Sins of the Flesh

“I ASK THAT YOU CONSIDER and make your decision as I make my preparations,” Sutekh said.

And Calliope didn’t trust him for a second, though there was nothing concrete that made her think he was putting up a smokescreen. All she had to go by was instinct, and it was screaming like a fire alarm. The words of the prophecy kept spinning through her thoughts, and she felt like she was missing something so obvious that a child should have seen it. Beside her, Mal was stiff and tense, and she wondered if his thoughts were running along the same lines. “A question,” Aset spoke up, stepping forward. Her eyes were no longer black as onyx but completely white, as though she saw not what was before her, but something deeper. “This ceremony requires blood. And death to bring life. What is your intent in that regard?”

Sutekh turned to her, his expression arranged in a sorrowful mask, so out of place on his face, so truly inhuman that it made Calliope flinch.

“Sadly, the deaths have already taken place. Without my knowledge or consent. The Setnakhts took it upon themselves to collect blood from the Daughters of Aset. And to kill them in an effort to cement my reanimation and my ability to walk in the world of man.

“But they miscalculated. I can be corporeal only in the Underworld. Without a human body, their efforts were misplaced. Those who carried out the killings and masterminded them, as well, have been dealt with.”

“Yes,” Aset said. “I recently dealt with one myself.”

“She speaks of Kuznetsov,” Calliope whispered.

Mal glanced at her but said nothing.

Sutekh inclined his head to Aset, as though acknowledging more than her spoken words.

Around them, the discourse grew louder. Neighbors debated the pros and cons. And all the while, Sutekh remained apart.

“Mal,” Calliope said, grabbing hold of his arm. “Something isn’t right. I don’t know what, but I’m telling you. Something doesn’t add up.”

He studied her with narrowed eyes, but she had no idea if he believed her. Then their attention was diverted.

“The blood of innocents,” Sutekh said, and three soul reapers exited his tent, carrying pitchers.

Calliope felt sick. She knew whose blood was in there. Women—Daughters of Aset—whose lives had been stolen because mortal worshippers of Sutekh had wanted to make him corporeal. All for nothing. By his own admission, he could not return Topworld. He could be corporeal only in the Underworld, regardless of the prophecy.

“Those women are dead,” Mal said softly. “Nothing can bring them back. But their blood can bring my brother back.”

She shook her head, torn and appalled. She understood what he wanted and why he wanted it. She understood that these women had been murdered, but out of their deaths someone else could live. Lokan. Mal’s brother.

“Wait,” Dagan said, stepping forward. He turned slowly and looked at all those assembled, each in turn. “Two Daughters of Aset are missing. Taken from their homes. Before any peace is cemented here, before any decisions are finalized, I want whoever took them to return them.”

He shot a glance at Sutekh, who watched him impassively. Alastor stepped up to stand beside his brother, and Mal followed.

Tears pricked Calliope’s eyes. They were risking everything for their mates. And in Mal’s case, not even his own mate, but his brothers’. She remembered him telling her that soul reapers bled and felt pain. And love. She believed that, seeing the three of them standing together, demanding Roxy and Naphré’s safe return.

But a part of her couldn’t help but wonder, if it came to a choice, to their mates versus their brother, who would they choose?

Who would Mal choose?

“They were taken to safeguard their lives,” Aset said, sending a long look toward Izanami, making it clear that the two goddesses were complicit in the agreement. “We were made aware of the desire for the blood of Daughters of Aset when Pyotr Kuznetsov died while in the care of the Asetian Guard. He revealed much when he came to the Hall of Two Truths. It was agreed that Roxy Tam and Naphré Kurata would be brought to sanctuary for their safety.”

Izanami spoke then, in her beautiful lyrical voice. “We attempted to offer the same to your mate, Malthus Krayl. But you had already taken her by the time my Shikome arrived to offer her safety.”

Calliope shifted her gaze to Mal, wondering how he felt about the goddess referring to her as his mate. Wondering how she felt.

She didn’t know, and this was not the moment to sort through the confused tangle of her emotions.

“Neither Roxy nor Naphré will be harmed,” Aset said. “They will each be returned to you when this is over.”