“Were no relation to him whatsoever,” Anubis said.
“But he tried to have his own son killed!” I argued. “Why would he do that?”
“He didn’t know that Asten was his son.”
Seth said, “I beg to differ, you overstuffed ostrich. I did know. In the end it made no difference. I knew that once my little princes died, their energy would fill and sustain me. A son of my own body would fuel me even more so than the energy from Amon and Ahmose. But access to their energy was cut off from me before I could absorb it. Anubis and the others tricked me and trapped their life energies in canopic jars, turning the three boys into the Sons of Egypt.
“They then proceeded to lie to them, of course. The ceremony to align the sun, the moon, and the stars was never about keeping me imprisoned. It was about trapping their energy again and again before I could wrench it away. For this to happen, their deaths had to occur every one thousand years. This is why the boys live as mortals for a time, but only long enough, only long enough.”
“Is this true?” Ahmose asked.
Anubis ground his teeth. “It is,” he said. “But you must understand we had no choice. Deceiving you was the only way to prevent Seth from reaping the rewards of his efforts. If he had absorbed the power of your life energy, he would have become unstoppable.”
“You could have told us,” Amon said. “You could have hidden us, let us live. Love. Have lives.”
“Yes”—Anubis nodded wildly—“and then what would happen when Seth discovered you? Which he would have. With the snap of his fingers he could have raised a minion or an army to destroy you, and without me nearby to lock away your power, he would have seized it. This was the only way to control it. We limited the time of your exposure, keeping you alive only long enough to set back the clock for another millennium.”
“What about our powers, then?” Amon asked. “The birds? Why did you bestow gifts? Lend us your strength?”
“We had no choice,” Horus said. “You needed the gifts to recognize and battle Seth’s followers. And the birds?” he sighed. “The birds were a tether between your mortal frames and the heavens. They cloaked you, and they were a way for us to keep tabs on your whereabouts. You were protected by the glory of Amun-Ra. This is why Ahmose’s sacrifice of his crane was so grave. It made him weak, vulnerable to attack. Did you never wonder why you could not transform in the afterlife?”
“I…,” Amon began. “I assumed it was because the birds were locked away in the jars of death.”
“Yes. The birds were locked away along with your energy. Trapped for thousands of years,” Horus said sadly.
“I almost caught your bird, too,” Seth said. “The necromancer had it in his grasp. If it wasn’t for your lovely companion, all of this would have been over with a while ago. So now you know the truth. The gods turned my creations against me, deceived them and me, and locked me away in a prison. But here you are. Here you all are. It couldn’t be better if I had imagined it. Now all I have to do is sit back and let my sky-demons destroy you once and for all. Then I will absorb your energy and break free from these chains.
“Of course it would have been nicer if this had happened when I intended it to, but I am a patient man. And do you see what patience has brought me? There at my feet lie my traitorous wife and our pathetic leader, Amun-Ra. Osiris has been maimed beyond repair. Isis is at my side, and my little chicks have come back to the nest. Everything is as it should be. And I got a bonus, too. A lovely, most interesting kitty that I can chain to my throne. I’ll pet her and feed her if she’s a good girl, and I’ll kick her across the cosmos if she’s not. Either way, I’m sure to be entertained.”
I put my clenched fists on my waist. “I don’t think so,” I said. “First of all, we are no more a kitten than you are a dragonfly. Second, keep in mind that we took out the Devourer and the Sebak. To my way of thinking, the score is two to zero. Looks more to me like you’re a desperate man looking to run out the clock. I wouldn’t be celebrating victory so soon if I were you.”
“You are a foolish child,” Seth said. “And so very fragile. I’ll enjoy teaching you the art of respect.” Seth addressed Anubis. “This is a pathetic showing, Anubis. Did you actually think a mere sphinx could stop me? I am a god!” he declared. “The most powerful of you all. All I have to do is have your precious Sons of Egypt killed. You cannot prevent my rise to power. You’ve only delayed it by trapping me in a prison of my own design. You used the very power I gave them to build the walls. Seeing through Asten’s eyes was the only thing that kept me sane.”
“What is he talking about?” I asked.
Anubis explained, “Seth has spied on us, using Asten’s power to see into dreams. It’s why Asten has difficulty wielding the ability from time to time. Seth causes a sort of interference.”
“It’s how I was able to communicate with you in your dreams,” Seth said to me, “boring as they are. It gave me insight into a potential weakness of one of Egypt’s Sons.” The dragon laughed, clouds of smoke billowing and rising up from his mouth as he sidled closer.
“Enough of this!” Horus spat. “Where is my mother?”
“Are you still here, Horus? I would have assumed that you’d tucked your trembling self beneath the wing of your golden falcon. Oh, wait, that’s right. He’s not yours any longer, is he? You’ve given him up. Oh well, a creature such as that was bound to leave a sniveling child like you at one time or another. If you must know, your mother isn’t feeling too well right now. I’m sure she’ll be right along directly. Being near me has”—the dragon chuckled—“given her a slight fever. Just between us, my friends, I’m a bit of a handful, even for Isis.”
“You wish,” I mumbled under my breath. I didn’t think I’d ever hated anything in my life more than I hated Seth at that moment. The Devourer was an irritating pageant contestant compared to him. The necromancer, a spoiled, name-dropping, out-of-work-and-money theater producer. But this guy—Seth—was more than I imagined. Seth was sick. He was twisted in such a wrong way that he’d convinced himself he was right.
“I must say, I enjoy this form,” Seth said, waving his wings. “Unmaking dragons was the best decision I ever made.” Seth suddenly took to the air and landed with a crash next to the crumbled figures covered with hooded robes. Smoke streamed from his nostrils. “Back away from Amun-Ra, healer. I’d hate to have Apep bite him again. Strong as he is, even the great god of us all is unlikely to recover from a double dose of venom.”
Ahmose straightened and moved back, hands in the air, until he was next to us again.
“What do you say we move on to the third act?” the dragon said. “Asten, I’d like you to unshackle me now. Please proceed immediately. And don’t forget what will happen if you should prove difficult.”
Asten swallowed and glanced briefly in my direction, then he turned to the dragon.
“No!” I shouted. “Asten, what are you doing?”
“Think carefully about this, son,” Anubis said, holding out his hand in warning. “I think you know what you should do.”
Asten paused, shifting his eyes from Anubis to me. His mouth was tight with both resolve and regret. “I know who I am now,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Tia. Sorry that I couldn’t be the person you wanted, the mate you deserved. Sorry that my heritage makes me incapable of holding your heart. Trust me when I say that this is for the best. Everything makes sense now. My dreams. My ambitions. My very nature. It all came from him. This is my purpose. My destiny. I cannot deny what I am or where I go from here.”
Tia raged and keened inside me as Asten summoned his bow and nocked a brilliant arrow. “Father?” he said. “If you will grant me a bit of the energy leaking from Amun-Ra, I will remove your shackles.”
The dragon opened his mouth and sucked in energy. It lifted from Amun-Ra and traveled through the air, spinning and weaving in a variety of colors. Then the dragon turned and blew light from his nose. It wrapped around Asten’s arrow until the entire s
haft gleamed.
“Now don’t forget,” the dragon said, “you have to aim for the chain at the point of attachment, then the entire shackle will fall away. If you attempt to injure me in any way, even a mistaken scratch, there will be irrevocable consequences. Consequences you are well aware of. Do you understand?”
“I understand, Father. You forget that I cannot miss.”
“Very good.”
Stretching back his arm, Asten loosed the arrow. “Stop!” I shouted, but it was too late. The dragon looked on with a greedy expression of delight as the arrow flew toward the center of the Waters of Chaos, right to the point where the chain attached. But instead of hitting the link, the arrow skirted it and turned in a wide arc, heading right back to the dragon. Seth bellowed and scrambled, folding his wings around his body and tucking his head to protect his neck. “Traitorous offspring!” he screamed.
Asten ignored the thrashing dragon. Opening his arms wide, he lifted his face to the stars. “No,” I whispered as a small voice in the back of my mind told me something very, very wrong was happening. Despite Seth’s efforts, the arrow’s aim was true. But Seth phased his shape at the last moment. The arrow blew right through his form, bursting out with a spray of blood and streaking right toward Asten. Recognition of what Asten had done dawned on me. “No!” I screamed more loudly and set off at a run.
My feet pounded over the smooth surface, and I slid the last few meters on my knees in a vain attempt to catch Asten. But the arrow had done its work too quickly. It sank directly into his heart. The power of the blow rocked his body into the air. His legs scissored as he flew through the air and fell with a crash to the glittering surface. When I reached him, I pulled his body toward me, lifting his head and cradling it in my arms, totally unconcerned with the dragon who bucked and screamed nearby.
Rivulets of color streamed over Asten’s body, cascading down his heaving chest. I pressed my hands against the hard plane to stem the tide of blood. I pressed my hands on either side of the arrow to staunch the blood. The feathers tickled my cheek, and I froze. “Impossible,” I whispered. The bobbing shaft was tipped with a feather of Isis. Reaching behind me, I clutched empty space where the last feather should be.
“I magicked it away from you a few moments ago,” Asten whispered. “I knew you’d never use it on me yourself, and this way, my brothers will be safe, too.”
Rage and fear and panic roiled through my frame, but Asten touched me, banking the fire until all I could feel was a sorrow so deep it was shattering me in two. Blood pooled from the injury despite Isis’s claims that her arrows healed, and we knew then there was no saving him. The warnings on my bow had come to pass.
At that moment, all three of us grieved, we were one, suffering with the man we loved. “Tene,” I whispered, tears clouding my eyes. “How has it come to this?” Smoothing his hair away from his face, I kissed Asten’s forehead and sobbed. I didn’t realize he was trying to speak. “What did you say?” I asked, leaning closer to hear him.
He swallowed. “Did…did it work?” he asked. “Is he gone?”
“Is who gone?”
“S…Seth?” he finished. His skin had lost its warmth, and my trembling hand was coated in his blood.
I looked up. The dragon had fallen. His great sides heaved, and sparkling liquid poured from his mouth. “Were you trying to aim for him?” I asked, confused. “I thought you never missed your mark.”
He shook his head slightly then started to cough. More blood gushed with each hack. Finally, when his body settled a bit, he flashed a sad smile and said, “I don’t.”
“Why, Asten?” I asked, pleading to understand. “Why did you choose this? Tell me it wasn’t just the writing on the bow.”
He shook his head. “Do you remember the woman who demanded a terrible price from me as payment to help make a potion for my mother, the queen?” I nodded and Asten took a few shallow breaths and continued. “Her demand was that when the time was right I should kill my father.”
“What?” I mumbled.
“I gave her my oath, but she”—he coughed again—“never collected payment. Last night, she visited my dreams and said the time had come. But to kill my father, I’d have to aim for my own heart.” Asten’s face turned white. He lifted his palm to my face and cupped my cheek. “I know now, Tia, that this is the reason I could not harbor your heart. But know that mine always has been and always will be yours. I love you, my ferocious lioness.” He pressed something into my hand. My vision blurred anew as I felt the familiar shape of Tia’s heart scarab.
I closed my fist over it and nodded, tears leaking over my lips as a faraway look stole across Asten’s eyes, and then he was gone. A roar of pain unlike anything I’d ever heard before burst from my mouth. When I was finished, I slumped over his body, clinging to it while I sobbed. Gradually, I became aware of light filling the area around me. Turning, I saw Anubis, a determined expression on his face and arms in the air, directing Asten’s life energy into four canopic jars that he’d created.
After the energy was safely locked away, I bent over Asten and gently pressed a kiss on his soft lips. Extending one claw, I cut a lock of his hair. Then I stroked his face, my eyes and heart stinging with pain, and folded his arms across his chest. The Waters of Chaos began tugging at his body, and soon the foaming waters shifted him away from me. I stood shakily, watching as the man I loved was swept to the edge. Tia’s voice echoed in my mind.
Lie back on the green grass, my love, and gaze up at the stars. I will come and find you, Tene. I promise you won’t have to wait long, for my only desire is to live in any manner of happiness with you that the cosmos offers us. But before that, I vow to finish what you have started.
When his body was swept over the side, my claws emerged. A primal rage filled me, and I stalked toward the still-breathing dragon. Before I could sink my sharp claws into his form, he shifted, becoming a small animal. He sprinted away across the slick surface of the churning waters. I stood there gawking, wondering what had happened. The quickly moving creature changed form again, becoming something so minuscule I could no longer see it, even with my enhanced vision.
I raced back to Anubis. “What happened?” I demanded. “Where’s the chain?”
Tracks of tears ran down Anubis’s face. I took hold of his shoulders and shook him. “Anubis! What happened?”
“Asten must have misunderstood,” he said, darting a hand across his cheeks. “Killing himself couldn’t destroy Seth. Instead, it somehow released him.”
“But why?” I demanded, fury and grief spilling out in my tone. “Why didn’t it destroy him?”
“Because, Lily, Asten wasn’t Seth’s son.” Anubis’s shoulders drooped like he was a man too old to stand upright any longer. “He was mine,” he said softly, his thick, dark brows lowering in sorrow.
I took a step back, shock freezing the blood in my veins. “H…how?” I asked.
“I found him as a small child,” Anubis said. “He was the biological son of Seth, that much is true, but the mortal that was his mother was so distraught at the idea of having had Seth’s child that she smothered her baby at birth. Then she took her own life.
“Since an immortal child was near death, his little soul called out to me. I didn’t realize then that he was the immortal who’d summoned me and not his mother. Her soul still hovered nearby, and she entreated me for aid. When his little finger clutched mine, I made the decision then to give him a piece of myself, much as I did with Abutiu.
“It changed Asten enough that he became more my own son thereafter than he was Seth’s. I raised him from a babe. Abutiu took quite a liking to him, in fact, preferring to sleep next to his cradle. When Asten’s real mother came to me as a ghost and warned me that Seth had blessed the barren queens with children, I took notice.
“When the young prince of Asyut died, I was drawn to his side and told the nurse that the child could be switched. I disguised myself as a beggar woman and took the coins the nurse
offered, then handed her Asten. Before I left, I cast a spell over the child so that his powers would be blocked until the time came when I could train him properly in their use. Unfortunately, I never got that chance.
“I watched over Asten through the years, and my love and admiration for him grew. When Seth had him and his brothers murdered, I…I did what I could to restore what was taken from all three of them. And unbeknownst to Asten, I released the binding I’d set on his power so many years before. His ability, we discovered, always rested in his dreams.”
My eyes traced Anubis’s face, lingering on his features, as he told his story. I’d always thought him handsome, and now that I looked closer, I could see the similarities between him and Asten. Though Anubis’s hair was shorn to below the ears, it was the same texture and color. As Anubis pursed his lips, I saw there was a tiny cleft in his chin. I sucked in a breath. “You are his father!” I exclaimed.
“Yes.” Anubis nodded sadly.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” I asked.
“I wanted to, but it seemed safer to keep the knowledge to myself. Not even Ma’at knew. If I had told him, she would have read the truth of it in his heart. And Seth would have discovered his true identity and use it to further his own plans.”
Ashleigh rose to the surface and patted Anubis’s arm. “My mother always said, ‘You’ve got to do your own growin’, no matter who your father is.’ Asten was a good man an’ woulda been proud ta claim you as his papa.”
“Thank you, Ashleigh,” Anubis said.
Amon said, “None of this explains why the mystery woman told Asten to kill his father by destroying himself.”
“Ah, I believe I can answer that,” a voice above us said.
Seth materialized into his human form, his arm wrapped around a familiar figure. Her face was mottled and bruised, and one of her wings hung limply. The dress she wore was ripped at the sleeve. With a violent shove, Seth commanded, “On your knees, second wife.”
Isis obeyed, but she looked up and locked eyes with her son, Horus, shaking her head slightly.