his fervent promise.