The dull throbbing ache dragged me from unconsciousness, where I would have preferred to stay. Blood blurred my left eye, but I had enough sight in my right to see Shukra standing in front of me. She held the iron bar and beat it against her opposite palm. The crusted flakes falling off it were likely rust or blood. Shukra wasn’t a large woman, but she had put every muscle behind the earlier swing. I’d be feeling it for a while.
I pulled on my wrists—snagged tight over my head and tied to the bedpost. They didn’t give.
“How’d you like that, Acehole?” She smirked.
I couldn’t reply or utter any spellwords around the rag stuffed into my mouth. Simple enough to escape, I thought, but as I tried to shift into ash, nothing happened.
Shukra’s dark eyebrow arched. “You left your little box behind. I studied it and picked out the hieroglyphs similar to those the witches used to trap you. I figured the markings on the box could trap more than your memories. Oh look, I was right.” She pointed down and drawled, “Like always.”
She’d scratched hieroglyphs into the dusty floor. I was bound and silenced, and at any second, Aika might enter the room. If the priests saw me trussed up and at Shukra’s mercy, my game of lies would be over.
“Youhavetoletmego,” I said, but it came out as indecipherable bundle of grunts.
“I’m gonna tell you a story.” She tilted her head. “There once was a soul eater. Most everyone hated the self-centered, sanctimonious, hypocritical reptile. But the soul eater had a clever, deadly, and devilishly beautiful sorceress cursed to his black soul. For five hundred years, the soul eater fought against the asshole gods, and all the while, the magnificent sorceress stood valiantly beside him.”
I narrowed my eyes. This wasn’t helping, and I already knew how the story ended. Plus, that wasn’t how I remembered our shared past. The devilishly clever sidekick had been a vicious, condemned demon, but sure, we’d stick with magnificent so long as she would cut me down at the end of her tale.
“The gods assumed he was just a stupid, no-name soul eater. And sometimes, even he thought the same. But when the end of the world came and the Lord of the Desert rose, the soul eater had a plan because, you see”—Shukra approached, looking me dead in the eye—“he was not just a soul eater. Turns out he was the Baddest of the Bad and the gods were in for one hell of a wake-up call.” She stopped close enough for me to see the purple specks of power in her eyes. “He confided in his brilliant sorceress and told her to keep his friends safe while he infiltrated the Desert Lord’s world with lies. His sexy and dashing counterpart told him it was too risky, that he would lose himself to the powerful memories, but he assured her his plan would work.”
Shukra paused. Sometime during her tale, her smile had faded. Deep worry lines dug into her brow.
“He forgot how she knew the sound of his lies. She tried to reach him in time, but the battlefront was bloody and her friends were fragile humans who could die like flies. However, she courageously upheld her promise and kept the fragile humans safe, but in that time, the soul eater turned into everything they both feared. He had become the lie.”
Trust in the lie. Trust in the lie. I glowered at her as hard as I could. If she took the rag out, I could at least explain that I had to keep up the act. “Iftheyseemelikethis…”
She ignored me and continued with a dramatic drop in her tone. “He captured the noble sorceress, threatened to cut out her tongue, and left her tied to his bedpost.”
I rolled my eyes. Shu, a damsel in distress? Nobody would believe that. Shukra slammed the edge of the bar under my chin and leaned in, crushing my windpipe. “Now I have a call to make,” she sneered. “Kill Apophis while I can and maybe save the world for all of ten minutes, right before Osiris or Seth claim it, or trust that somewhere behind all that godly glamor Ace Dante still lives.”
Holding her glare revealed her light soul. Whatever she decided, I was proud of her. She had risen from the darkest depths to outshine the likes of me. There wasn’t any other condemned demon I would have wanted to spend the last five hundred years with.
Her lips twisted and her eyes narrowed as though she was trying to see through all the embers in my eyes and into my soul. There wasn’t much light in there, but a flicker must exist. I was evidence that gods could change, even if my light only lasted a short while before the dark swallowed it.
“Ugh, I’m going to regret this.” She yanked out the rag and backed up.
I spat fibers and dirt to the side, opened my mouth to speak—
“If you so much as utter something with power, I’ll ram this bar so far down your throat it’ll stake you to the floor.”
“Love you too, Shukra.”
She tilted her head again, studying my words. “Say something else.”
“Did you bring vodka?”
Her dark eyes darkened further and narrowed to cutting slits. “More.”
I growled around a curse. “Cut me down before the priests overhear or, worse, before they see this…”
Her smile twitched, and she dragged her glare up and down her quarry: me. “Do you remember that time I tied you to the railroad? I can’t remember what the point of it was, but I recall how I enjoyed every twist of the rope. I get all tingly just thinking about it. Oh, where was that? We were traveling out west—”
“Shu! The priests!”
She glanced at the door. “Don’t they worship you?”
“Yes, and they’re everywhere. The second they realize I’ve been lying, their survival instincts will have them running to Seth, proclaiming their eternal devotion. I haven’t gotten answers out of the kid, and I’m not powerful enough to take down Seth—yet.”
Her lips pouted and skewed sideways. She started beating the bar against her palm again, dark eyes glittering. “Can I at least hit you again? The first time was almost orgasmic.”
“Cut. Me. Down.”
She scrubbed out a few markings and reached up to untie the rope.
The door creaked open.
My human act collapsed, turning into a twisting column of ash that spiraled around Shu. She had a second to gasp and reach for her oily power, but before she and I could lock horns, I abandoned her and crossed the floor, slamming into the intruder.
“I said… no interruptions.”
A priest. One of many. I should have known his name but didn’t. With my hand under his jaw, I forced his head back, revealing the whites of his eyes.
Blood dribbled into my eye. I’d forgotten to fix the wound Shu had given me. Hopefully the priest was too afraid to notice, because if word got back to Aika…
Damn these fools.
“Raoqa!” Leave!
I scooped him up, shoved him out the door, and slammed it hard enough to crack the frame. Power simmered through me, crackling from ember to ember. I clamped my hands to my head, rebuilding the human act and all its facets. Souls howled, sands hissed, and my mind fractured. I couldn’t go on like this for much longer. Apophis was never meant to be worshipped. I wasn’t a god. I was something else, something to be feared, not admired. These fools and their devotion—they were stirring up their own monster and feeding it treats.
“I believed,” Shukra quietly said. She sat on the edge of the bed, curiously watching me slot bits of myself back into being human. “I hate you right now.”
I laughed and heard how the sound cracked, threatening to shatter. “I thought that was normal?” With a ragged sigh, I lifted my gaze to the sorceress. “By the gods, Shukra. You took your time getting here.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she drawled with a snarky smile. “It must have been so difficult to lounge about on your throne all day and have all those stupid people massage your enormous ego.”
“You have no idea.”
She snorted. “Whatever. That little bitch-priestess was going to cut out my tongue. I am going to find her and cut off her toes, one by one, and then I’m going to make her watch while I eat them like popcorn.”
Shukra was here. Finally, I could slip the act, if only for a few moments. My heart rate slowed and the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders. I could do this. I wasn’t alone any longer. Shu was here. The lies were still lies. They hadn’t become true. I was Apophis, but more.
“Then I’m going to do the same with her fingers,” Shukra continued as she ran a hand through her knotted hair. “Her nipples too. I’ll wear those as earrings.”
“You can’t.” I fell into a chair and dropped my head back, closing my eyes. Power rippled across my skin. Too much power. Too much temptation. But Shukra was here. Finally, Shukra was here. And that meant not everything was lost. “You can’t touch Aika. You can’t touch anyone. You’re to stay here and act the part until we can figure out a time to move. It’s the only way for now.”
“Act like what?” I opened my eyes and frowned at Shu. She eyed the bed. “Your pet? Then kill me now because that’s never happening.”
She had to understand. “The only reason you’re alive is because they think I’m torturing you.”
“Your ridiculously sad puppy eyes already are.”
“I’m not screwing around, Shu. If one single whiff of suspicion falls on me, then this is over and our plan might as well be ash. As far as anyone is concerned, I am Apophis. All those people worshipping me, the priests… One fuck-up and Seth will know I’m…” I hesitated, careful to lower my voice. Even speaking words of betrayal here was a risk I wasn’t ready to take. Too much was riding on my and Shu’s subterfuge.
She huffed and looked around the room with renewed interest. “You had me fooled. I believed it. Everything. I really thought you were going to let her take my tongue…” She stopped, her thoughts catching up with her words. Her dark expression said it all. She had believed it because it was real.
“I am Apophis,” I said, rising to my feet. “Sure, I’ve changed since hiding in Ace Dante, but the illusion is over. I am the End of All Things, and don’t think for one second I won’t turn on you and everyone here. I will, eventually. Which version of me do you think holds more sway? The five centuries of drunken bad boy, or the countless millennia as a world-ending monster?”
She searched my eyes, saw the truth there, and nodded tightly. “Then I guess we’re lucky you’re on the good side.”
Good? Could a demon sorceress and a mad anti-god really be good? The laughter threatened to bubble free again. “For now. But this…” I tossed a hand out, indicating the room, the building, and everything in it. “The more I’m worshipped, the more dangerous I become. We don’t have long.” I don’t have long, I added silently. “Tell me what’s happening outside Manhattan.”
“Martial law throughout the US. Everything the military throws at the Red Storm doesn’t even penetrate it. Might as well be throwing sticks at tanks. It would be hilarious if the sand hadn’t swallowed so many people. People are panicking. It’s sad, really.” Her voice softened. “It’s all coming undone.”
Not all of it. This was just the beginning. I was bringing the end. “How far has Seth reached?”
“North Carolina. Into Iowa. Far.”
Farther than I’d realized. Farther than I thought him capable of on his own. I needed Nile to talk. No more stalling. I would have to compel him if he didn’t give the information freely. This had gone on long enough.
“There’s something else…” Shu began in her “oh, I forgot to mention how we’re all about to die” voice. “The scrolls Osiris had me deliver to people, they’re coming alive.”
“Coming alive how?”
“I don’t know how to describe it. They’ve rooted themselves in this world and started growing.”
“Growing?”
She reached for the right word. “Charging.”
Osiris had had Shukra place those scrolls with various people for years, and each one was incredibly potent. I’d burned one after some kids had stumbled on it and used it as the anchor for their summoning spell. I had gotten a taste of its magic. Those scrolls weren’t mediocre magic. And that was before they’d somehow come alive. Osiris had a plan. Of course he did. He’d had a plan since the beginning, long before it became known who I was. Maybe because of who I was. The prophecy wasn’t about him. He’d been working all this time to make sure it came to pass, or at least line everything up. The scrolls, the boy, Shukra’s building. The only thing he hadn’t planned for was my releasing Seth.
Shu added, “I should probably mention something else.”
“Probably,” I drawled.
“Osiris had me buy my building. And then he compelled me to paint a few hieroglyphs and cover them up with art to hide them.”
I’d been in her apartment building. I’d seen her paintings. At the time, I’d looked for something suspicious but hadn’t found anything. But the paintings had been right there in plain sight. “How long has this been going on?”
“A few years. I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“The end of the world is too late, Shu.”
“Pfft, it’s not like you never had any secrets, Apophis.”
I started to argue but stopped. What was done was done. Arguing over the past couldn’t change it. There was no going back, only forward.
“Has he purchased other buildings?” I asked, wondering if Nile’s depot in Allentown belonged to Osiris. The kid probably didn’t know daddy owned it—considering their strained reunion—but Osiris had a way of manipulating from behind the scenes.
“Don’t know. Probably. It’s connected. It must be.”
Isis had once told me her husband never did anything without a reason. I was beginning to wonder if I had underestimated the son of a jackal. He had scrolls rooting themselves in this world and buildings scattered around the city. It sounded to me as though Osiris was setting up his final play.
“This weapon… When Nile was building it in Allentown, I was introduced to his power, and it’s the same as Osiris’s. His power is life…” I said, thinking aloud.
“Maybe it’s not a weapon at all?” she suggested. My laugh sounded like a growl. One of her eyebrows arched. “He’s a slithering lizard, I agree, but he’s also the God of Life and Rebirth. Why would he want a weapon that destroys?”
I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are we talking about the same Osiris?”
“I’m just saying he could have a reason we aren’t seeing.”
“Osiris? The same bastard who killed thousands to make this world bow down to him.”
“Like you”—she circled her hand in the air—“right now?”
“That’s…” I bit my tongue. Necessary, I wanted to say. Trust in the lie. Trustinthelie. I had to do these things. I had to make them all believe.
She shrugged. “I’m just sayin’, if you look at all this from his point of view—”
“No.”
“Just hear me out, Acehole. Osiris didn’t slumber like the others. Instead, he stayed awake, and we all assumed he was just screwing around and slowly going insane alongside his delightful wife.” She stopped herself and frowned. “Where is the bitch-goddess? I expected her to be all over this.”
“I have absolutely, positively no idea.”
Her eyebrow arched higher, outing Isis’s absence and my denial together and coming up with the likely outcome. “I hope she tasted delicious.”
“Revenge really is a dish best served cold, and they don’t come much colder than Isis’s heart.”
She grinned her approval. “So Osiris stayed awake and kept Isis awake too. Why?”
“Because…” I shrugged. “Because he didn’t want to be alone while he lived it up through the eons. He made Isis stay awake because he’s a selfish dick. They have this weird love/hate/murder relationship thing. I don’t care why, Shu.”
“What if he stayed awake to guard his reign and, subsequently, this world?”
“Osiris doesn’t do anything for anyone other than Osiris. Have you forgotten all the times he fucked with us? How about the time in London? Or better yet, do you remember Ontario when he had us raid that camp and kill all the settlers?”
Shu’s cheek twitched and a flicker of fire ignited in her eyes before she blinked and snuffed it out. “I’m not saying he’s suddenly all light and goodness. What I am saying is that you don’t have to be all good to do good.”
“What by Sekhmet are you trying to tell me? That Osiris is helping? That he’s suddenly the savior of New York and the world? What’s he saving it from? Himself?”
She held my stare. “You.”
“Me? Shu, I thought we established I’m trying to do the right thing here by stopping the gods from the inside.”
“From the outside, it looks a lot like you’re part of the problem.”
“Because I planned it that way. Do you think Seth would let me get close as the fool Ace Dante? We tried that in Luxor. It didn’t go down well.”
“I know.” She got to her feet. “I know you, but nobody else does. You’ve kept it that way for centuries. Out there”—she pointed at the window—“ash rains from the sky and people lament your name. If I were Osiris, I’d be looking at the storm of ash and sand the size of several states and doing everything in my power to stop it. He doesn’t have to be good to want to stop you. He just has to want to survive the storm and stop you in time to pick up the pieces.”
“I didn’t start this.”
“You think anyone cares who started it?”
I got to my feet and moved to the window. Outside, ash fluttered against the glass.
“They’ll only care who finishes it,” Shukra continued. “And who do you think they’ll worship when Osiris stops the End of All Things?”
“I never wanted to be worshipped,” I murmured. Red lightning forked across the sky, illuminating downtown. All the buildings looked like tombstones. “I didn’t want any of this. I just want it to end.”
“All I’m saying is instead of fighting Osiris and assuming whatever he’s doing is bad, maybe you should—”
“Finish that thought and I’ll cut out your tongue myself.”
“Your hatred of Osiris is your weakness.”
“I have no weakness. Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”
“You think I’m afraid of you? Come over here and try me—”
“Seramca.” I’d whispered the spellword but that didn’t lessen its impact. Silence gripped Shukra. Her rage flared, along with her power. “Cukkomd.” I added. “Go lay on the bed and do not move until I return.”
I watched her reflection take a wooden walk around the bed, climb on, and lie neatly down with her head resting on the fluffed-up pillows. Inside, she would be screaming all the curses at my many names.
She thought I was the villain? She hadn’t seen anything yet.
Three knocks sounded on the door. I already knew who stood behind it, having heard her approach. “Come.”
Aika opened the door. She stepped over the threshold, stood at attention, and bowed her head. “Lord, the spy has been dealt with. He hangs from the canopy above Thirty-fourth Street, where Osiris’s spies cannot fail to see and understand the message. I don’t think he will last long. Your scorpions are hungry.” The priestess’s attention drifted to the sorceress lying silent and still on the bed. “Forgive me for asking, but… may I assist you with the sorceress?” Hope brightened Aika’s face. What kind of person hoped to witness torture? I didn’t know if it was my magic that had warped Aika or if she had always been this way, and I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t leave Aika here. She would try to hurt Shu. She wouldn’t succeed—Shukra wasn’t easily wounded—but I couldn’t risk damaging all the lies I had concocted.
“Come with me…” I strode from the room with Aika close behind. Shukra’s magic trailed after us. “Nobody in or out,” I told the priest loitering outside. He nodded and closed the door on Shukra and her magic, but the crack I’d created earlier by slamming the door on the priest had left the smallest of openings for my whispered, “Raraoka.” Release.
Apophis didn’t have friends. Only tools and game pieces to be used as a means to the End. But I needed Shukra. I couldn’t survive what was coming alone.