to smile at that. He felt exactly the same way. “Let’s go and see Zeus. Just think, last week we were strangers passing in the night, and now we’ve claimed each other and by the end of the day we’ll have met two ancient gods. There’re not too many people that can say that. So, let’s do it, and then we’ll go and clean the trash out of your coven, okay?”
“Wise as well as sexy.” Kirill nibbled against his facial hair on his chin and then pulled away, looking over at Wes and Cass who were watching them with bemused expressions on their faces. “Take us to your leader, demon. Gods, I’d never imagine saying that a week ago either.”
“It pays to be flexible in our line of work. You never know who you might meet or be hauled away to have lunch with. Now it’s hand holding time.” Cass stood, holding Wes with one hand and reaching out his other. Kirill took Cass’s hand and then Arvyn’s. “Whatever you do, don’t let go until your feet hit solid ground.”
“And close your eyes,” Wes said quickly. “It makes the landing a lot easier on the stomach.”
Arvyn didn’t have time to wonder what Wes was going on about. He could feel his cells dispersing. Oh shit. Arvyn clung to Kirill’s hand like an anchor and prayed.
Chapter Ten
“My Lord!” Thump, thump, thump. Ra’s bedroom door rattled under the heavy knocking. Ra buried himself deeper into his blankets. He had no desire to see anyone.
“MY LORD! Wake up. We’ve got trouble at the gates.”
We don’t have any gates, you big baboon. Ra sighed. “Go away, Seth. I told you I didn’t want to speak to anyone.”
“You said you didn’t want anyone to speak to you, and I’m not speaking to you, I’m yelling. Get the hell out of bed – we need to talk. Now!” Seth resumed his pounding eliciting another sigh from Ra. Flicking his fingers at the door, Ra strengthened the frame, before snuggling back into his pillows. He was bone tired, and while he was savvy enough to know depression was playing a part of his weariness, Ra was seriously starting to wonder why he persisted in living at all.
Ra liked to think Arvyn and Kirill would be a bit upset if they felt his demise - if they felt it. But they had each other, and it’s not as though he’d spent much time with them. A five-minute argument did not a relationship make. And while Ra could spend the next hundred lifetimes dreaming of the type of relationship the three of them could have, he was more pragmatic than that.
Society had changed drastically in the thousands of years Ra had been alive. Back when the world was new, gods like Ra wandered among mortals. Yes, they were worshipped, and Ra was the first to admit most gods took that worship as their right. They weren’t just nameless faceless beings, they truly helped mortals shape their lives, their cultures and their environment. Ra, as one of the originals for his pantheon let many of his so-called children be the face of Egyptian culture – a mistake he admitted as soon as a pharaoh decided he didn’t like the idea of Ra and Amun, and decided a new god should be called Amun-Ra instead.
The advent of newer religions didn’t help. After the Great War, all gods were bound to adhere to the non-intervention law and many of the immortal beings found there was no use in walking among their followers anymore. As newer religions emerged not long afterwards, people got the idea that gods were somehow distant from their followers. The gods became more a concept of ideals rather than physical beings, and the disconnect between the immortals and mortals became wider.
Which is why I’m curled up in bed in a funk, listening to Seth trying to batter down my door. Because Ra couldn’t forget the apprehension on Arvyn’s face when he mentioned taking them somewhere, and he was struggling to forgive the stiffness on Kirill’s face when he first revealed himself to his mates. He remembered how harshly Kirill had questioned Cass – his issues about being forced to worship Ra – when all I wanted was to be held in their arms the way they held each other when they saw each other for the first time. Is that too much to ask?
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP. “RA! Damn it. Open the damn door.”