Now I sped down the winding stone corridors, still in hopes of finding him. My labored breaths echoed off the empty walls, matched by my every step. I finally reached the false wall and maneuvered the golden tablet embed there until the mass of stone began to rumble and slid out of the way. He had to be here. He just had to be.
But the place was bare.
I peeked out from around a wide column, cautiously scanned for any sign of movement. Carefully, I moved further into the temple, keeping to the shadows as I checked different chambers. The wide entrance came into view and a fresh breeze caressed my face, tickling the skin with my hair.
My back snugged the wall as I crept closer, but I stopped in my tracks. Something moved outside on the ground. A shadow. Could it be Silas? Or maybe it was a guard. Or worse, Horus’ looming shadow as he paced the skies. I waited for more movement, for something–or someone–to emerge, but nothing happened. My heart raced so fast it made me nauseous and I closed my eyes as I fought to breathe through the wave.
Nervously, I approached the doorless entry and inched around the mouth of the temple to peer outside just as a figure clamoured inside and nearly knocked me off my feet. A scream escaped from me, my body shoved up against a wall, and a dirty hand cupped my mouth. But all fear washed away as I peered up into the wild eyes of the man I loved.
I pulled down on his hand and desperately put my lips to his, raking my fingers through the back of his hair as his entire body leaned against me. I severed our kiss and we both heaved for air, our foreheads pressed together.
“Are you alright?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I took cover under an uprooted tree for the night. Horus and his men circled the skies for hours, but they never came down to the ground.” Silas leaned back and examined me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Eirik and I slept in a cave. We just got back.” I rolled up the frumpy sleeves of the cloak I still wore, noting how his half naked body was covered in dirt and moss stains. “How–what was that last night? That thing you did in the city square.”
“It’s…one of my abilities,” he said, uncertainty in his tone. Was he afraid to tell me?
“What does that mean?”
Silas’ shoulders slumped. “I can manipulate the elements around me with energy. As if–it’s like I’m connected to the universe in a way no one in my family is. Perhaps, because I was made rather than born.” He waited a moment, allowing me time to let it sink in. He searched my face with a sense of desperation. “But no matter how powerful I am, it’ll still never be enough to protect you from all the dangers of this world. Of this time. It’s not safe for you here.”
Then I remembered what he’d done and shook away the fog of relief as I shoved at his chest like a scorned child. “I’m still pissed at you!” I told him, failing to ignore the sheer look of betrayal wrought across his face.
“What?” His forehead pinched together.
“For going back to your brother,” I told him angrily. “For trying to ship me back to the future. Without you! Without even a goodbye.”
“Andie, I’ve always done things your way. Always. Now it’s time we do this one thing my way. I can’t stop my brother if I have to worry about your life, too.”
I shook my head, fighting back tears of frustration as I turned to storm away. But Silas caught my arm and pulled me back.
“I promise to come back to you once I’m done what I need to do.” His jeweled stare pleaded for me to understand.
I let the tears spill over. “How can you ask me to just turn my back and leave you?”
He sighed impatiently. “I’m not…asking.”
I don’t know what came over me. Years of unresolved heartache, the affects of recent events, the rollercoaster of life and death that constantly hauled me along like a ragdoll. Who knew? But something–a breaking point, perhaps–clicked in my mind and I hauled back before slapping his face so hard my hand immediately stung from the impact.
“You don’t get to decide,” I said steadily.
Silas rubbed his cheek, but there was no look of retaliation on his face. He knew he deserved it. Still, a ping of regret touched my heart and began to seep out.
I chewed at my lip, trying to bit back the wave of tears. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he assured me solemnly. “Bound to happen eventually.”
“I can handle myself, you know,” I kept my even tone. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“But I will. I do, all the time. Nothing else in this world is important to me as your life, Andie.”
“Exactly.” I jabbed a finger at his shoulder. “My life. I choose what’s done with it. I choose to stay. I choose to fight to be with you. Silas,” I slowly neared, “you don’t have to do this alone.”
He fixed his stare on the floor, cold and distant. Calculating. Then he sprung to life and grabbed my upper arms, pushing me up against the hard wall with a smack that nearly knocked the breath from my lungs. But it wasn’t an act of anger, but rather one of desperate passion. His mouth was on me and all thoughts of worry or anger fled from my mind.
My hands clawed at his shoulders, frantic and anxious, pulling him as close as I could. His weight leaned against me as his torso rolled, hot and wanting. One hand feverishly worked to rip the tattered cloak from my body, leaving me exposed as he hoisted me up. My weak legs wrapped around his naked waist and the pressure of his driving thrust forced a loud cry of pleasure from me. Silas stifled the sound with his mouth over mine, devouring my lips in a breathy kiss.
“God, I love you,” the words heaved from my throat.
Silas’ fingers curled in my hair and tugged, forcing my face to tip upward. His cheek, warm and pulsing, smoothed against mine as his words tickled my ear. “I love you, too.”
I remained nailed to the wall by his able body, my legs wrapped tight around him like a vice. His mossy eyes searched mine for an answer to the question that sparkled in his gaze and I nodded.
A part of me, the part I could never trust, the addict, needed Silas now more than I ever have. Like a drink, he was the elixir of my salvation. I just wished he’d stop trying to send me away, right back into the waiting arms of my addiction.
And just like that, I knew I could no longer keep it a secret from him. I had to tell Silas how I let alcohol ruin my life after he disappeared. But that was a conversation for later. Right now, all I wanted was to drink him in, to get lost in the God of a man that held my heart in his capable hands.
And so, I did.
Chapter Twelve
If I were staying in the past, then we couldn’t let the key to time travel fall into the wrong hands. The portal must be deactivated. But it wasn’t a choice that was totally mine to make.
Silas walked with me, hand in hand, toward my father’s quarters. We’d slipped back to my room first so I could get some regular clothes, but the skin of my back still stung from the scratchy wall of Osiris’ temple. I grinned and touched my finger to my tender lips. It was a welcome pain.
Silas knocked at the old wooden door and we waited a moment until the sound of footsteps shuffling across the dirt floor could be heard. The door swung open and Dad’s eyes widened at the sight of us.
He immediately took me in his arms. “Peach, you’re alright. I’ve been worried sick.”
“I’m sorry,” I told him, then tossed a sarcastic nod toward Silas. “But someone had to go save this idiot.”
Dad, confused, smiled through it and patted Silas on the arm. “It’s good to see you well and alive, my friend.”
“I’m not sure she’d have it any other way,” Silas replied.
Dad chuckled and turned back in the doorway. “Come in, come in. I assume we have things to discuss.”
Anubis was inside, sitting at the little table with Niya curled at his feet. “I see we thought correctly.”
“Yeah,” I replied and plunked down on the lumpy mattress. My body was exhausted and desperately needed to fall into a com
a. But my mind was alive with thoughts of everything that lay ahead. “You were right. Didn’t take long for him to show up.”
“So,” my father chimed in as he stirred a bubbling pot over the little open fire pit nestled in the wall. “Explain what’s going on in the city. Should we be concerned?”
Silas and I exchanged a look. “Yes, very concerned. Horus hosted a massive party for the king’s birthday. Then had Silas serve him poisoned wine. He fell to the floor, dying instantly in front of half the city.”
Dad’s furrowed brow caught the light of the fire. “Why on earth would he do that? He controls the king.”
“I guess to mar Silas’ reputation with the people?” I suggested. “It’s all I can think of.” I glanced at Silas who stood leaned against the wall by the door. “He behaves like a selfish child. He does these things because he wants attention. Your attention. He wants to be loved and thinks you don’t care about him.”
He raked his fingers through his hair and lowered to a squat. “No matter what I do to prove him wrong, he’ll never believe that he can earn love. He’ll always think he has to take it.”
“And we all know he’ll do anything to attain it,” Anubis added.
“Which is why we must protect the portal now more than ever,” I said. Dad quirked his head, curious. “Horus can’t get inside my mind, not yet anyway. But if he ever finds a way, if he ever got his hands on you…it’s not enough to just protect it. It has to be deactivated.”
“What do you mean?” Dad questioned. “Destroy our only ticket home?”
I shrugged helplessly. “Is that not what you were willing to do before? When Silas ordered you to take me back to the future?” The second my words touched the air I gasped and whipped my head toward Anubis with a fright.
Silas stepped forward, a reassuring hand held out toward me. “It’s okay, I already told him everything.”
I let out a heavy sigh of relief. It’d be nice not to have to watch my every word around him. Anubis just nodded in understanding then stood from his seat.
“Horus has spent years trying to track down this portal, to use it to travel to our hidden mother site on the other side of the world. He wants to get off planet to find one he can rule himself.” Anubis eyed us all intently. “But if he ever found out that the portal we protect can now send people through time…there’s no telling what he could do with that. He could go back to when we first arrived on this plant and eradicate all Star People. Claim this world for himself.”
I scooted off the bed and walked over to my father. “I’ve made my decision. I’m staying here with Silas. There’s nothing left for me back in the future.” I took his hand in mine, a hand that had guided me for so long. “But you have a choice, though. You can go home where it’s safe before we destroy the portal key.”
Dad regarded me with a look of disbelief, and the needy part of my soul desperately hoped he chose to stay. I was too selfish to make him go, no matter how much I knew it was the right thing for him to do.
“Andelyn,” he spoke with a soothing tone that reached the child in me. “You’re my flesh and blood. My only child, my only tie to this world. Do you honestly think I’d ever willingly choose to leave you? To live in a world where you didn’t exist?” The wrinkles around his eyes scrunched together. “How can I go back knowing what I know? And like you said before, I could never explain my sudden reappearance. I’m staying with you.” He squeezed my hand and tears stung my dry eyes. “I’m never leaving you behind again.”
“Then it’s settled,” I said and turned to face the gods in the room. “Let’s go deactivate a portal.”
***
I held my breath as we descended the stone staircase that lowered us into the pit. Images flashed across my vision; the struggle with Howard on the landing, the knife in the gut, the impact when my dying body smacked against the floor below.
My feet touched the bottom and I let my lungs deflate. I suddenly felt cold, but I knew it was just the residue of fear in my veins. Silas and Dad made their way toward the middle, where I’d once fallen. The portal.
“Are you okay?” Anubis asked.
I shivered. “Yeah, just strange standing in the exact spot where I died.”
“You didn’t die,” he replied firmly.
I pursed my lips as I slowly nodded. Didn’t I, though?
Everything I am, my entire existence, was gone. Left behind in a time I’ll never return to. The whole world, the only one I knew, considered me dead. And, in some ways, I was. Passed on, moved on, whatever you wish to call it. I was here now, living a new life. Who’s to say that’s not what we do when we die?
Silas stood in the center, over the keystone, while Dad held a new one to replace it. I couldn’t get close; the wicked memory of what Howard did was still too fresh. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over it. So, I held back a few feet and did my best to hold it together.
Apparently, my best wasn’t enough.
Anubis said nothing, but he discreetly took my hand and stood with me in solidarity. My pulse slowed and I could fill my lungs without the weight of fear beating down on them. In that moment, I realized that I was making connections here. More than I ever had in my entire life. Like with Eirik, and Shadow. It was a new sensation, but some strange part of my soul wanted more of it. I never really knew much about Silas’ past or his family before. And now, here, I could see the people who’ve shaped him. Anubis, his mother, even his wretched brother. I suddenly felt more connected to him than ever before.
We watched in silence as Silas stood and reached his hand into the air. His foot stomped the floor and a glorious staff shot up from below. The same one that he once used to…kill me. He caught it in a stern grip and its tip–a golden sphere– glowed like sunshine. I had to shield my eyes with my hand.
He raised it up, every muscle in his body tensing as he brought the point of the staff down on the stone with an ear-piercing clang. I flinched and covered my ears as the sound echoed off the cavern around us with nowhere to release. The air vibrated long after the sound dissipated. Silas set down his staff and knelt to pull the shattered bits of stone from its slot while Dad clumsily dropped the new blank one in place.
And just like that, time travel was no more.
They filled their arms with the broken pieces and came over to where we stood in wait. I still couldn’t believe it. Yes, I made the choice to stay, but now the possibility of returning home was truly gone. It was just an idea before now, and the finality of it stirred dizzily in my mind, searching for a place to settle.
“How’re you doing, Peach?” Dad asked and struggled with the heavy bits of stone. “Being down here, after what Howard did.”
I shrugged, not wanting my father to worry, as Anubis took one of the larger pieces off his hands. “I’m fine.”
He kissed the top of my head and then turned to follow Anubis up the stairs. I moved to trail behind, but Silas tugged at my sleeve and held me back.
His eyebrows rose with widened eyes. “Are you, though?”
“What?”
“Are you okay?” he continued. “You’ve been through a great deal these last few days, even more so since you traveled through the portal.”
My nostrils flared as I sucked in a deep breath. I was tired of being afraid, tired of being in pain, sick of yielding to my demons. So, I took a moment to admire his raw beauty, the sharp line of his worried mouth, traced my thumb under the skin of eye and cupped his cheek.
“I’m good,” I told him with as much certainty as I could muster. “I’m with you.”
Silas’ hand moved up to cover mine on his face and he kissed my palm. His soft green eyes flashed with an idea and he grinned. “Well, if you’re going to be sticking around and constantly throwing yourself in peril, then you’re going to need a backup plan.”
“What do you mean?”
He hugged me close with a tired but hopeful sigh. “Let’s go see my mother.”
Chapter Thirteen
&n
bsp; We strolled across the cool marble floors of Isis’ mansion while in search of her. Silas still had yet to tell me what we were doing here and being in a place where Horus could so easily find us made me jittery inside.
My head whipped back and forth, scanning every line. Every shadow.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on or are you just planning to let me die of an anxiety attack?”
To my side, he snickered and took my hand as he led me to his mother with a total confidence of exactly where she was in the building.
“Just wait,” Silas teased.
We turned a corner and emerged into a luscious garden. The ceiling opened up to the sky, sunshine beamed down, nourishing the vivid colors of plant life. Flowers of all sorts; white Egyptian lilies, pink lotus, the scent of jasmine heavy in the air.
And there she was. Isis.
As always, she was radiance. Thin white fabric draped down her tall body, her dark golden hair gleaming in the sunlight, like copper. She caught sight of us in the corner of her eye and released a flower she’d been smelling from a low hanging vine.
“Silas!” she exclaimed and bounded for us. She smiled at me. “Andie.”
“We’ve come to ask for your help,” he jumped right to the chase. “Sorry for the curtness, but we’re in a hurry.”
“What’s the matter?” she replied, her tone suddenly heavy with concern. “Does this have anything to do with what I heard? What on earth is happening in the city?”
He glanced at me and we shared a mutual sigh. Silas tipped his head. “Horus.”
Isis gave a look of dismay only a mother could pull off and shook her lowered head.
I wrapped my arms across my body. “He’s got some elaborate plan to make everyone hate…Amun. So, he can step in and act as the better brother…or something? The better God?” A groan rumbled in my throat. “We’re not really sure.”
The air became tight with her contrite silence. With a deep sigh, she spun on her heel and marched over to a small table that displayed various fruits and breads and poured herself a glass of wine. “That boy will never learn, will he?”
Tempest Minds: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 2) Page 8
