I sat down and regarded him from across the table. “It’s just another attempt to gain control over me. He saw us kissing right before he swooped down and took her. He knows she means something to me.”
Anubis nodded slowly, the look of understanding spreading across his slick, dark features. “Something that’s never happened before.”
“Aside from our parents and you, Horus has had no other sway over me. Nothing to dangle with threats.” Another image flashed in my mind. Horus standing over Andie’s bloodied body on the floor. My insides tightened. “I’m worried what he’ll find in her mind, that he’ll discover the location of the colony, the portal. But also…”
Anubis leaned forward, eagerness in his wide eyes. “What? Is this about where you’ve been all these years? Is that something you wish to keep from your brother?”
I could only nod. There was just too much explanation that came with that admittance.
Niya hopped up on the bed and Shadow growled at her, but the silky jackal ignored the creature and curled up for a nap. Anubis rubbed his chin in thought.
“You know, you can trust me,” he said with all sincerity. I knew he was right. And I did, I trusted my cousin with my life. He was more of a brother to me than my own actual brother. “Horus isn’t able to get in my head. Your secret would be safe with me.”
Nerves twisted in my gut like brambles, but he was correct. In all the millennia of our existence, Horus had never been able to get inside the minds of our family. Perhaps it was due to their creation, their wholeness. Just another dreadful reminder of how incomplete I was. Forever tied to the soul that I was made from.
My brother’s.
But Anubis was like a locked vault sitting before me, ready to safeguard all the secrets that plagued my broken soul. But my time with Andie and Alistair in the future…it didn’t plague me at all. It wasn’t a scar on my life, rather…a bright light in all the darkness that my brother has casted over me all these millennia. My time with them was precious, something I held close to my heart. But I knew I could share it with Anubis.
“I rigged the portal for time travel,” I admitted.
The skin between his brow pinched together. “Time travel? But, that’s not possible.”
The words were hardly a whisper from his lips. But I nodded.
“Oh, it is,” I assured him and leaned back against the wall while I nursed my knuckles, the blood already seeping through the cloth. “It took a while, but Alistair and I figured it out and we altered one of the keystones. I spent thousands of years trapped in my amulet, before Alistair found it and accidentally released me. When I’d discovered how long had passed and saw the state of the world centuries from now, I knew I had to come back here and fix it.” I shifted and leaned forward in my seat. “Something happens here that affects the evolution of the beings on this planet. Star People are nothing but a myth, and no one knows what they truly are or what they’re capable of.”
I left it there, allowing my cousin the time to process it all. It was heavy, that I knew. Our kind have roamed the universe for millions of years, but never dreamed the concept of time travel. Never needed to. Time holds no value when you’re immortal.
His gaze fell to the floor as he retreated inside his own mind.
“Do you…believe me?” I asked after the silence became too much to stand.
Anubis looked up and offered a smile. “Yes. Always. I’m on your side, Amun.” His smile widened to a grin. “Or is it Silas now?”
I chuckled. “Both. Something in me recognizes both men. I’ve yet to experience that in all my lives.” I rubbed my lips together in thought. “My life with Andie and Alistair, before we arrived here, it’s not something I wish to share, nor is it something that can fall into the wrong hands.”
“Like your brother’s,” he replied in agreement.
I shrugged. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever had that’s...mine. I hope to one day return home to it. In peace. But I just couldn’t ignore my duty to come back here and fix what my brother has done or will possibly do.”
Anubis turned in his seat and raked his hands over his thighs in sudden frustration. “Aren’t you sick of this? Millions of years, Horus has dictated almost everything you do. I mean, how many times have you guys killed one another? How is that any way to live?”
He was right. Again. I stood from my seat and slowly paced the floor between the table and bed. Andie’s wretched pet bared his teeth every time I came near the mattress, but I ignored the beast. “I just, I carry this sense of guilt with me everywhere I go. Since my creation. I’ve always felt like I owed Horus something. A part of me. Flesh for flesh, and all that.”
Anubis narrowed his eyes. “What your parents did is no fault of yours. Your creation is not something you should feel guilty over. You don’t owe anyone anything.”
I slowed my stride and glanced down at the two animals that sat on the bed. So oblivious to the perils of our lives. I wished for such bliss. The Tanin creature blinked those massive, bug-like eyes up at me with curiosity. Did he wonder where his beloved Andie was? Or did he know? I reached out to pet him, and he snapped his pointed teeth, narrowly missing my fingertips. But he quickly softened, thinly tolerating my touch when I began scratching at the skin between his ears.
Anubis stood and took a few steps toward me. “So, what do you want to do?”
A deep sigh billowed from my chest. “I need to get Andie back. Whatever the cost.”
He crossed his arms. “Yeah? But then what? Let’s just say you succeed. You save Andie from the clutches of Horus and you both escape. How are you going to protect her from your brother for the rest of her life?”
It was time I faced the truth I knew had been there the whole time. I just didn’t want to accept it. I looked to my loyal cousin and failed to hide the rush of broken emotions that surfaced as I pursed my lips, my eyes glossing over.
“I can’t,” I admitted quietly. “It’s too dangerous for her to be here. She…” I stomped down the urge to change my mind. “Her and Alistair must go back.”
Chapter Three
The tendrils of a wine coma were so much heavier than a dream. Everything felt so real, so tangible. My hands gently slid through the damp grass beneath me as I buried my toes in sand. The body of water that stretched to the horizon, one long gone in my time, lapped about with the ebb and flow of the warm breeze.
I tipped my head back and sucked in a deep breath that filled my lungs with a sweet, mild air as two arms wrapped around me from behind. My heart fluttered at his touch. After so many years without him, the simple nearness of Silas sent my pulse soaring. But he rested his head against my back with a sigh, and I knew.
“You’re saying goodbye again, aren’t you?” I whispered over my shoulder.
Even in a dream, I knew something was wrong.
“Andie, I love you. Almost too much at times,” his voice vibrated against my skin. “You’ll never understand the sacrifices I’m willing to make just to keep you safe.”
I turned in his arms and touched my palm to his worried face. Silas leaned into it. “And what about the sacrifices I’m willing to make? For you. For us.” The rims of my eyes burned. “I’m not ready to let you go again.”
He hugged me close, his lips on mine immediately. The taste of our tears touched my tongue and I gasped for air. But Silas refused to let me go. Finally, he pulled back.
“I understand,” he said in a breathy reply. “But, since only one of us is immortal, I can’t bear the thought of keeping you in line of danger just to appease my selfish heart.”
I stared down at the little patch of grass between us, darkened by our shadow. I didn’t like this dream anymore. But it was still better than the reality that faced me outside. I looked up and smiled through the tears.
“Well, if you’re leaving me again, at least let me look at your face one last time. Etch it into my memory forever.”
My fingertip traced all the beautiful, sharp lines of his
face. Admiring the raw beauty of such a man. Unlike anyone I’d ever seen before. His skin was the color of wet sand drying in the sun and felt just as soft. His eyes dragged me in, sucking me into a hypnotizing void. Green and gold, my two favorite colors.
But the longer I stared, the faster they began to fade. Melding and morphing into a familiar empty glower. The milky walls of the dream sagged until they were gone, and Horus’ dark gaze fixed on me from just a foot away. But sideways. He grabbed my arms and sat me upright before propping me against the wall.
“There we go,” he said with mock concern and futilely wiped the dirt from my clothes. “I thought you’d never wake up.”
My stomach rolled immediately, empty of food and burning from the heavy dose of wine I’d downed earlier. The smell of my festering wounds mixed with ripe body odor filled my nostrils and a wave of nausea forced its way through me, pushing upward.
With a single glance to my right, I saw the empty overturned pitcher and guilt took over me. I leaned forward just as a sour liquid spewed from my mouth…and all over Horus’ linen shirt.
“What the–” He jolted back and gawked down at the reddish-brown splotch on his clothes, his hands hovering helplessly in the air at his sides and then glared at me from under his lowered brow. “I should make you eat this!”
I painful guffaw hiccupped from my chest and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Technically, I already did.”
The stench of my own vomit swirled in the tiny space we occupied and sent another wave of dizziness washing over me. My head spun, threatening to black out, and I slowly began to fall over. But Horus hastily grabbed my arms and forced me into an upright position.
“Pull yourself together!” he demanded. “You’ve yet to tell me anything I need.”
An agonized moan sputtered from me and he tightened his grip on my arms. I didn’t like him this close. His nearness scratched under my skin and only reminded me of my situation; that I had nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.
I strained for every breath as I glared at him. “Why don’t you just take it from my mind like you do with everyone else? Why drag it out like this? You’re just torturing us both.”
His hands swiftly retreated, and I noticed his body stiffen. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“Yes, it does,” I insisted. “Your brother told me all about how it works. You can seep into anyone’s mind, get information. Sway their will to your own.”
Horus looked away without a reply.
Then something struck me, a thought. A…realization. If I hadn’t been in so much pain or inundated with alcohol, perhaps I would have noticed it earlier. The prying, the torture, the wine to loosen my lips.
A laugh grew in my empty belly and I let it spread. Horus’ sudden look of dismay only made me laugh even harder and I nearly fell over in a delusional fit.
“What could possibly be so funny?” he asked spitefully, but with a hint of embarrassment.
“You–” I struggled through a laugh, “You can’t do it. Can you? You can’t control my mind.”
His expression blanked. “I’ll find a way.”
Horus stood on his feet and I carried on with my fit of laughter as his leather sandals scuffed the floor of the cell. His fists clenched in balls at his sides. How could someone choose to live with such anger? Such hatred for others and yet desire their love so badly?
I calmed the roll of chuckles and sagged against the wall behind me. Sweat covered my skin in thick layers, mixed with blood and dirt in areas. The blaring sun above, filling the cell from the open ceiling, didn’t help.
“No, you won’t,” I replied. “And you know it. That’s why you’re so frustrated. Maybe if you spent your energy actually building trust and showing people why they should love you, rather than forcing their hand, you’d get somewhere.”
He turned on his heel in a cloud of muttered grumbles and stormed out. I fell into a second wave of maddening laughter, stoked by the fading moans of frustration I heard follow Horus through the palace. In my final hours of agony, at least his aggravation brought me a bit of joy.
But I was beginning to feel a slow disconnect from my dying body. My inner resolve slowly pulling away, leaving behind the pain and infection that I knew must be flooding my blood stream by now. My broken leg beneath the denim and leather of my pants was so swollen and throbbed with an intense heat. I ached to free it from the confines of the fabric, but I was too cowardly to move that much.
I glanced down at my tattoo, the handmade outline of an ankh, and thought about how strong Silas must have been to withstand the wrath of his brother for two years. Even without his mind fully intact, it must have been awful to endure those first few days. Or months. Or…who knew how long Horus had tortured his brother for information before realizing he was broken.
I had to be strong. I had to hold on to the flimsy hope that one day I’d get out of here alive.
A recent memory flashed across the forefront of my mind. Eirik and me sitting in the Great Hall. Them telling me how the Venuvians aren’t magic, they only tap into our body’s natural ability to heal. And then Silas. Before his wretched brother swooped down and plucked me from his arms. How I’d watched that dying flower flourish in his hand.
You have the potential. It’s born into you.
I had no clue how to tap into that. How to find my own ability to heal or even use it. But I had to at least try. What did I have to lose at this point? I was a goner soon anyway, if no one came to find me. If Horus didn’t grow tired and let me go. But even if he did spare me that mercy, I wouldn’t get very far.
I spotted a small tear in my jeans, just below the knee and above the break in my tibia. Carefully, I poked two fingers inside and slowly pulled it apart, widening the hole until it spread down the leg of my pants and I could finally free my broken appendage. The relief was palpable, and I stiffened against the scratchy wall behind me as I braced through the pain that came with the rush of blood that pulsed upward.
Like a woman in labor, I breathed through it, waited out the new sensation of agony. Imagining the sight of an injury like this is one thing, but actually seeing it with my own eyes was another. I struggled with the reality. The dark purple skin, tight and shiny. The thick, dark blood that oozed on the surface. The visual made me sick and I fought my way through the desire to pass out. I wrapped my shaking hands around the area below my knee, mindful not to touch or disturb the break just below it.
“Okay,” I said to myself. “You can do this. Just…imagine it?”
I felt a little foolish, but I knew it was possible. I’d seen it with my own eyes. Had it done to my body by others. I could rapidly heal; I had the ability to endure it. But could I evoke it?
With a deep, jittery breath over my trembling lips I closed my eyes and focused on the festering wound. The jagged piece of bone that poked through the broken skin. I pictured it joining with the other end. The massive pockets of infection melting away. Over and over, I held the image in my mind. My hands warmed against the skin of my leg and I swear I could feel something working. Perhaps it was all an illusion, built on the flimsy hope that this could work. Or…
Maybe it actually was working.
Something sounded in the distance, deep in the palace. Voices arguing. Deep tones that were familiar, but they mixed together under a muffled echo that the stone structure provided. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but it was heated. And it was a distraction.
An involuntary shake entered my body and I struggled to keep my focus. Hours of torture paired with severe dehydration and a fatal wound had long taken a toll. I held on as long as I could, with the very last ounce of my strength, but it wasn’t enough. The strange energy I’d tapped into began to fizzle away and the severity of my infliction sprung back like an elastic band.
Darkness closed in from all sides of my vision and pushed me down to the floor, forcing me against my will into another coma-like sleep. I fought back with what little I had left, floating
in and out of consciousness as the sounds of rattling metal clamoured against my ears.
My cage was being opened.
Grimy strands of my hair partially blocked my view as I lay on the floor and peered up at a tall visitor, blocked out by the late afternoon sun that flooded the cell from above. The shadowed figure then knelt at my side and my blurred vision faintly picked out the familiar features of the man I loved.
“Silas?” I hardly whispered.
His fingers gently moved the hair from my face, and I weeped at the pain I witnessed on his.
“What has he done to you?” he said in disbelief, his voice breaking with every word. I saw him glance at the empty pitchers of wine and mutter something under his breath.
I thought I replied but no sound touched my ears and the blanket of darkness pressed down even harder. But I had to hold on; it was finally over. Silas was here to save me. His two able arms slid under my body and scooped me from the floor. But the pain was too much. I wrapped myself in the safety and comfort of his touch and gave in to the darkness. Let it take me away. Carrying with me the image of my savior into a vast field of emptiness where I waited for death.
Chapter Four
Reality slowly pulled me from the depths of nowhere, as if I were being yanked by the neck through warm water until I finally broke the surface. Pain and agony were there to greet me. Like two mobsters standing over my grave, and I pried my parched tongue away form the roof of my mouth as I let out a moan.
There was a strange disconnect between my brain and body and I wasn’t sure if the last week had just been some horrible nightmare or not. The last concrete memory I could muster up was the image of Howard driving a knife into my gut. Slowly, my mind connected to my arm and I shakily searched for the wound in my side, only to find a two-inch scar that was already mostly healed.
Which meant…
I blinked away the cloudy film that covered my eyes and assessed my surroundings. Jagged stone walls all around, a small table of medical supplies in the corner next to a few wooden crates. Shadow lay curled in a sleeping ball between my feet. Like a cat. That’s when I noticed the brace around my leg from the knee down. Similar to a cast, but not the white plaster kind. No, this was made of metal rods wrapped tight to my mangled leg with linens. It hurt like hell, but at least the appendage no longer hung from my body at an unnerving angle.
Tempest Minds: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 2) Page 2
