Tempest Minds: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 2)

by Candace Osmond

  “Probably not,” Silas agreed. “Which is part of the reason I came to you today. To ask your help.”

  Isis brightened. “Of course. What can I do?”

  He hesitated. “Can you…create a soul stone for anyone?”

  She searched his face cautiously and swirled her glass before taking a quick sip. “Theoretically, I can. But for whom?”

  Silas turned to me and paled. Why was he nervous? Then I realized…

  “For me?”

  He nodded slowly. “If you want it.”

  My mind blanked. “Won’t that mean I’ll be…immortal?”

  He exchanged a silent glance with his mother and then shrugged. “Yes. You’ll essentially live forever, unless your amulet is destroyed.” He waited and, when I didn’t reply, he added, “Is that something you’d want to do? I mean, it’s a decision of mass proportions.”

  I gawked at him. “The biggest proportions.”

  But a stifled chuckle burped from my chest and I grinned. He worried I wouldn’t want to be with him forever. I had no idea why I hesitated. While most would search for reasons why, I simply couldn’t think of a single reason why I wouldn’t.

  Freaked, but elated, I smiled, and it immediately eased the look on his face. “Be with you forever? It’s not even a question.”

  Our chests heaved toward one another, pushed along by the high of the moment. But Isis cleared her throat and my stomach clenched as I looked at her bashfully.

  “I said theoretically,” she reminded. “I can’t just create a soul stone out of nothing. She’s a mere mortal.” Isis gave me an apologetic tip of the head. “I’d need part of an immortal soul in order to create it.”

  “Take mine,” Silas blurted.

  My head whipped in his direction and a cool sweat broke out across my skin. “No! What?” I shook my head and stepped toward him, my palm sliding over his shoulder. “You can’t just give me something like that.”

  His chin rose toward his mother. “Would it hurt me?”

  She smiled proudly. “No, it wouldn’t. I’d only need a sliver.” She pinched together her thumb and index finger. “A minute grain.”

  Silas rubbed my upper arms, soothing me into the idea. “There. You see? Let me do this for you, Andie. For…myself. I can’t stand the idea that you could die in so many ways here. All because you chose to stay for me. So,” he puffed out a sigh, “I want to give you every fighting chance to survive.”

  I gave it half a second of thought as my face stretched tight with a grin. “Let’s do it.”

  Isis nodded once and with finality as her cup clanged against the table where she placed it. “Very well then.” She stepped back and widened her stance. “Bear with me, it’s been a few millennia since I’ve done this.”

  I had no choice but to stand there and stare in awe as the Goddess closed her eyes and tensed her arms out at her sides. She was a sight to be revered. The air seemed to cool, the sunshine dimmed, and a strange echo carried through the sudden breeze that tickled the air.

  Tiny shimmering particles of dust began twirling around her, seemingly appearing from nowhere. Her hands moved slowly and with care as she pulled the specks into her palm. Against the warm brown of her skin, the small pile of dust glowed like moonlight.

  “Stardust,” Isis spoke, and I realized my mouth was hanging open. She grabbed a clay bowl from the table and carefully poured the bits from her hand. “The lifeforce of the universe. Never dying, always reborn in another.”

  I shook the fog from my mind, breaking the captivating hold her very presence put on me. “It’s just–” I looked at a beaming Silas. “I can’t believe I get to see this. To experience these things. It’s like a dream.”

  His fingers slipped in between mine, fingers of a hand I’d soon hold for the rest of eternity, and part of me danced inside at the thought.

  Isis set the bowl down and looked at her son. “Now, for the next step. Are you ready?”

  Silas nodded without missing a beat and released my hand. I stepped back a few paces, leery of witnessing part of someone’s soul being sliced from their body. Would it be bloody? Quick? Would he feel it?

  Her fingers stretched toward him, pinching the air in front of his chest as if she were coaxing an invisible strand of hair. Silas’ whole body clenched and his back arched, but he made no sound of pain. The breath seemed to solidify in his chest, his eyes unblinking as they fixed on his mother. She continued to pluck at the air just an inch over his heart and, suddenly, her thumb and index finger withdrew a silver thread. It pulsed with life and wriggled in her pinched fingers.

  “Holy sweet Jesus,” I whispered and capped a hand over my mouth. I didn’t know what to expect. This was the stuff of sci-fi movies. But to see a piece of Silas’ soul like that, to witness its ethereal beauty, the magnitude of his sacrifice was that much more.

  He slacked and leaned against an ivy-covered trellis. Instinctively, I went to him, but he waved me off. “I’m fine. Just a little tired.” He motioned toward his mother. “Just wait. She’s not done.”

  My lips pursed as I backed away, giving him room to breathe and recoup the permanent energy just taken from him. Isis scooped up the clay bowl and let the luminous thread spool inside as she swirled it slowly with both hands, mixing the two eternal ingredients together. A pure white glow emanated upward and cast her patient face in starlight. I stared until my eyes watered over. I dared not blink, not wanting to miss a single second of this momentous ritual.

  She came for me then. Her light steps making no sound as she neared. “The final ingredient is a drop of your blood.” She held out her upturned palm in wait. “May I?”

  As if in a trance, I slowly placed my hand in hers and immediately relished in the way it felt. Silky smooth, warm, comforting. Like a mother’s embrace. Historically, Isis was the embodiment of motherhood and cared for all beings equally. Her love was coveted by thousands of people for hundreds of years. And the goddess held my hand. My heart strained with excitement and I breathed through the wave of adrenaline that desperately wanted to burst from my body.

  Her perfect fingernail pierced the skin of my palm and she squeezed to draw blood to the surface. I let her turn it over, allowing red droplets to fall into the bowl where they instantly fused with the other ingredients. The bright white light pulsed and morphed with a tinge of crimson as she emptied the contents into her one hand before setting the bowl down and then cupping the enchanting pile with her other.

  Her elbows stuck out as she pressed down, causing a strange and unsettling vibration to emanate outward. Light diffused with red seeped out from the cracks of her clenched hands and we all waited in awed silence until the glow dissipated and Isis finally pried open her grasp to reveal a single ruby the size of a large bottle cap.

  “Is that it?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the gem. “Is that…my soul stone?”

  Silas was by my side, the warmth of his skin radiating through my clothes. Isis held out the ruby for me to take.

  “It certainly is,” she replied. “Keep it safe, tell no one whom you wouldn’t trust with your own life, and–” Suddenly, her eyes flashed over our shoulders. “Anubis.”

  I spun around to find Silas’ cousin striding toward us with purpose wrought in his worried expression. He wore his jackal form and a new black leather vest over his heaving chest.

  “I have news,” he said and stopped in our little circle. “I’m not sure why I didn’t realize it before, when Andie told me about what happened to the king.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, anticipation beating wildly in my chest.

  One of his pointed ears twitched. “Every soul that passes through to the Underworld, passes through me first. The king, his soul, he…never crossed over. He’s not dead.”

  Silas began to pace. “So, it was all a trick then. A rouse?”

  I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around it all. “But why?”

  “I’m not sure,” Anubis replied thoughtfull
y. “But I also got word that Horus is in the city square eliciting riots and ramping up the people. He’s saying that the God of Chaos and Destruction is upon them for the actions they’ve done in the death of the king.”

  Silas fell ominously quiet and stepped back to comb stressed fingers through his hair.

  “Set?” I said. “Your father? He’s coming?”

  Isis tensed. “No, it’s impossible. Set is buried in a temple deep in the desert where no one can find him.”

  Her son cleared his throat nervously and ran his hand over his gaped mouth, a deep worry seeded in his mossy stare. “Well, that may not be entirely true. What if I told you Horus might know where that temple is?”

  Isis panickily shook her head. “No, he couldn’t…”

  “In the palace the other day, before Andie showed up with Eirik, I overheard him discussing the idea of releasing our uncle, to bring him back.” His gaze turned distant at the memory. “I didn’t think he was serious. But now that I think of it, he was standing over a desk covered in maps and books. As if he’d been doing research.”

  My pulse quickened. “Yes, I’ve seen that room. That’s how Eirik and I got in the palace, through the window.”

  “Well, if that’s true,” Isis said, all color drained from her beautiful face as she scooped up her glass of wine and downed the rest of it, “then I’d say we’re all doomed.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Three of us sat around a table topped with a thick slab of dark wood. The intricate grains hypnotized me, luring me into the ease of its simple beauty. Like a marble cake. Isis fussed with filling its surface with plates of food and drink. She hadn’t muttered another word since Anubis came and broke the news of what Horus has been up to.

  “I just don’t get it,” Silas said. “Why pretend to kill the king?”

  Anubis leaned his chair back on two legs and balanced it with ease as his expression remained staid. “I’m not sure. We’re definitely missing something. Some kind of detail that puts it all together.”

  I shrugged and picked at a plate of grapes that Isis shoved in front of me. “I’m more concerned with why he’s drumming up all this chaos if he’s just scolding the people for their actions. Warning them of Set’s return.” I paused and popped a grape in my mouth, shoving it to the side. “I mean, it’s like taunting a beast and then getting mad when it retaliates.”

  “For the sake of anarchy?” Silas suggested without confidence. He shook his head. “And then intentionally releasing Set to make it even worse? He must know the consequences of bringing our uncle back. This fragile world won’t survive Set’s wrath.”

  Isis slammed down a silver tray of utensils, tears skimming her wide stare. “No.”

  “No?” Silas reiterated and then stood up from his chair to walk around the table to her. “Mother, we don’t want this to be true any more than you do, but Horus is clearly up to something. If he really does release–”

  “No!” she spoke again but this time with angry desperation. She put her hands on the table and leaned forward on them. “It’s impossible. After Set…dismembered your father, I used almost everything I had in my power to do the same to him. I forced him into his elemental form of sand and bound his body in two separate locations across the desert. Then I took a single grain of the sand and secured it in an abandoned temple before I destroyed it. Buried. Hidden. Never to be found.”

  The three of us looked to one another with uncertainty. This was obviously a topic Isis preferred not to discuss. And, until now, I never really thought about how it must affect her. Osiris, her one true love, father of her two sons, was killed–an act deemed impossible–by his own brother. She’s been alone ever since. My heart ached for her because I knew exactly how she must have felt. For two years, I shared that same loneliness. I’d thought I’d lost my father and the man I loved to a cave-in and I had never wanted to face it.

  Set was her Egyptian pit on the other side of the world.

  Silas gently rubbed her arm and eased her down into a chair. “Is it at all possible that Horus could have figured out where this temple is buried? Any way that he could have gotten his hands on the information?”

  Her tawny waves shook. “I’ve never told a soul, never recorded it anywhere.” She tapped the side of her head. “It’s just been in here all this time and Horus has never been able to penetrate my mind.”

  Anubis shoved off from his seat. “Well, whether we wish to believe it or not, Horus has some sliver of information that will lead him to find my father’s resting place. His extreme actions these last few days say enough.”

  “If it’s true,” Isis entertained, “then he has no idea the mistake he’s about to make. Set is an elder god. Only another elder god can possess the strength to defeat him. With Osiris gone all these years, and the energy I spent to bind Set in the first place, I’m just…” She shook her head. “I worry I’m not strong enough.”

  I swallowed nervously. I didn’t feel like I had a right to be in on this conversation. I mean, what could I possibly offer of value?

  “What would happen?” I asked and all six eyes fell on me. “If Set were to escape. Would he really cause that much trouble?”

  Isis poured herself another drink. “How would you feel if you were separated from the one being you loved, turned to sand, and then banished for thousands of years to live out eternity in a temple underground?” She drank long and desperate. “You’d be upset, to say the least. But the God of Chaos and Destruction might very well destroy the world as we know it.”

  I sank back in my chair. “So, that’s a yes, then.”

  They continued discussing the contingencies and bantering about plans to thwart all possibilities. But everything circled back to one conclusion. A question. Why would Horus release Set knowing that the god could destroy even him? It didn’t make sense. Unless…

  I sprang to my feet, starting the three of them. “I think I know what he’s doing.”

  “Horus?” Silas replied and came around the table to where I stood.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Everything he does is for show, to pull the attention to himself. To make everyone love and worship him. He’s narcissistic, yes, but not suicidal. I think…” I mulled it over for another second, “He wanted to make it look like his brother killed the king just to rouse up chaos. And I think he’s hoping to release Set so he can defeat him in the eyes of the people. To save them from themselves. An act of bravery like that would definitely garner their love.”

  They took in my words with heaviness. Isis filled her glass again and stared mindlessly into the distance as she drank from it. Anubis paced thoughtfully while Silas collapsed tiredly into a chair.

  “You’re right,” he said quietly. “God, why didn’t I see it before?” His fists clenched in his lap. “He truly is a moron, isn’t he?”

  “It won’t work, though,” Isis chimed in, her cheeks flush with wine. “Like I said, only an elder god can defeat another elder god. Horus will fail.”

  “And you’re certain you can’t do it?” Anubis asked her.

  She looked at her nephew, an apologetic expression twisted across her face. “I’m afraid so. You know how it works. We draw strength from our counterparts. Mine has been dead for thousands of years and my power has struggled to replenish after what I did to Set.”

  No one had a reply. A heavy sense of doom made its way around the space, pressing down on their shoulders. Isis poured herself yet another drink and I was grateful she sat on the other side of the large table. I don’t think I could handle the luring stench of alcohol, especially in a time like this. And to witness her succumb to the promise it gave made me want to give in, too.

  But I couldn’t. Not now, not when they all needed me.

  I sat at a table circled with the same gods I grew up studying and worshipping, seeing them now in a whole new light. So human, they were. With their worries and broken hearts. Too ready to accept the oncoming fate that Horus was about to rein down on us all.<
br />
  But it hadn’t happened yet. Horus was still in the city. We had time.

  “Well, then,” I said, the sound of my voice cutting through the layer of miserable silence that filled the room. They all turned to me. “That just leaves us with one option.”

  Silas reached up from his chair and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me near. “What are you talking about?”

  I sucked in a deep breath. This could be the craziest idea, but it’s all we had.

  “We find Set’s grain of sand before Horus does and hide it where he can never find it.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  I gasped as I stumbled forward from the portal door into the dark hallway of the colony. We had a plan, but time was not on our side if Horus’ plan was already in motion. We had to hurry. We determined that Isis should stay behind in her palace, to keep the appearance that everything is normal in case Horus came sniffing around. If he found her gone, the paranoid rat might catch on that we knew what he’s up to.

  Our footsteps echoed off the walls, mixed with our anxious breaths until we reached a fork in the corridors. Anubis spun around.

  “Alright,” he said. “You guys know what to do, right?”

  Silas nodded dutifully. “We’ll gather supplies while you fetch some transportation. Then we meet at the mouth of Osiris’ temple.”

  “Good,” he replied and then set his gaze on me. “Are you sure you want to come? This journey could prove to be…difficult.”

  My spine straightened and I leaned closer to Silas. “Where he goes, I go. We’re all in this together.” I sighed nervously. “I just wish we didn’t have to trek across the desert to do it.”

  “It’s too risky to take the portal doors,” Silas reminded. “Isis destroyed the entrance to the temple where the grain of sand is buried, we don’t know what damage was done inside or if the portal doors there are intact. We could get stuck in some kind of limbo.”