22. Drew
Drew
" A re you ready?" Sett asked.
The house was starting to become the backdrop to all our deepest conversations today. Thankfully, our relentless search had yielded the results we’d been seaking.
Or at least that was the hope.
There was only one way to find out.
"Don't fail me now." I looked at the ceiling and dared the house, while twirling the ankh in my fingers. I was talking to both of them although in theory we shouldn't need the house to reset time.
In theory, we should be able to save our family, defeat Horus and come back just in time for dinner. Problem was, I sucked at theory. I was a potion witch. I learned by doing.
"Okay. Let's go," Sett grabbed my shoulders and steadied me back to the here and now. To our mission. He finished his statement with a kiss and right there and then, I was ready to take on the world.
I opened the door and walked right out of Horus's house. I was done with the precautions. We needed to act now.
I turned on my heel and I nodded at Sett who kicked the door down, letting us both into Horus's lair as I took in a deep breath and froze time around us.
Horus's prisoners all turned toward the door before they were all trapped in time and we walked right in. The weight of the ankh on my chest made me feel invincible. I didn't know if I was right to feel that way but I did and I was going to use it to drive a knife into Horus's heart if I needed to.
I stormed toward Horus's office and almost took the door off its hinges when I kicked it open. I braced myself for the control. For the manipulation. For the confident grin and the stinking cigar.
I found none.
"He's not here," I said just as Sett walked in right behind me, his weapon in his hands.
He studied the office for a moment before he turned to me and narrowed his eyes.
"It's fine. Let's go get our boys," he said and I followed him back out into the hallway and down the stairs into the basement.
Two guards stood on either side of the door but they didn't flinch as Sett slammed his khopesh down the middle and tore it in two as if it were made of paper.
The basement was dark and smelled of mold and piss, the cool temperature chilling me to the bone.
Two figures stood on the other side of the room chained to the wall, a man stood between them.
Horus.
"Son of a bitch!" I started running toward him before Sett stopped me.
"Don't," he said and my limbs tightened before relaxing into a neutral position. I had completely forgotten that as long as I wore the necklace and he the ring I was his to do as he pleased. Only I knew he would never take advantage of me in the way his brother had. "Notice something?"
I turned from him to Horus and glowered. But Horus didn't react. He didn't speak. He didn't smirk. He was…frozen.
"It worked," I said, but I wasn’t willing to test the theory just yet.
We ran toward the two bound men. Sett reached for his son and I for my brother. My fingers sizzled with magic as I tried to undo the chains but they didn't budge.
"Here," Sett said and cracked Anubis's open with the khopesh before we swapped and I came to stand in front of his son.
"You think you can unfreeze them so we can get out of here?" Sett cracked Gene's chains open and turned to me.
I nodded and closed my eyes, focusing on the two men we were here to rescue. I focused on my breathing and the way the oxygen flowed through me, the way it wrapped around everyone trapping them in time and I released them. First Gene. Then Anubis.
"Drew?" Gene called out as soon as he came to, but then his gaze fell on Sett and he cowered. He glanced at Horus and retreated to the corner away from both gods. "What-what's going on?"
I reached for my brother when Anubis stepped up and cut in front of me to embrace his father.
"Father. You came!" he said.
He didn't look that much older than Gene, even though I knew he was thousands and thousands of years old. His skin was a little darker than his father's and his hair short and coily. Both of them looked unkempt, which made sense considering where they'd been for goddess knew how long. I'd lost count of the days with all these resets and loops and everything.
"Are you okay? What happened?" Sett asked his son.
"I don't know. You disappeared from Duat and not long after I was summoned here too. He was there!" He glanced at his uncle, Horus with fury in his eyes. "He was holding an old book that contains all sorts of incantations to invoke the old gods."
A book?
"Did…did you see what the book was called?"
Was it possible it was the book I'd helped Horus steal before I summoned Sett?
Had this motherfucker used me to help him trap Sett's son so he had another ace up his sleeve? Another prisoner to help him achieve his world domination?
"No. Sorry. I was too busy adjusting to this new body," he answered and turned to Gene. "Are you okay?"
Gene's eyes opened a little wider at Anubis addressing him and he nodded.
"I-I think so."
Anubis approached Gene and put his arms around him.
"Don't worry, Gene. This is my father. Remember? I told you about him. Sett?"
Gene glanced at Sett and nodded.
"Don't worry. Father is nothing like Horus. He won't hurt you," he said.
"It's true, Gene. You're safe," I told him and took a step toward him.
"Well," Anubis said and smirked. "I wouldn't say that."
A scythe appeared in his hand and before I could utter a word, before I could take a breath, before I could stop any of it, he cut through Gene's chest like it was fabric and not skin and bones.
"No!" my scream came out delayed and despite how it pulsed through me it sounded drowned out. "No!"
"Ani!" Sett shouted and his son stepped back, dropping his scythe along with his confident expression and looked at the bloodbath in front of him as if for the first time.
"Wh-what? What happened?" he cried out and I sank into the floor at the same time as him.
Of course he’d been compelled. Why wouldn’t he be? Horus never took chances.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to reach out to my brother. I wanted to do so many things, but my rage took over. It consumed me. It made me feral and I turned to Horus with what felt like death in my eyes.
"You fucking bastard. You sadistic son of a bitch!" I launched at him, the scarab in my hand, and punched it in his chest.
The scarab’s legs dug into his skin, gold flecks flew from within the jewel and wrapped around Horus like a ghost. I didn’t care what happened. I didn’t care who died anymore as long as he did.
Just like when Sett had tried, Horus came back to life, no longer under the influence of my power and he yanked the scarab off his chest as if it was a mere toy. He looked at me and before I could say or do anything, he punched me and I flew across the room. Pain exploded all over my back and I caught my breath, unsure when I'd be able to draw another with the way my lungs burned.
I looked up just in time to see Horus and Sett's weapons clashing between them, causing sparks. The room filled with men far too strong, far too powerful and far too insane for me to deal with all on my own and as soon as Sett noticed, he withdrew and came up beside me.
This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Things were supposed to end tonight. With the necklace on me things were supposed to go our way. But…
Once again, he’d been one step ahead of us.
“Why, thank you Drew. You’re a faithful puppet after all.” He opened his hand to reveal the scarab and a knot formed in my stomach. “Now kill Sett for me, will you?”
I braced myself for impact. I held my breath waiting for his order to wrap its dirty claws around me but it never came. I glanced at the necklace around me and breathed a sigh of relief.
It worked. It had fucking worked.
But at what cost?
I turned to Gene, lying dead on the floor, his eyes still wide and white from the shock of his body torn apart so quickly, so suddenly.
His glasses were cracked and his beautiful smile, it had vanished, never to light up a room ever again. That wasn’t supposed to happen either.
“I’m sorry, asshole, but I no longer take my orders from you.”
Horus raised an eyebrow for a moment before he shrugged and threw the scarab to the floor. He stomped on the magical siphon and crashed it with the back of his foot.
Magic exploded all around him. Goosebumps crawled along my arms and the back of my neck. The ghostly blanket I’d seen before now became more and more visible until it stuck to his body like a golden armor.
Fuck!
“Oh it’s good to be back,” he said with a long sigh as if he’d just drank the world’s most hydrating glass of water.
“Kill them all,” he commanded with a resounding voice that made me feel smaller than I’d ever felt and immediately the men behind me came for both of us.
“Nah, I won’t let you win. Not again,” Sett growled and launched at his brother while I rolled out of the way and toward Anubis, my lungs on fire and my heart racing.
The god of the dead cowered when I reached for him, looked at me with fear in his eyes. I felt sorry for the guy. I was that guy. I was every guy in here. We were all the same.
But I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed Anubis’s scythe from his feet and I launched at Horus too.
"It's cute you think you can defeat me. You're outnumbered, Drew," he said.
"Who said I was trying to defeat you?" I snarled and blocked his axe, pushing him back.
Before he could do anything else, I spun around and faced Sett, scythe at the ready.
All it took was a nod and he knew what he had to do. What we both had to do.
I brought my scythe down on his heart and he brought his khopesh down on mine and we gazed into each other's eyes as life drained out of both of us in seconds.
But it was okay.
It was time for a do-over.