Chapter 6 The Hunter #4
I could still barely move, so I focused on my fingers playing inside his heat like one might pluck the strings of an arched harp, giving him that promised taste of what I knew he would one day be granted in full.
The wind from Horus’s wings forever cooled our heated skin, and he kept one hand tangled in my hair, with the other stroking his cock.
The tanned member was as normal looking as it had felt, so human compared to others in these trials, and it made this winged god with feathers in his hair and longing in his heart, feel the most human too, young and so full of promise despite all the centuries behind him.
The harder and faster he rutted against me, pumping himself to completion, the more I noticed the glint of his tears.
They were so similar to Seth’s. Sudden, full of anguish, and yet…
hopeful, like Seth had looked when he’d smiled at the end of it all as we flew out of view, knowing Horus was still waiting for him.
Just like Meryt was waiting for me.
“Seth!” Horus cried as he came, the heat from his release striking my stomach just beneath my dancer’s top.
I felt no injury from the exclamation, for my mind was on another too, and knowing Horus was thinking of his beloved only filled me with joy.
I spurted out into the open air beyond the tree with Meryt’s endearment on my tongue.
Dusk to my dawn.
Horus pulled us from the tree, startling me at first, but I realized why as we slowly began to sink toward the ground.
If we had remained in that position, my back would have been shredded with our descent.
He slid his hands around my back, holding me close, his mess still between us, and brought my mouth to his neck as if urging me to bite him again.
“The man who killed your Meryt will never know justice.”
I bit down on instinct, nearly letting go of Horus in my shock as my blood ran cold.
“He escaped,” Horus said with a whine, “and will live a long life in service to the one who planned the coup, a man who will also never know justice for his wrongs. They will never succeed in their plans to take the throne, but in life, they will not know retribution for their acts either.”
Now I knew how tears could come so quickly to his eyes, for they were instantly filling mine. I pried my teeth from the deeper marks I had made, feeling Horus shudder from the pain he clearly craved, what only Seth could offer him. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because if you wish it,” he whispered, “I can offer you vengeance.”
As my feet touched the ground, my knees nearly buckled, but Horus continued to be my anchor. He unwound his legs from my waist and touched down too. I felt the stickiness from his release vanish from my skin, along with my sweat, but being cleansed did not rid me of the twist in my gut.
I leaned away from him and fell back against the tree.
Horus spread his wings, wide and tall as far as they could reach, and his disheveled-ness was swept away the same as how he had purified me, but also with his armor returning and loincloth readjusting to show him in all his splendor.
Even without his headdress, he was a warrior just like Seth, a hunter and tool of retribution, but the headdress too returned, and as soon as he had summoned back all that impressive prowess, he bestowed it on me.
I felt it as weight upon my shoulders and across my chest, the similarly styled leather armor covering my dancer’s attire.
“You could have vengeance against your beloved's killer,” Horus offered. “You would become a true hunter, better than any the world has ever known, to carry out your wrath upon the deserving beyond even the men who wronged you, but also any whom you might deem worthy of falling by your blade.”
A spear appeared in my hand, just there, same as the armor, held tightly in my grasp.
“And through it all, I would be by your side.”
I looked away from the spear, at first at Horus and his beseeching expression, but then past him into the trees, thinking of how I had seen Meryt, as if he had been here with me instead of only seen through an archway, closer again, so close.
I somehow sensed him still near, and though I could no longer see him, I imagined him just behind one of those trees, maybe even the one at my back, waiting for me to finish this.
I had to finish this.
I opened my fingers and let the spear drop to the ground.
The very idea of Meryt slipping farther away from me again made my answer easy, much as it pained me both in knowing that those men would not see justice in their lifetimes and to refuse this broken-hearted god, as broken as Seth was, who equally longed for their reunion and was so… so lonely.
“Vengeance will be mine, my lord,” I told him, “but only when those villainous hearts are weighed at the end of their lives, not before. I choose real justice which, if not carried out on earth, I know will be by the gods.”
“And if it is not?” he asked, sharpening my gaze upon his half-hidden face.
His tear tracks remained, frozen now and partially shadowed by his headdress, but they were there.
“Perhaps these men will seek absolution. Become pious. Beg forgiveness and do good deeds to lighten their hearts before their ends.”
I hadn’t thought of that. But wasn’t that what we all hoped for, what Seth and Horus hoped for too, that no matter the depth of our sins, we could always, somehow, someday right those wrongs?
Wasn’t that justice too?
I launched myself forward, reaching for the back of Horus's neck and knowing I surprised him when he gasped as I gripped tight. I swung him around roughly, rougher than I would ever be with Meryt, but this was not only about me.
Slamming Horus hard into the tree, I kept my grip firm around his neck and leaned into him, breath hot and body emanating equal heat from our previous coupling.
I brought my mouth in line with his but did not kiss him.
Instead, I tilted my head to return to the marks I had made on his neck.
They were already nearly completely healed.
I sank my teeth there again, and Horus's gasp was as full of renewed pleasure as any before it, accompanied by a telling twitch beneath his waist.
It was no wonder he and Seth were so well matched, for the chaos in Seth sought to expel itself by causing pain, not to truly hurt but to leave a mark, however briefly, proving he had an impact.
Proving he meant something. Whereas the healing calm of Horus sought to accept that pain, to mold it, harmonize with it, and take the pleasure inherent at its core, forever ready as a healing god to take more.
They might not be dusk and dawn, but they were balance, nonetheless.
“If that is what happens, my lord,” I said, gently licking the puncture marks and loosening my hold on his neck to run my thumb down the bulb of his throat, “I know Meryt would want me to be happy that they became better men, and so that is what I have to do. That is what I must do to continue being worthy of him. I must be the me he needs me to be.”
As I sought Horus’s sun and moon eyes behind his feathered crown, I saw how clear and bright they were and that their brilliance was accompanied by a warm smile. “As you wish, Nakht.”
The armor was gone from me with my next breath, their added weight lifted, and the rest of me left even more pristine than I had yet been.
“I helped return the color to your cheeks and the light to your eyes that was dimming from your exhaustion,” Horus said. “A good meal can only do so much, and these are not easy trials, but hopefully, some added vitality will see you through to the end, and to your Meryt.”
“Thank you,” I said, stepping back from the tree.
“Go to him.”
The sudden bidding made me glance around, but no new archway had appeared.
“There.” Horus gestured behind him, or rather, behind the tree, and I understood that my next path was exactly where I had sensed it.
“He is close at hand to you now.” Horus pushed from the tree and moved behind me as he spoke. “Closer than he has ever been. Do not fail him.”
I turned to thank Horus once more, feeling such comradery in those words, for it was all he wanted too—for his beloved to finally succeed and reunite with him.
But as with earlier gods, no one stood there, only empty space.
Something new in my hair caught my attention, and I pulled the braid it attached to out in front of me to see that a feather had been added.
Thank you, I said with my heart.
The chirping of a cat drew me back to the tree and the other side of it.
I knew Pasht would lead me where I needed to go, and though I was sad it meant Seth was alone again—for now, at least—I followed her lead, catching only the sight of her upright tail swishing through the grass, but it was enough.
I delved deeper into the foliage, making my way between trees, until the shadows cast by their thick trunks and tall branches became a blinding, welcoming light.