Kingdom
of
Sand & Stars
Book two
Tempest Minds
By
Candace Osmond
Copyright © 2020 Candace Osmond
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-1-988159-78-2
First Edition
Digital Version
Cover Design by Majeau Designs
The characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are completely fiction and are in no way meant to represent real people or places.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
About the Author
Chapter One
The utterly insane things we do in the name of love. They’re often our own undoing in the end and most of us carry that weight of regret to our graves. I thought about that as I lay in a heap in a dark corner of a cell. Moonlight carried through the courtyard just outside and cast striped shadows of the metal bars that contained me across the cold stone floor. But as much as I wanted to…
…I couldn’t regret the decisions that brought me here.
I loved Silas with everything I had. Every fiber of my being crawled in a weave through my soul and reached out for him. Even in death.
Or what I thought was death.
The possibility of a swift exit was out of reach for me now. Horus had prized me for hours. Too many. The sun had long gone down when he finally tired of driving me with question after question.
Who was I?
Where did I come from?
Where are the Star People hiding?
And, lastly,
Where was the portal?
Not once did he punch or kick, or even cut me. He had no need to. My broken leg served as the perfect torture device until I blacked out from the pain, time after time. That was hours ago. The slight change in the sky from jet black to a sultry navy told me so. The sun would be up soon.
My tattered clothes clung to my sweaty skin and I ached to rip the leather patched jeans from my leg, the one that hung from my body at an odd angle. The skin tight with swelling. The bone had broken immediately on impact when Horus dropped me from the sky. A quick, clean break. For that I was grateful, but almost a day had passed since I got here, and I knew my blood raced with infection. I could practically smell it in the air. The slightest movement sent my nerves into a frenzy, making any form of sleep practically impossible. So, I just sat there, in the corner, fighting for every breath as the toxicity spread through my body.
But that wasn’t even the worst part.
My slick and trembling hands gripped my thigh in a futile attempt to stifle the spread of infection, more of a peace of mind really, because all I could think about was the pitcher of wine that sat at the other side of the cell. After hours of prying me with questions I refused to answer, he’d left the wine and some bread before disappearing. Leaving me to stare at it from my dark corner, salivating at the promise it beckoned me with.
Just drag yourself over, drink it. It’ll make everything better.
But I couldn’t. Not only did every single breath cause me pain, but I couldn’t drink it. Not now, not after how far I’d come to fight my addiction. To drink that pitcher would mean starting over again. All the withdrawals, the nausea, the pain. But even worse…
That’s exactly what he wants me to do. Loosen my tongue.
I couldn’t let that happen.
I stared at that jug all night; every passing minute torturous. But that willpower was beginning to melt away as I eyed the clay pitcher in the coming sunlight. An orangey purple light now filtered through the air. My parched tongue slipped out and rubbed over my dry, cracked lips. I could die here in this cell. If I didn’t give Horus what he wanted, why would he bother keeping me around? With this probable infection, I was a goner in a matter of days, anyway, regardless of what he chose to do with me.
At least I would go out with a belly warm and full. Appease my demons, and all that.
I took a deep breath and let go of my thigh. A rush of blood pulsed upward, and I inched across the floor. A jolt of pain struck me like lightning, forcing a guttural scream to erupt as it pinned me in place.
“God damnit!” I seethed and bit down on the pain.
My stomach rolled and I heaved with rapid breaths. I grabbed my leg once again and fought through the swarm of dizziness that threatened to take me down. I couldn’t pass out. My skin itched at the thought of what Horus might do to me, to my body, when I couldn’t at least verbally defend myself.
“Good morning,” a voice spoke from outside my cell.
The sound caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up as a cold shiver rocked through me. I glanced from the corner of my eye as Horus’ figure passed right through the metal bars, just like before. Bare chested under the thin ivory colored cape draped over his shoulders. Intricate sandals laced with gold crunched the sandy floor as he took slow steps across it. He carried another pitcher of wine, accompanied by a tray of actual food this time. Horus motioned at the untouched wine from yesterday and raised his brows at me.
“Not thirsty?”
I sneered up at him from the floor. “Not for that.”
“What’s the matter?” he replied coyly. “Don’t like wine?”
A sickening spasm of pain pulsed up from my leg and I stomped down the urge to scream again as I squeezed my thigh. I rocked back and forth, breathing through it. “N-no, I like it too much.”
I tipped my head up to find him arching a curious brow and immediately regretted my words. A day of Horus prying me for information, and I managed not to say a thing. The topic of alcohol comes up and I let the weakness fog my mind. Sway my judgement.
I squared my jaw. “What do you want?”
Horus approached me slowly, his sandaled feet scratching the sandy floor beneath us. He squatted and set down the food by my side. He was so close; I could smell burn of days of sunshine on his skin. Dark waves fell from his head and drooped to his bare shoulders as he pursed his wide lips and I cringed at the nearness of him. It was too much. A long finger slid under my chin and forced my gaze to meet his. Two dark holes that bored into mine, as if he were searching for a way in.
“To pick up where we left off,” he said calmly, unblinking. But the tone didn’t match the madness in his eyes. He peered at my leg and the corner of his mouth twitched as he wrapped his hand around it and gave a squeeze. My cries filled the cell, filled the courtyard before bouncing back to clang inside my ears. “Now tell me where the portal is!”
I bit down on my tongue to stifle the new pain he inflicted, and my mouth filled with a mix of saliva and blood. I gathered it up before spitting it right in his face. “Never!”
Anger flitted over his expression, but it quickly washed away as Horus wiped the spit from his cheek. He began to chuckle–an unsettling sound that raked my spine–as he pushed himself to his feet and paced the floor anxiously in thought. He was insane. I threw my head
back against the wall behind me, unable to hold it up on my own. Every breath was an amazing feat. I’d give anything to be able to sink into a deep coma right about now.
He quickly came to a stop and faced me, the abrupt movement causing my heart to jump, and I watched as he pulled a dagger from a sheath at his side. Slow and purposeful, allowing the sharp sound to crawl over every one of my nerves. He crouched again, closer this time, his haughty breath smearing across my face while he held the thin blade to my neck.
Eyes bulging with impatience, he gritted the words through his teeth, “Let’s try a different question then, shall we?” The sharp edge pressed harder, threatening to draw blood. “How did you fix my brother?”
I don’t know where the blind courage came from. But it festered up from the depths of my gut and I stared him straight in the eye as I slowly leaned forward, into the blade, breaking my skin. He refused to relent. Warm blood dripped down my neck, but I didn’t flinch. Didn’t break the hold I had on his challenging glare.
“Never,” I said pointedly and as even as I could.
The dagger lingered there for a moment, neither of us willing to let go of the stubbornness that held us in place. Finally, Horus shoved at my chest and I slumped against the wall as he bolted to his feet and began pacing again. He returned the knife to his belt. A frustrated growl echoed off the stone walls and he kicked the plate of food at me; bread and some kind of meat sprinkled the floor.
“Why must you be so…difficult?” the unhinged god grumbled loudly, his dark eyes bulging with an otherworldly impatience.
I watched in fear from my corner, waited until he worked through the rage that possessed him. Finally, he cast his face upward and closed his eyes as a deep breath expanded his chest. He held it in for a while before slowly exhaling and started to chuckle quietly. Confusion pinched my face.
What was so funny?
Horus craned his neck and stared in my direction with a calculating expression that unnerved me to no end. I followed his gaze to the pitcher of wine on the floor and then to the new one he’d brought. My heart sped up, my eyes unblinking while the God of Vengeance bent down to fetch the other jug and placed them both within my reach.
He stood and backed away, a glimmer of mischief in his eye that only grew in response to the fear in mine. He rubbed his hands together before passing through the bars of the cell and disappearing into the shadows of his palace. Leaving me there with my cruel vice wafting promises up to my nose.
“No!” I called out into the dim courtyard. “Take them, please!”
A distant laugh carried through the air and I cried. Hot tears cut the layers of dirt and dust caked to my cheeks. And I couldn’t stop them. I cried for myself, for every inch of sobriety that would inevitably be thrown out the window. Because I knew I wasn’t strong enough to resist it. I was able to quiver behind the excuse of a broken leg all night. But there was nothing in the way of me and those two jugs of wine. No will power to speak of.
The pain made me weak and my insides screamed for the heavy dose of poison. Tears streamed down my face, mixing with the sticky sheen of sweat and pooling along the creases of my cracked lips with bits of sand that crunched between my teeth.
I could tip them over, but I was too selfish for that. And, to be honest, I wasn’t sure I could trust myself not to lick the numbing juices from the floor. Numbing…the word soothed my soul with darkness, promising to take away the pain.
I weighed the possibilities of my near future if I remained in the clutches of Horus. Infection had begun, and it was only a matter of time before it was too far to cure. And Horus didn’t strike me as the type to lend medical attention in any way. A day had already passed since he swooped down and stole me from Silas’ arms. And no one had come to get me. The realization pressed down on me.
No one was coming.
With shaking hands, I reached over and wrapped my fingers around one of the red clay pitchers and brought it to my face. I closed my eyes as I put it to my lips. It was so strong; the aroma burned my nostrils, but I kept drinking. Gulp after gulp until my stomach protested and I ached for breath.
Warmth spread up from my belly, pulsed through my veins and stung my racing heart. My head lolled and tipped back to the wall, but I put the rim to my lips again and poured the last bit into my mouth. That was the last thing I remembered before crashing to the floor and sinking into darkness.
Chapter Two
“Amun! Do we need to chain you up in the holding cells again, or are you going to listen to reason?” Anubis yelled at me from the edge of his chair.
My chest still heaved and burned from hours of running across the desert. When I’d watched in horror as my brother disappeared across the sky with Andie in his grasp, my legs began to move before my mind even told them to. A foolish choice. I couldn’t swiftly move from place to place as my cousin could, with his connection to the Underworld as a pivot.
It had taken most of the night, and when I could finally see Horus’ palace in the near distance, five of his guards kindly informed me that Andie’s head will be removed from her body if I dared step foot inside the building.
I wanted to believe it was an empty threat, but part of me wasn’t sure. It’d been over a thousand years since I’d seen my petulant brother. Who knew what he was capable of now?
I paced the floors of Alistair’s quarters while he sat with Anubis at a little table. They’d been muttering something while I toiled inside my own mind, but their words were futile. I couldn’t will myself to calm down, let alone listen.
“You don’t understand!” I replied, cutting off whatever reasoning they’d been throwing at me.
Anubis slammed a fist on the table. “Whether he kills Andie or not, going back there is exactly what he wants you to do!”
I ran fingers through my hair and pulled at it as I groaned. “All I hear are words preventing me from saving the woman I love.”
He sprung from his seat. His onyx eyes fixed on me. “We can’t storm over there without a plan.”
My eyes bulged. “I don’t care. Every minute that passes is a minute too long that my brother could be doing…God knows what to Andie.” A shudder scratched through me. “His hands on her body, his mind in her mind. I can’t just leave her there!”
Alistair let out a deep, raspy breath. “Silas, she’s my daughter. Don’t you think I want to flee to Horus and beg for his mercy? But I know I can’t. We mustn’t do this with haste. Not after everything she did to save you.” The old man tipped his head to the side and looked at me with pity. “He won’t kill her. He needs Andie to use against you.”
I squared my jaw as my fists clenched at my sides. “Killing her would be a mercy. Keeping her alive is what I’m more worried about. If he gets inside her mind, who knows what he could make her do.”
Anubis took a step back. “Yeah, or what he could discover about the colony and portal. But the Wise Man is right, cousin. Who’s to say he won’t just strike her down the moment he sees you? Then, not only would he have everything he needs from her mind, but he’ll also have you. The people of the colony would be doomed.”
I knew he was right, but I battled internally with the rational part of my brain. When it came to Andie, I rarely stayed the course. Always veering off the path to follow her every whim, tugged along by my heartstrings. I’d do anything for that woman. But I also had a duty to so many…
I let a deep intake of air fill my lungs until they were tight and I looked at my two friends. “We have until sundown to come up with a plan. Otherwise, I’m leaving to get her myself.”
Alistair exchanged a glance with Anubis then regarded me with a simple nod. “That’s fair.”
Before another word could be spoken, I spun on my heel and stomped out of the room. Down the winding stone cased halls and through the colony toward Andie’s quarters. I threw the loose hood of my cloak up around my face, careful to shield it from the eyes of any passersby. I couldn’t chance anyone recognizing me down here.
Not yet. Not when they all still believed Amun to be so threatening. I couldn’t afford to cause a riot amongst the Star People when I had so much else at stake.
The life of Andie, for one.
I made it to her room, unscathed of onlookers, and pushed open the door. Her Tanin pet crouched on the bed, hunched over a mess of crumbs and food scraps. He peered up and growled at me, holding a chunk of bread protectively to his chest. Wretched beast. I rolled my eyes and shut the door as I began pacing the floors. My leg muscles burned with the strain I forced on them, unrelenting in the rage that coursed through my body.
My brother’s face flashed in my mind; evil and sneering, his hands on the woman I loved. Fury seared across my chest and I hauled my fist back before firing it into a wall. Bits of stone crumbled to the floor from a crack that formed, and I winced.
“Fuck!” The word seethed from my mouth as I foolishly tried to shake the pain away from my hand. The skin lay torn across the ridge of my knuckles and blood already dripped from the ripped flesh. I could curse this mortal body sometimes.
Someone knocked at the door. I grabbed a dirty cloth from a pile in a wicker basket to wrap around my hand and opened it to find my cousin standing there with his familiar Niya at his feet. He presented in his human form, and I knew it was a white flag. I turned back into the room in a huff and he followed me.
Anubis glanced at the hole in the wall with a sigh. “I see you’re making yourself at home.”
I wrapped the towel around my hand tightly. No reply to be found.
“Amun, I’m worried about you–”
“You should be!” I snapped. But I took a deep breath and willed myself to calm. Anubis wasn’t my enemy. A stumbled back a step and a sob trembled through me. “I’m…losing my damn mind.”
He took a seat on one of the stone benches. “Why would your brother take Andie and not you?”
Tempest Minds: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 2) Page 1
