4. Drew
Drew
H e was hot. Sett was fucking hot. And the more time I spent in his presence the hotter he became.
He was built like a swimmer, but his movements, his expressions, his eyes exuded royalty. Royalty unlike I’d ever seen before. Horus fancied himself a king of old, but he was anything but compared to Sett.
I knew the body didn’t belong to the god. Being a god’s prisoner for long enough had taught me almost no god can cross over to this realm in their true body, so they had to possess another. But it was more than the body they inhabited and how attractive it was. It was an energy. An energy that crackled all over him. It was captivating.
And it was all mine. Wrapped around me like a warm blanket, soothing like a lullaby.
“It’s okay,” he said and his voice made my bones vibrate, my body harden. “It’s all going to be okay.”
I nodded, trying to fill my lungs with the oxygen they needed but it was hard when his arms were holding me so close I could smell the taste of his skin.
He’s just another user , I reminded myself.
He wasn’t anything special no matter if he felt it. He was just another god who had the power to use me. If Horus, one of the most revered Egyptian gods in history was a monster, what were the chances his mortal enemy and trickster brother was an angel?
For fuck’s sake he was the god of violence. The god of earthquakes and storms. The god of disorder. He was most certainly the furthest thing from an angel there was.
And yet, his demeanor, his concern, his speech…could have fooled me.
“I’m…I’m…thanks,” I said, my mind a whirlwind of emotions and errant thoughts.
He let me go, slowly, the whole time his eyes remained pinned on me. And try as I might, I couldn’t stop staring back at him. His golden eyes shone even in the dark. Like two tiny but important stars, lighting the sky just for me.
Get a grip, Drew .
I was already a slave to a god. I didn’t need to be a slave to another crueler one. Especially an insanely attractive one like the man standing before me.
“Your majesty,” Mother Red Cap spoke up behind him and I breathed a sigh of relief when Sett turned to her.
She held a cloak up for him and he stepped into it as if he was born to be served.
I didn’t miss the thing swinging wildly between his legs but I didn’t dare look at it directly. I didn’t know if I’d be able to control my thoughts let alone my actions if I did.
“Let’s get you something warm to drink,” she said and turned to me with a smile.
We followed her out of the morgue and down the tunnel into another room that was more of an alcove, with several cushions on the floor around a coffee table, the entire space lit up by candles and a spark of magic that warmed me as soon as I stepped through.
Sett sprawled all over the cushions on one side, his robe parting where he spread his legs and I swallowed a frog that immediately formed in my throat.
I could feel the heat of his gaze on me like pin pricks and it put me right on the edge. I hadn’t felt like that in so long. Desire that was pure and untamed. Desire that wasn’t forced or stolen from me.
Even when I’d flirted with Tomasz or Sandro it hadn’t felt like that. I didn’t know why but ever since becoming Horus’s prisoner it was as if my choices, the full spectrum of my emotions, my body’s needs were not my own, they were locked up and only accessible by him. My master.
“Tell me…Drew, how did you end up my brother’s prisoner?”
His words were like a cold shower bringing me back to reality. Mother Red Cap left the room, leaving me alone with him and I had half a mind to follow her. The other half wanted to hide to save myself from him.
But he didn’t touch me. He didn’t even move toward me. He just watched me like a bird of prey watches its next meal.
“I…uhm…” I stuttered before I remembered myself, cleared my throat and looked him right in the eyes. “It all started when my parents lost everything.”
It was such a wild story, so unbelievable, so…simple and yet it was the beginning of our end.
“They entrusted their money in the wrong hands and when the economy collapsed they struggled to get back on their feet so that by the time they died, we were…penniless.”
It had been such a tough blow to my dad, ruining his family name, going from one of the most influential witch families to getting kicked out of the coven. He’d never recovered from the shame and there was nothing my mom, my Yaya or us could do to bring him back.
“It turns out, my dad, he borrowed money from the wrong people and both my parents paid the price with their lives. Their debt passed down to me and in order to repay it and keep both my brother and me above water, I went to work for them, the people who had murdered my parents.”
I thought those would be the darkest years of my life. Oh boy how wrong I’d been .
“They put me straight into work, doing their dirty bidding, using my powers to scam, cheat and lie their way out of anything and everything. And no matter how many jobs I took on, my debt never diminished. I was, for all intents and purposes, their slave.”
“And Horus? What does he have to do with it?” Sett asked as Mother Red Cap re-entered the room with a tray. She set a cup of coffee in front of me and a cup of soup and water in front of Sett before taking her place next to me.
“I was…just about to get to that,” I said. “I’d been working for the loan sharks for four years when they sent me on a job that went sideways. It had happened before but we’d always managed to escape, only this one was different. None of us could use our power to escape. We couldn’t use our own bodies to move.”
“Horus!” Sett growled over his steaming cup of soup.
I nodded.
“It was my first encounter with him although I didn’t believe him when he said who he was. Gods had been just fiction up until that point. I later found out you were all cast out thousands of years ago and only recently did the path between our two worlds reopen. He was one of the first to awaken.”
Sett gritted his teeth and his fist on the table tightened.
“I thought he was dead. I thought I killed him.”
“Evidently, you didn’t.”
He wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. He was staring at his cup, seemingly lost in his own rage.
I had no idea about their story beyond what the tales said and none of us knew how accurate those were. And I had no idea if and how Horus had escaped death. It didn’t matter to me. What mattered was that he was here now and I was his.
“Anyway. He…he killed everyone else but saved me. I didn’t know why at the time but I think it’s because of my power. He wanted it. He wanted to use me too. But back then he promised me freedom. He promised to get rid of my masters?—”
“In exchange for fealty to him,” Sett offered and I bit my tongue.
That had been the promise. But it was far from reality.
“That lasted all of two seconds,” I said. “He freed me only to enslave me and my brother. And his demands were far, far worse than my last master’s.”
Sett looked up and narrowed his eyes. I didn’t know if he could read thoughts like his brother, but he wasn’t going to get anything out of me. Not unless I wanted to share. My body’s ownership may be up for debate but my mind? My mind was mine and only mine.
“He…he hurt you, didn’t he?” His voice surprised me. It came out as a whisper. A whisper that chilled me to the bone.
Why does it sound like he cares?
“He did,” I said through gritted teeth. “But I don’t care about myself right now. I don’t want him to touch my brother. I’ve managed to keep him at bay until Gene turned eighteen. Now that he has, I don’t know how long before he lays a finger on him. If he hasn’t already.”
It didn’t matter what it sounded like. It didn’t matter how it felt or how he looked at me. I wasn’t going to be tricked again. Never again.
I needed Sett. He was my only hope at freedom. But I would never—ever—be his prisoner.
“I’m so sorry, Drew. I thought…I thought I got rid of him once and for all.”
Well, he hadn’t.
“It-it’s not your fault,” I said, because I didn’t need to anger another god. Not before I was rid of the one that had chained me.
“I can’t help but feel responsible. I thought our great battle resulted in his death. I see now he cheated me and my son somehow.”
His son?
What did his son have to do with anything?
And who was his son? My knowledge of Egyptian mythology wasn’t terrible but even then it didn’t mean it was accurate.
“But make no mistake, Drew. This time, when I kill him, it’ll be real.”
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to put my faith in him but the last time I’d done that it hadn’t gone so well.
“How? How can you stop him?”
He inhaled, making his chest puff up and dark hairs peek through the robe.
Why did he have to be so hot? And why did my body have to react like that in his presence? Maybe I could concoct something new, something to keep this strange desire at bay. I couldn’t let my carnal desires mess with my head.
“By stealing all of his power from him. But in order to do that, I need to find his scarab.”
I cocked my head.
“Scarab? What do you mean?”
Sett sat up and put both his elbows on the table, his expression hardening as he spoke of the game plan.
“A scarab is capable of containing a god’s powers. We thought we’d contained it all back then, but like he cheated death he must have cheated the power the scarab. But this time I’ll be prepared.”
A sliver of hope dared flare inside me and my heart skipped a beat. My breath caught at the promise of his words.
“Where do we find that scarab? Don’t tell me you already have it?”
“I don’t. I hid it a long time ago. I didn’t want to risk him finding it. But we simply need to retrieve it.”
I set my coffee cup down and bit my lip.
“Where did you hide it?” I asked.
“Home. It’s back home.”
“Egypt?”
He nodded.
“So we’ll need to make the trip there. I assume we’re in the North?”
“Yes. England.”
My reply seemed to confuse him at first but after a second that confusion was gone.
What was that all about?
“We’ll need to get a…plane,” he said.
I smirked.
“No we don’t. We can be there in an hour.”
“How?” he asked and stared at me, golden eyes bright and full of wonder and I was more sure than ever.
I needed to shield myself from the god of violence before it was too late. Even if he didn’t look like a violent man. If the last few years had taught me anything that was appearances can be deceiving. And I had no doubt there was deception all over this room and it screamed Sett’s name.