Soul Reborn (Key to the Cursed Book 1) (10 page)

“So, since when do
you play with your food,” Inpu asked, rolling the tie of his robe around in his
fingers.

Asar scowled. “She
is not food.”

“She looks delicious
enough to eat.”

A low growl escaped
Asar’s lips.

Inpu held up his
hands. “Just kidding, my friend. I am just curious about your intentions with a
human female. A Nehebkau huntress, no less. Does Nehebkau know his spells are
being used in the human world?”

“I do not know if
he does, and I honestly do not care.” Asar walked to his desk. He poured two cups
of wine.

“What about the
girl? Where does she fit in with Kepi?”

“Do not speak that
name out loud!” Asar snarled.

“I take it you do
not want to talk about it?”

Asar ran a hand
through his hair. He was not sure what the hell he was doing.

“Your ex will go after
Lilly once she learns you are connected.”

Asar took a slow
sip of his drink. “Kepi is afraid of her.”

“What?” Inpu’s eyes
widened. “I have never known the cold
odjit
to fear anything. How do you
know?”

Asar absently
rubbed the silver scar in his side. He did not want to acknowledge his hatred
blinded him to Kepi’s attack. “Lilly split her head in half, and Kepi ran.”

“For the love of
Isis!” Inpu clapped his hands. “I wish I was there to see that. Now, I know why
you are enamored with the girl.”

Asar glowered. “I
am not. I have no capacity to be.”

Inpu huffed. “Asar,
in the entire time I have known you—and that is a very long time—you have never
brought a servant to your home as a guest.”

“She is not my
servant.”

“She is not? Then
why does she carry your mark?”

Asar clutched the
back of his neck where all his tension had settled. As a condition of their
deal, he forced Lilly to agree to be his servant. But after what had just
happened between the two of them, he found it impossible to think of her as such.
His conflicted thoughts only made his head and neck pain worse. “Can we please
talk about something else?”

Inpu slapped him on
the back. “Very well. Let us go for a walk.”

Asar and Inpu
walked around the corner to where the two women sat deep in conversation, like
old friends. This surprised Asar. Nebt rarely embraced someone so quickly,
especially a woman he was involved with. He learned the hard way to trust in
her judgment. Nebt warned him about Kepi the minute she laid eyes on her.

Lilly straightened
her gown. Jealousy burned through Asar’s senses when Inpu sat down next to his
huntress. Only Nebt’s approach kept him calm. As the powerful Goddess of the
Underworld and his counsel, Nebt did her best to manage his not so pleasant
mood swings. Not to mention the additional burden of his duties she shouldered
due to his compromised state. A force to be reckoned with on her own, others
rarely challenged her, even Inpu.

She hugged Asar and
whispered, “I like her. Lilly has a very pure soul.” His cousin kissed his
cheek and turned him so that his eyes naturally fell on Lilly. “Are you going
back tonight?”

Asar sighed. Part
of him wanted to stay right here with Lilly in his bed, but he had to stay
focused. “Yes.”

Nebt nodded. “Ah,
there it is.”

Asar followed his
cousin’s gesture. Lilly’s smile grew when she made eye contact.

“That is for you,
cousin.”

 “What?” Asar stared
at Nebt.

“Happiness. It is the
reason you brought her here, is it not?”

“Perhaps. I am not
sure what I am doing,” Asar admitted, rubbing his jaw.

“It is surprising
she can find the means to smile with the burden she carries in her soul.”

Asar narrowed his
eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“Lilly carries the
belief she is responsible for the reven outbreak in her world. Guilt drives her.
It is her greatest fault, leading her to make decisions not in her best
interest. She would rather sacrifice herself than live with the knowledge she
did not do everything in her power to correct the wrong done.”

“That is ludicrous,”
Asar said, but the words caught in his throat. It made sense. Lilly never asked
him to protect her, only her sisters. She agreed to his terms, even though it
would mean a life of servitude and separation from her family.

But he could not
fathom why she would blame herself for the revens.

“I have never met a
human with such genuine loyalty to the ones she loves. I hope, cousin, you do
not hurt her in the pursuit of your revenge. She is strong, but not
invincible.”

“Kepi will face my
retribution. I will take back what she has stolen from me.”

“Even if that means
losing Lilly?” Nebt turned to look at him. “You know you could grow a new soul
on the love Lilly has for you.”

“It is not the
same.” Asar’s chest burned. He was not ready to let go of his hatred. Not until
everyone involved was dead, and his son was back in his care.

“Is revenge so important
to you?”

“You would do the
same if it was you or Inpu. My son is imprisoned because of Kepi. I will not be
able to bring him back until I recover everything she has taken. I will destroy
her.”

His rage returned
tenfold. Time would not erase what had been done to him. Not even Lilly would
be able to destroy his hatred.

He would not let
her.

* * *

The two deities departed,
leaving Lilly and Asar alone in an uncomfortable silence. She shifted from foot
to foot, trying to think of something to say. Despite how intimate they’d been,
she didn’t know much about him, but the stress on his face was unmistakable.

Lilly peeked up at
him. “I know we have to go soon, but there is one thing left I would like to
do, if you will humor me.”

Asar nodded and
followed a few steps behind. She walked to the edge of the sand where the water
lapped teasingly along the shore. He stood silently with his hands at his side.
Lilly ignored his behavior, and lay down on the cool beach to look up at the
stars. Curiosity flashed in his eyes. His head tilted upward toward the sky.

“Join me,” Lilly
said, patting the sand next to her. His jaw and fists clenched, but she propped
herself up on her elbows and gave him a pleading look. “Please?”

Asar sat next to
her but refused to lie down. Lilly sighed and turned her attention back to the
stars. She missed being able to do this.

“Beautiful, isn’t
it?” When he didn’t answer, she continued. “My father use to take us on his
digs. Even after a hard day at work, he would always make time for me and my
sisters at night. He would teach us the constellations, and then quiz us later.”
The fresh pain silenced her for several moments. “I pray for the day that my
sisters and I can lay and look up at the stars again.”

“Where is your
father?”

Lilly bit the
inside of her cheek. She needed to choose her words carefully. “He’s dead.” A
minor truth. Her father died five years ago, kind of. Staving off the urge to
cry, she turned her attention back to the stars. “It’s just Kit, Kendra and I.”

Asar leaned back on
his elbow and rolled onto his side next to her.

Lilly couldn’t meet
his gaze, afraid he’d see the truth. There were so many things she needed to
tell him, but if she told him too much, he would know. That she was responsible
for the goddess and the revens. For his suffering.

Guilt twisted in
her gut. He would never forgive her—of that, she was certain.

Asar reached out
and touched the mark on her chest with his fingertips. “I will take great care
of you here. You have nothing to fear.” His voice sounded flat and void of any
emotion.

Thankfully, he
misinterpreted the source of her emotions, but it didn’t reduce the pain. With
a fake smile she hid the agony of his words. Caught between the love for her
sisters and the guilt of her mistake.

Lilly touched his
face softly. “I know you will. Thank you for bringing me here. I promise to
behave myself.”

“Everything okay?”
Lilly asked.

She leaned over and
picked up her weapons belt. Even with her back turned, the burn of his glare
penetrated her soul. They were strangers again, their intimacy left behind in
Aaru.

When he didn’t
answer, she continued. “I’m going over to the museum to check in with Kit and
Kendra.”

She finished
buckling her belt and turned to leave. He stepped in her path and held out his
hand, indicating he would transport them. She tried to hide the flush when she
touched him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

The tunnel room
faded to black. She squinted against the brightness of the museum basement.

Kit raked a
suspicious gaze over her. “Where the hell have you been?”

Thankfully, Asar’s
mark of ownership remained hidden beneath her vest. Lilly avoiding Kit’s eye
contact and walked into the office to check on Kendra. Kit had this innate
ability to tell when someone had sex. It felt more like a one night stand,
considering Asar wouldn’t give her the time of day now.

What would a god
like Asar want with a human, anyway? Especially, after he learned the truth of
her involvement in the goddess’ release? Up to this point, she forced the
thought out of her head, but her guilt weighed heavy on her heart since she had
given herself to him.

“What’s the
latest?” Lilly asked, trying to distract herself, but failing miserably. She
jumped when Kit bumped into her, as she spread a map out across the table.

“Viper scouts
detected a new location. No connection with the other sites. It may be where
the goddess retreated. Local authorities started curfews and quarantined the
area. The reven count should be low since they caught it so quickly.”

Lilly swiped her
palm across the map. “It’s worth investigating. We can enter from the east.”

“Game on!”

“I’ll be right
back, gotta hit the bathroom.” Lilly removed her belt and walked to the
restroom, hoping Asar wouldn’t follow. The whisper in her head could be none
other than the Underworld goddess. Before she closed the door, she glanced back
to make sure Asar remained in his position on the wall.

“Nebt?” she whispered,
turning in circles.

A chill skimmed across
her skin and Nebt appeared in her dark form. The goddess held a black finger to
her lips. Out of her pocket she pulled an elaborate knife with intricate
carvings and hieroglyphics on the handle. In her other hand she clasped a parchment
with ancient prayers.

“Kendra will need
to help you. The goddess must be subdued first for the ritual to be performed. Asar’s
heart must remain intact, and placed in the ritual jar that you found. You will
need to bring it to me, so that we can join it to him. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“I will call Kendra
back here. She will be with you momentarily.” Nebt disappeared as quickly as
she arrived.

Lilly walked into
one of the stalls and flushed the toilet in case anyone was listening and then washed
her hands.

Kendra rushed into
the bathroom, threw open the stall door and knelt in front of the porcelain. Her
auburn covered head leaned forward in the commode. “That’s funny.” She stood up
and turned around. “I swear I was about to blow chunks.”

Lilly placed her
hand over her sister’s mouth and signaled her to remain quiet. “I need your
help,” she whispered. “We need to retrieve Asar’s heart from the goddess with
these and the container.” She handed her the parchment. “Can you do this?”

Kendra read over
the ancient hieroglyphic prayer and nodded.

“You must not say
anything to Asar. Be persistent about going tonight and bring the jar with you.”
Lilly glanced at the door and flushed the toilet again. “Wash your hands and
follow me out.”

Kendra’s academy
award winning performance secured her position on the expedition. They were on
their way. Due to the daylight, Asar and Kamen transported to the closest sewer
system.

Lilly slid into the
driver’s seat of the van she commandeered from the fortress. The vehicle had
reinforced bullet proof glass and fortified steel doors. If things turned ugly,
she wanted to be able to throw Kendra into an impenetrable refuge. It could
withstand a small blast.

Truthfully, she worried
more about the local criminal activity than the revens. The building was
located in the seedier part of the city—the perfect place for the goddess to
hide and find unwilling human victims. Money provided safety, and this suburb
had very little resources compared to the business districts. Lilly maneuvered
through the densely packed streets, barely pausing for red lights. Harder to
hit a moving target. Gang members, drug dealers, and prostitutes flashed by the
van’s windows. Hits and transactions were completed in plain view—often
breaking out into turf wars—as people dashed to get to work with their heads
low. Everything was compressed into a small window of time. A slave to the
rotation of the earth, some of them reacted violently while others tried to
live normally among the chaos.

There wasn’t
anything normal about it in Lilly’s point of view. Social anarchy ruled. Lilly
fingered the automatic weapon on her lap. Swords were great against revens, but
not humans toting guns.

The palpable
tension made the sisters unusually quiet on the trip.

Kit sat in the
passenger seat with her booted foot on the dashboard. “I don’t like this. We’ve
got a lot of revens to kill as it is. How the hell are we going to perform this
little side surgery without the men in black noticing? Captain Death rarely
leaves your side.”

Lilly had convinced
her sisters that returning Asar’s heart was only way to recover the key, which
wasn’t far from the truth. There was a reason both she and Asar felt the key’s
presence in that room. She racked her brain thinking of places Kepi would hide
a key. The most likely place seemed to be inside her, possibly the same
location as his heart. The goddess would be able to keep track of both pieces,
and keep them hidden.

“Lil!”

Lilly glanced at her
sister. “What?”

“How are we going
to perform this little ritual without Mr. Deity knowing?”

Focusing back on
the road, Lilly answered, “We create a light barrier. Place shape charges
around the chamber. The goddess can withstand the sunlight for a short duration
enough for us to get it out of her. The pain will do her good.”

“He’s going to be
pissed you kept him out of this.”

“No, we’re fulfilling
our part of the deal. He gets the key and his heart. The gates will be closed
and we move onto the next step.” She drove the van through the quarantine tape
draped across the building’s parking lot.

“And what’s that
exactly?” Kendra leaned forward with fear in her eyes.

“Entombing the
goddess for eternity,” Lilly said, throwing the van into park.

“Oh, that’s all.” Kendra
wiped the sweat from her brow. “No pressure, huh?”

She turned to her
little sister. “I have faith in you. You can do this.”

Kendra flopped back
in her seat. “I don’t even know if the ritual for humans will work on a goddess.
I’m sure the excerpt from the Book of the Dead is only the beginning. We need
Asar’s input on this. Why are you keeping this from him anyway?”

“Because he would
never let me do it. His only motivation is revenge. Once he gets what he wants
he’ll be gone, leaving us to fend for ourselves.” Lilly opened the door and stepped
out of the vehicle. Her booted feet hit the hard asphalt of the abandoned
parking lot next to the target building. The area had been quarantined earlier
in the day, every house evacuated within a three block radius. With the sun at
its highest point in the sky, she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the
glare.

Kit followed her
out and stood in the way. “So what if we are on our own? We’ve been on our own
for the past five years. What’s the time crunch here? Why are you pushing this
before we’re ready?”

Lilly walked around
her sister. “We may have only one shot at this. Do you want the reven thing to
continue?”

Kit grabbed Lilly’s
arm. “Wait a minute. There’s something you’re not telling us. You’ve been
avoiding me since you got back, and Kamen’s as informative as a rock. Where
were you? Did Asar do or say something to you that has you pushing this?”

Lilly stopped,
furious her sisters were dragging their feet. “Kit, let’s end this.”

Kit grabbed her by
the shoulders. “I know that look in your eyes. Something happened between the
two of you. I see the way he looks at you and you at him. I’m not stupid. You
slept with him, didn’t you?”

Lilly hissed. She
hated she was so easy to read, especially by Kit. “So, what if I did? It
doesn’t change what needs to be done here.” She shrugged out of her sister’s
grasp and walked a few steps away.

Kendra’s eyes widened.
“You slept with an Egyptian god? Well… I guess her dry spell is over.”

Lilly and Kit
sounded off in unison. “Shut up, Kendra.”

“Man, we’re fucking
screwed. What happens when he finds out Dad opened the tomb and unleashed all
of this? Huh, what then? You think he has it bad for this goddess—wait until he
finds out the girl he slept with is partly responsible for causing his curse. Oh
shit, we’re in trouble.”

Lilly cringed. Little
did Kit know, it was even worse. Only two people truly knew who opened the tomb
—the individual who released the goddess, and the redheaded goddess herself. She
wanted to take care of Kepi before the truth got out. And more importantly, pay
a debt of conscience by getting the heart and gate key back to the man she had
fallen in love with.

“That’s why we have
to do this,” she said to Kit. “We owe him and all the humans affected by this
curse. We need to make things right again.”

Kit growled and
stalked off several steps.

“Fuck, Lilly. Just…
fuck.”

Kit’s shoulders
rose and fell before expelling another curse. Despite this, Lilly knew her
sister’s sense of duty would prevail. Kit returned to the van and grabbed her
sword. “Well, for all the trouble we’re gonna get into, please tell me he was
good in bed.”

Her sister always
had a way of lightening the mood. Lilly tried to suppress her smile. “Very
good.”

“He better be because
this is going to fuck all of us over in the end.” Kit jogged off to place her
charges, leaving Lilly and Kendra at the vehicle.

Lilly sighed and
turned back to Kendra. “I’m sorry to get you involved with this. If I could
avoid it, I would.”

Kendra smiled and
tilted her head. “You love him, don’t you?”

Lilly looked down
at her boots and kicked at the loose pavement. “I’ve never felt this connection
with someone before. It’s so strange. I can’t quite explain it.”

“Well, if it is any
consolation, Asar was one of Dad’s favorite deities. Second only to Mut, the
Mother Goddess. His notebook is filled with references of her.”

Kendra grabbed
Lilly by the hand. “I know you promised Dad to find a cure, but don’t do it at
your expense. Mother has only kept him alive because she needs us. He’s her
bargaining chip. I want to find this cure as much as you do, but it’s stupid to
take unnecessary risks when we need more information. We are fighting more than
revens here. We have no idea what power this goddess has. Asar may be able to
help us.”

Lilly shook her
head. Kendra’s words left a sour taste in her mouth. Her baby sister had grown
up into an intelligent woman. Despite her unwillingness to admit it, her
sisters were right. In over their heads, they needed his help. Although facing
Asar topped the list of least favorite options next to death, Lilly nodded and
radioed Kit to let her know she needed to talk to the Underworld gods before
they proceeded.

Kit positioned
herself opposite Kamen with her arms crossed over her weapon. Lilly focused on
the dirt floor while Kendra showed Asar the ceremonial knife and ancient prayer
Nebt gave them. She didn’t have to look at him to know he was furious. The temperature
in the room dropped several degrees. Kamen’s posture stiffened, his gaze locked
onto Lilly.

“Leave us.”

Asar’s stern voice
resonated in the small room. Kamen and Kendra exited immediately, but Kit
lingered for a moment before complying with his command. The wake of frigid air
hit Lilly’s body. She straightened, but couldn’t gather the strength to meet
his gaze. Finally, she sighed and looked up into his vacant black eyes.

“Please don’t be
angry with Nebt. She did it at my request.” Lilly heard his teeth grind
together. “This may be our best chance to obtain both the key and your soul.”

“Why would you do
this? Our bargain was only for you to obtain the gate key, nothing else.”

She couldn’t hide
her irritation. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“You would risk
your life to do the right thing for
me
, someone who owns you like a
slave?”