Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62637 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 251(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“The sky.” I point up to the ceiling. My breath feels heavy, and my body the same. Something is happening, but I don’t know what it is. I just breathe in and out and stare up as if I can see the stars through the ceiling. “Am I yours, Horus?” I ask, my voice somehow sounding small to my ears.
“Yes.”
“Is what’s mine also yours?”
He frowns and leans down on the bed, making it sag toward him. I roll into his massive chest and reach for his neck, my fingers grasping his white-blond hair. He’s so beautiful, still glowing a bit from our time together. “What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine. You asked me long ago to make it happen, and we did. I want to spend forever with you.”
“And you would never betray me?”
His frown is so sincere I feel bad asking. He jerks back, but I hold him close, making him stay against me.
“Why would you ask that?”
“I heard you,” I whisper. “Downstairs.”
He shakes his head. “My brother’s going to get his ass beat. I have no idea what he was talking about, but either way, I’m guessing you didn’t hear everything he said since you left angry.”
So he knew I was there.
“All he said,” Horus continues, “was that I need to tell you one thing.” His eyes flash white.
Tears burn the back of my throat. “What’s that?”
His eyes falter, going from white to black and then back again. He covers his left eye where the tattoo is but no eye remains, and clenches his teeth. “No, no, no, no!”
“Horus?”
“Help.” His body trembles. “Cover my mouth. COVER IT!”
I clap both hands over it, but he shoves me away easily, collapsing backward onto the floor. Thunder booms in the distance like a bad omen from the heavens themselves. He suddenly stands and walks over to me. His eyes don’t reflect the sky anymore—they reflect my darkness. “Give it to me, give me what I’m owed, fox of the night.”
“Never.” I kick at his chest.
He grips me by the ankle and jerks me down the bed. I can tell he has no clue what’s going on. His one eye is black. Someone else is seeing through it, using his power to see through the remaining eye.
I need to fight him at all costs.
He’s not himself.
And yet he rips every piece of clothing from me and shoves me against the bed. “Mine, my star, you’re mine, fight it, fight us!”
I can’t though. I can’t fight what we are to each other as his kisses become power-hungry against my neck, only to have him inch by inch bite down my skin.
“Horus,” I whimper. “It’s good, but it’s wrong, what are you doing?”
He jerks away, his head shakes, and then he’s jumping away from me, slamming back against the wall like I’ve stunned him stupid.
Was that even Timber downstairs?
“HELP!” I scream. “Someone help us!”
Horus gets to his feet. His chuckle is dark and sinister; it’s not what I’m used to… all the warmth in him has been sucked away from the room. “You should be more careful what you give to people, and so should he…”
His mouth bruises mine, again and again, holding me captive, pinning me against the bed with fervor like he loves me, but this isn’t him—this is a god possessed. “Give me what I’m owed, fox of darkness, and part those pretty little lips.”
A choking sensation washes over me. I can’t speak. I can only cough over and over again. It burns from my toes all the way up to my neck. Grasping for Horus, I wait for him to save me. For my old Horus to come back to fight whatever monster that’s using him.
But he doesn’t.
His one eye is blank with nothingness.
The other is missing. Even his tattoos pulse on his left cheek like he’s trying to break free, but what can a limited god do against someone using my bead along with my tails, using any sort of power against him?
“Apophis,” I whisper.
Another laugh escapes his lips. “Smart girl, now open up.”
I kick him in the legs, but I’m not strong enough. His body crashes onto mine, his lips take hold, biting down into me, leaving tiny marks of blood. I taste its tang as it runs down my throat when he says. “Open.”
I can’t keep it down.
My bead floats softly to my tongue and rests there. In any other circumstance, I would love his kiss right now, the way his tongue massages mine, but I know it’s only to bring the bead closer, so he keeps massaging, keeps sucking on the blood from my lips.
The only way to bring a bead out is through a kiss, but blood always has to be spilled. Mine.
He sucks my lips dry until they feel swollen. Green and yellow light erupts from my mouth.