Soul Unleashed (Key to the Cursed Book 4) (12 page)

Large hands gripped Kamen beneath the arms and
hoisted him to his feet. His nephews shifted the stone and led Kamen into the
chamber. With a wave of Bomani’s hand the torches ignited on the walls,
illuminating the normally dark cave.

The light burned Kamen’s eyes. He leaned forward
and put his head in his hands, pain consuming his body.

“Brother,” Asar said, laying a hand upon Kamen’s
back.

“Do not call me that,” Kamen snarled.

Bomani and Bakari shifted in front of their
father, but Asar motioned them back. “So we are back to our first days
together. Is that how it is, after all we have been through?”

Kamen squeezed his throbbing temple. He had
regressed enough. The beast had controlled him most in those days. Not unlike
now.

A part of Kamen hated Asar for taking mercy on
him. Letting him live when he could have died by the dagger and spared himself
of this pain. “If we are brothers, then have mercy and seal the chamber.”

“I know where you are. I have been there a
multitude of times myself.”

“We all have,” Bakari added.

Bomani nodded his agreement.

“None of you are like me,” he groaned as bones
moved to shape something far more primal.

“You have always been there in some form or
another to help each one of us when the darkness descended. Now let us help
you.”

“Seal the chamber, that is what you can do for
me,” Kamen growled through now serrated teeth.

“I will when it is time. My hope is it will never
come to pass.”

“The time is now!” Kamen’s sight blurred a bright
orange, the flames flickering and searing his brain. “Better yet…” Kamen
narrowed his gaze on Bakari’s death daggers.

“Do not think it, Uncle.” Bakari stepped towards
the door when Kamen rose to his feet.

Asar slammed a forearm to Kamen’s chest, stopping
his forward momentum. It would take more than Asar and even Bomani to stop
Kamen from shouldering past them and get to Bakari.

“I will not do it. No more than you would let me.”
Bakari’s silver eyes flashed with anger. “You were the one who said it was not
the way.
You
were the one that talked me down. I will not kill the male who
saved me that day.”

Asar turned and looked at his son. Kamen had never
told his brother he had found Bakari with the dagger pinned ripe to his chest
in the attempt to take his own life.

“Will you have the mercy to kill Kit?” Kamen asked
Bakari on a strangled breath. He looked at Asar. “Will you not condemn me to
consume her soul?”

The males looked around the room at each other.
Asar lowered his arm from Kamen’s chest. His brother sighed and finally spoke.
“I saved your and Set’s souls. I will find a way to save Kit’s.”

“Until then, you must seal the chamber.” Pain
dropped Kamen to his hands and knees.

Asar pushed his sons out the door and extinguished
the torches. “If I fail, I will do as you ask, but until then you will feed and
return to Kit’s side. She will need your strength and protection.”

“I cannot. Can you not see?” Kamen begged and
arched his back. He bellowed in agony.

Asar stepped out the opening and shifted the stone
but paused before closing it. “If you have no hope then Kit is already dead.”

Kamen’s control snapped, sending the beast lunging
for the door. He slammed into the stone, reeking destruction upon it. The beast’s
claws scored long fissures into the rock. The Devourer would forever keep him
from a life with Kit. Forever wanting something he could never have.

Forever alone in darkness.

Lilly’s silence was killing her. Not to mention the
fact Kendra’s incessant mumbling while thumbing through the ancient text for
hours was not helping her nerves. Apparently, she was feeling better after
Lilly’s healing spell because everyone was grating on her. Just like old times.

Kit shifted her legs over the bed and everyone in
the room jumped, even her mother. Another point of irritation. This was not how
she wanted to spend her last hours. She was never a person to wait for
something to happen. “I need to go to the bathroom,” she announced. Not that
she really had to go but just needed a change in scenery and to escape her
sisters’ concerned stares.

She shifted her gaze to the door. Kamen said he
would come back and check on her. Didn’t he? Yet, hours had passed without him.

She slipped off the bed and padded across the cool
sandstone. In the bathroom alone, she blew out a breath and turned to look in
the mirror. She pulled off her clothes and assessed her body, expecting to see
what exactly? Horns and a tail?

A part of her wanted to believe everything was
well, and it was all but a bad dream. Lilly had healed her wounds, not even a
bruise remained. The scars on her left wrist had even faded to small silver
lines. Except for the nausea churning her gut with worry, she was her old self
again.

The reunion with her sisters had been full of
hugs, tears and many
I love yous
. The warmth in her heart lingered a
while but soon faded. To have so much love and support but feel so utterly
empty was perplexing to her.

No matter how much she wanted to deny it and just
carry on with her life, she knew something was growing inside her. Festering.
She couldn’t hide it from her sisters, not for long anyway.

“Kit,” Lilly called from the door.

Kit scrambled to pull on her pants. “Yes, I am
almost done.” She glanced in the mirror as she pulled her shirt down over her
head.

Lilly was standing right behind her. “Are you
okay?”

“Yeah. You did a great job stitching me up.”

“That is not what I meant.” Lilly raised her
blonde brows.

“I’m not going to sprout wings, if that is what
you mean.”

Lilly sighed, a sign her patience was at its end.
“Talking about it will help. How did you even get there?”

“How the hell do I know. I blacked out after Nebt
sucker punched me. I woke up in a field of reeds or what was left of it.” Kit
leaned over the sink and splashed water on her face. “Everything was burnt to
the ground. I just started running towards the river.”

“You were gone for almost two weeks.”

“Two weeks?” Kit dropped the towel and grabbed
onto the sink. It had seemed like forty-eight hours at the most. If what Lilly
said was true, then the eclipse was only two weeks away.

“Kamen never stopped looking for you.”

Kit turned away as the tears slid down her cheeks.
If not for Kamen, she would be in Apep’s dungeon. Not that his efforts would do
much good in her case. The damage had been done by the siravant. It was just a
matter of time, and her dream would come true.

“Asar believes there is a chance we can stop the
infection from spreading.” Lilly opened a folded parchment and held it out to
Kit.

Infection?
Is that what they were calling
it? Kit had heard Siya’s stories about the ancient war with Apep. The Dark Lord
had used the siravants on the battlefield to taint the gods’ souls. The
sickness had spread until none of the souls remained, nothing to salvage. Siya
had kill most to end their suffering. Those who survived were nothing but an
empty shell.

“Let me guess,” Kit stared at the paper in her
sister’s hand. “It involves me transitioning.”

“Yes. Asar has chosen a list of gods who may be
best suited for your condition. It’s something I think you need to consider.”

Kit’s gaze drifted to their mother standing in the
doorway. “How am I not surprised? This is what you wanted, Mother. Well, you
won—are you happy now?”

“Kit.” Lilly gasped in surprise. “Mother would
never.” Lilly turned to the Mother Goddess. “Tell her.”

The Mother Goddess looked away and tucked her
hands into her robe. Lilly’s face flattened.

“It doesn’t matter.” Kit stalked past Lilly,
knocking the parchment out her sister’s hand. The paper floated to the floor
along with Kit’s options. Anger replaced Kit’s self-pity. Her mother may not
have orchestrated her kidnapping but damn if she didn’t foresee it.

Lilly scampered to pick up the list and scurried
after Kit. “Kit, you can’t be serious about refusing this. We are talking about
your life here. Are you really that stubborn?”

Apparently, she was. Kit wandered over to Kendra
who was feverously reading a passage in the stinky old text. “Please tell me
you have found
something
.”

Kendra looked up with swollen red eyes. Dried
tears stained her cheeks. “Nothing yet.”

Reading the truth in Kendra’s eyes, Kit’s heart sank.
The odds were stacked against her. She hated herself for having to put Kendra
through hell and back for her.

“It’s just sex.” Lilly’s exasperated voice echoed
in the bed chamber.

Kit turned on her heel and confronted her sister.
“And I’m a whore, so it should be easy for a girl like me?” It was such a catty
thing to say, but Kit couldn’t seem to help herself. She hated being backed
into a corner with no choice.

Her sister’s face flushed red. “That’s not what I
meant.”

“It was, and we both know it.”

“Why is transitioning such an issue? Especially,
when it may save your life,” Lilly begged.

Kit met her mother’s gaze. Should she scream out
and tell them they were all going to die? Take whatever hope they had in
exchange of getting them off her back. Use it to hurt her mother?

Lilly and Kendra were her life. Her sisters had
finally found happiness and love. Kit would protect them from the truth as long
as she had breath in her body. Or, a soul for that matter.

“I need some time alone to think about it.” She
snatched the list from Lilly and threw it on the bed then stared at Lilly,
willing her away. When her sisters failed to move, Kit sighed. “I’ll come find
you when I’ve made my decision.”

Lilly nodded and motioned Kendra to the door. The
Mother Goddess hung behind and waited for her sisters to exit.

“You have made the right decision.”

“If I agree to this at all, let me be clear. It
will not be for you, Dad or this god damn war. It will be for them. Not that it
will change a thing,” Kit growled under her breath and turned her back on her
mother.

“You have no faith, Katherine.”

“Faith in what exactly?” Kit asked out loud, not
really caring about the answer.

“That love can conquer all.”

“Condemning our father is what you call love,” Kit
huffed, not bothering to give her mother a second glance.

“There is so much you have yet to understand about
love. I have faith your father and I will meet again.”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.” And then the ax
comes crashing down, and someone is left to suffer alone.

Her mother sighed. “Is there no one you have
loved?”

Her father. Her sisters.

Kamen.

She closed her eyes and remembered their kiss on
the boat. Passion that melted her insides, overwhelmed her normal defenses and
cracked the ice in her heart. When Kamen pulled away, she was crushed. He
couldn’t get away from her quick enough.

She had given him a million reasons not to like
her, now she was tainted. Not much of a sales sign on her door as of late.

“No one
you
would go to Duat and back for?”

Kit turned to face the Mother Goddess, but the
room was empty with only the lingering scent of lilies.

Alone, she stared at the list. Kamen
had
gone to Duat and back for her. The question was, was it just his sense of duty?

She flopped back on the bed, scattering the
pillows in her wake. Grabbing the nearest one, she pressed it to her face and
screamed until there was no breath left in her lungs. Furious, she hurled it
across the room. She grabbed the next one but stalled mid-swing. Instead of a
pillow, a lumpy stuffed animal with a missing eye stared back at her. Sitting
up, she clenched her childhood teddy bear.

“Cyclops, how the hell did you end up here?” It
had to have been hidden beneath the pillows.

Kamen
.

How could one god
be so annoyingly stoic, over protective and sensitive all at the same time?
Damn
him
. More tears slid out of her eyes. She rubbed the soft stuffing of the
bear and pressed it to her face. None of the Underworld gods had scents, except
one. She had not noticed until she kissed him. Kamen’s mix of spice and musk
dusted the bear’s worn body.

If she was going to
do this, there was only one god she trusted with her life.

She scrambled across the bed and stretched to
reach the paper on the floor. Half hanging off the bed, she ran her fingers
down the jumbled list of hieroglyphics. She searched for the symbols of a
falcon and crescent moon.

Of all the gods she wanted to see on the list, his
symbols were nowhere to be found.

Kamen had willed the beast to remain in control to
stop the torturous thoughts battering his head. It had released him much too
soon. Now he lay on his back in agony, finding no comfort or respite. Unable to
do anything else, he stared at the spell etched into the black stone of the
chamber. An identical verse was carved in a circular arch above his bed in the
other room.

Inpu and Nebt had created it the day of his
sentencing. The priest had told him it was a protection spell to ease his pain
and grant Kamen control over the beast. Foolishness, he thought at the time.
But as the days led to months, months to years, years to centuries, he spent
more time in his room than in the chamber and then the palace. His world grew,
slowly. Asar’s acceptance of him had allowed him a life beyond these walls.

A lot had changed since those days. Nebt had
betrayed Inpu and the spell was losing its effectiveness. Through gritted teeth
Kamen rolled onto his side and pushed up, irritated the beast failed to answer
his call after all it did to fight its way out.

He could not find the strength to do what Asar had
asked—be by Kit’s side. How could he when the very thing growing within her
soul would tempt the beast? He contemplated lying back down on the cold stone,
but a part of him would not let her go that easily.

He forced his legs up the stairs and quickly
bathed. Searching for an answer to end his misery, he stared at the
hieroglyphics above the bed. He could not afford for the spell to fail him. Not
now that Kit’s life was at risk.

He had no doubts Kendra was doing her best to find
a cure, but she was novice. There was only one other person who had intimate
knowledge of the ancient texts and Egyptian Pantheon history. Someone who was
old enough to have been part of the opposition that defeated Apep.

The problem—Inpu was in his own dark chasm after
Nebt’s betrayal. The likelihood he was in any condition to assist was pretty
slim.

But then again, Kamen had a way of making people
talk. Although he did not like the idea of making the priest suffer more, Kit’s
life and future was more important than his own. Before he could think better
of it, Kamen dematerialized and reappeared outside Inpu’s room.

The door exhaled a
cold stale breath when he opened it. He ignored the warning spell etched in
blood on the entrance and stepped into the former happy couple’s quarters. The
room’s fireplace sat empty with not even an orange ember glowing. The smell of
old and new blood flared Kamen’s senses.

Despite the
darkness, he could see the destruction reeked upon the room. The furniture
remains lay in heaps upon the floor. Shredded clothes and wall paintings
littered the entire space of the room. Rage, pure and simple rage.

Unaffected, Kamen
strode in, scanning for the flicker of Inpu’s soul. He caught the light of
energy, although dim, in the far corner.

“Can you not read?”
Inpu hissed.

Kamen frowned. Inpu
had always treated him decently. The priest’s normal soft voice had been
replaced by bitterness and fury to match the décor of the room. “I can read
perfectly well.”

“Get out.”

Despite Inpu having
a plethora of spells to make Kamen’s day very painful, he stood his ground. “I
would not disturb you if it was not important.”

Inpu pushed up off
the floor. The scent of fresh blood grew stronger. Kamen focused on the large
wounds on Inpu’s arms and thighs. Wounds that should have been healed by now.

A sharp white bolt
of light shot out and hit Kamen in the chest and knocked him to the ground.
Growling, Kamen rose to his feet. “I would suggest you not do that again.”
Another bolt ricocheted off the wall aimed straight for his head. Kamen shot
forward and grabbed Inpu by the neck and shook him. “Stop that.”

“Or what? You will
devour my soul. Please do not let me stop you.”

Kamen lightened his
grip, hearing the grief in the priest’s voice. “
Isis
, what are you doing
to yourself?”

The priest’s eyes
flashed white. “She will feel my pain.”

“So you are
mutilating yourself?” Kaman asked, distraught by how far Nebt’s betrayal had
driven Inpu. “If you want Nebt to pay for what she has done, then fight her.”

Inpu’s eyes dimmed.
“You would not understand.”

Kamen let go of him
and stepped back. “No I don’t. Nor do I understand why Nebt would do this to
you.” The bond between mates was all encompassing, emotionally, physically and
spiritually. Gods sacrificed a part of their souls to be together, not a
decision taken lightly. A part, Inpu would never get back from Nebt, and worse,
he could never get rid of hers.

Mates were meant to
be together to share and shoulder each other’s pain, joy and powers. If one
suffered, so would the other. Kamen’s thoughts drifted to Kit. He could not ask
her to share his life. He cared for her too much to burden her with his curse.
He could not fathom what sharing a part of his soul would mean to hers. The
beast would either cure her or kill her.

“We may never know
the reason why Nebt did this, but the fact is, she is gone,” Kamen said
solemnly. Maybe the ability to read others’ souls tainted Nebt’s view of the
world. Only upon her judgment would the truth be known.

Inpu slumped back
down to the floor and leaned his head back on the stone. “You know the worst
part about this. I would take her back,” Inpu said with a palpable amount of
disgust.

Kamen did not
understand that reasoning. Nebt had cheated on him with Kepi. Offered the
Underworld up to their enemies and staked Inpu to the wall. “You say that now,
but in time I believe you will see things differently.”

Inpu chuckled
darkly. “Until then, leave me to my self-destruction.”

Kamen stooped down
in front of the god. “I am not here to interfere with your grieving. I need
your insight on Apep.”

“Nasty fellow.”

“He has infected
Kit. Nebt sent her to Duat. Kit is back, but…”

“Only those who
want to be tainted are.”

“It is very
subtle.”

The priest looked
up at him. “Nothing Apep touches is subtle. You of all people should know that.
If she is infected, it will grow and he will control her. There is no stopping
it.”

“Asar believes her
transition will slow the progression. There has to be a spell, potion—something.”

“Soldiers who had
sworn their life and allegiance to preserve humanity fell in days. Humans are
morally weaker, much easier to influence. She
will
turn.”

“I cannot accept
that outcome.” Kamen grabbed his chest, the pain unbearable. “You know what
that will mean for me.”

Inpu frowned and
looked down at his arms. “Take my advice, Kamen. Stay far away from Kit because
very soon you will need to kill her.”