Sett and his King (Demon Gods #3)

12. Drew

Drew

M y eyes shot wide open, pain seared from my neck all the way down my spine and I jumped up.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t?—

The living room came into focus—and so did the man next to me.

Sett?

What was he doing here? I hadn’t left him here. I’d put him in my bedroom. Why was he back here now? Had Yaya found him?

Was this a dream?

Was this afterlife?

Is this what happened when someone died? They relived their biggest regret?

My hand hovered over his face and I slowly pushed it across his cheek.

I expected it to be cold, but it wasn’t.

He stirred and brought his hand up to cover mine as he blinked and smiled.

“Hey,” he said.

“H-hey,” I answered but my voice was hoarse.

“Drew, are you okay?” he sat up and searched my eyes, worry crossing his expression.

He felt so real. So human.

Maybe…

Maybe this wasn’t a dream. Maybe I’d just woken up from one.

But it had felt so raw. So real.

The passion. The need.

But also, the guilt. The death.

That was so weird. And even weirder was the fact I still had to do it. This time for real.

"Yeah…yeah, fine. I'm fine." I rubbed my face and with it pushed the dream back into oblivion. “Just a nightmare. That’s all.”

“Are you sure?”

I opened my mouth. I wanted to say it. To tell him what I had to do. What my orders were but…I had no control over my actions.

It was the one thing I couldn't say to him.

As if Horus was playing mind games with me or his brother. As if he knew his brother would fall for my tricks if I was able to tell him all the horrors I’d endured.

But this was the one thing I wasn’t allowed to say.

"Why I…” I started but had to stop and breathe again. “Why don't I go make us some coffee? Maybe that will help me shake this dream off.”

I walked to the kitchen fully aware it wouldn’t. I felt like crying. I felt like screaming. I felt like giving up, but I had no time for that.

I got the coffee machine running, then got busy with my very own brew.

I put a pot on the stove but unlike other times, Spiti didn’t rearrange everything to help me. As if it didn’t want me to do this either.

“You know I have no choice,” I whispered and went through all my kitchen cupboards to find what I needed.

I searched for minutes. Or was it hours?

Was the house playing with me? Hiding things from me to stop me from doing what I had to?

“Would you stop? You know if I don’t do this Gene is dead!”

Spiti didn’t answer. It never did. But when I turned to look at the stove, all the ingredients were there.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

I came to stand in front of the stove and turned the heat on before I grabbed the first ingredient.

One root of belladonna.

Two clusters of hemlock.

Three bells of foxglove.

A pinch of salt.

Ashes from a charred oak tree.

Bring to boil.

Don’t inhale the fumes.

No stirring required. The ingredients were deadly enough on their own. He didn’t stand a chance.

With shaky fingers, I grabbed the pipette and used it to pour the poison in a cup. Even touching the thing could kill.

I couldn’t shake the déjà vu feeling that permeated my body. It was…it was frustrating but in a way reassuring. I needed to do this. The dream was my guide.

I just had to hope real life didn’t end like the nightmare had.

“Here we go.” I walked into the living room trying to smile but I couldn’t.

“Thanks,” he said as I offered him his cup and sat down next to him. "Are you okay? You were gone a while."

I nodded.

“I…I was just thinking about Gene.”

It wasn't really a lie. I had been thinking about Gene. I’d been thinking about him and me and dying under Horus's rule. I’d done what Horus had asked and he’d still killed us both. But I’d also been thinking about him. What I’d done to him.

It was just a dream, right? It wasn't true. So why was I letting it dictate how I felt?

Set lifted the cup to his lips, and I knew why.

Because I had to do it and I didn’t want to. I didn't want to kill him. But I had no choice.

Before I could second-guess myself, I launched at him, pulling the coffee mug from his lips and replacing it with my mouth. He eased the mug on the table next to him and I deepened the kiss.

Sett reciprocated and wrapped his arms around me, causing those wild fucking butterflies to wake again.

“You’re incorrigible,” he moaned.

I ignored him. I didn’t want to speak. I couldn’t speak. I just wanted to do.

So I took a deep breath, made time stop all around me and got down on my knees to worship his cock. It was the least I could do.

I made love to him. I wanted to be his again and to have him be mine one last time.

All I wanted to do was to kiss him, to be with me, to have him look at me as if I was his world and he was mine, to hear him come undone. To have this god-shaped cinnamon roll melt in a puddle because of me.

When would I have the opportunity to do that again? To be with someone so kind, sweet and wonderful?

So I did what I must. I kept going. I sucked him off. I kissed him. I had my wicked way with him and his body over and over again and he was none the wiser to most of it.

I couldn’t stop. It was as if…as if being with him made me resist the urge deep inside me. The urge drilled into me by my master.

As if the longer I stayed buried inside him, the stronger I became to defy Horus’s command.

“Kill my brother. Get me the scarab.”

Those had been his words. His order.

I thrust inside Sett and as he unfroze, his hole clenched around my cock so nice and tight it threatened to make me shoot my load.

I froze him again, making the tightness more permanent and drove myself in him over and over again and my desire built into a crescendo I couldn’t avoid.

His groans turned to words, but I trapped his mouth with my lips, kissing him, not wanting to break this moment…of true union. One I had never felt before, especially not with Horus.

His hands ghosted over my skin, from my neck to the small of my back all the way down my ass, giving me goosebumps. His legs wrapped around my hips, pinning me closer and deeper. As if he too didn't want to let me go.

But I knew we couldn't do this forever, no matter how much time I froze, this had to be done.

So I did what any man would have done in my place. I looked into his beautiful golden eyes that seemed to shine just for me and…let go.

I gasped, filling him with my seed with each labored thrust until reality came crashing back. I collapsed on the sofa, breathless and exhausted but even then I couldn't resist the command I’d been given any longer.

I picked up the mug with the poisoned coffee, gave it to Sett, and watched him die all over again.

Only this time it was real.

I didn't bother moving his body. I simply instructed the house to keep Yaya out of the living room, put my clothes back on, and walked out of the door and into Horus's lair.

That weird feeling, that sense of deja vu that niggled on the back of my head.

Why was this dream haunting me? I should have forgotten it by now and yet it all felt as if it had just happened.

Maybe it was because I was reliving it, almost play by play.

I stood in front of Horus’s office and as the door opened, a chill rushed down my spine.

“Welcome back, Drew" Horus said as soon as the door opened, and I tried to say something, anything, but I couldn't.

This…this was too real. This was too accurate. Maybe it hadn’t been a dream, but how?

Horus stood and pointed to the chair in front him, instructing me to sit down.

I did as commanded.

Then, he walked around, towered over me and whispered in my ear, "Do you have it?"

"Where is Gene?" I asked.

"Gene is fine."

My stomach sank.

“Give it to me.”

My hands did as told despite my resistance.

Because there was no such thing. Not where Horus was concerned.

I dug in my pocket and took it out. Horus snatched it from my hands and he walked back around the desk, each step more confident and arrogant than the last.

I…

I was about to die again, wasn’t I?

When he sat on his chair, he did so with the conviction of a king.

The man who’d let me in the office took a couple of steps forward and on Horus’s command came to stand behind me.

I held my breath. I closed my eyes. I did my very best to save myself.

And yet…

I died once more.