The effect was disturbing, but it was also very, very interesting. After a terrifying moment where he was trapped in the body of the creature he’d unmade, wondering if it was the cosmic punishment for his actions, he shifted back into his normal state. It had happened so quickly that Isis hadn’t even noticed.
Her wings had curled around her body, shielding herself from his view. Seth flexed his fingers and ran a hand over his ears. In his mind he could still sense the long ears of the creature and feel the air as it passed over the sensitive hairs on the insides of them. He imagined the stench of the creature still permeating his skin, and he longed to immerse his body in a warm pool and scrub the memory of it from his flesh.
But almost immediately he wondered if he could transform into the creature again. If he retained such an ability because he’d made the animal extinct, could he not do it again, with a different species? Impatient to practice this newfound power and make a list of potential animals to test, Seth rose.
“What have you done?” Isis whispered from the shadow of her wings, still fixating on the one animal when so much more had happened in such a short period of time. When Seth didn’t immediately answer, Isis lifted her tearstained face to look at him, praying he hadn’t done something horrible to Osiris or her sister.
“Oh, that.” Seth had long since moved on and was ready to quit the tiresome conversation. “I’ve unmade every single one of those creatures. You’ll never come across one again. They’re now extinct.”
Isis’s mouth dropped open in silent shock. Her body shuddered. Her wings quivered and Seth lifted an eyebrow, wondering if this was the moment she’d fight back. But then her jaw trembled and she tucked her head beneath her wings again. What a delight to twist the emotions of the great goddess Isis beneath his thumb.
Seth boldly took hold of one of her soft wings and tugged, brutally exposing her face. “I’ll leave you alone now to ponder your choices, Isis. See that you make the right decision. I expect you’ll come to it eventually.”
Taking his leave of the stables, Seth crossed the barrier to the mortal realm, looking for the next animal species he could experiment on. Perhaps the next time he saw Isis, he’d be able to transform at will into a great cat or a bear or even a dragon. Imagining the myriad of ways he could torture Osiris and tame Isis to his will brought a delighted sneer to his face.
Osiris found the weeping goddess a short time later. “Isis?” He knelt next to her. “Are you all right? What has happened?”
“It’s Seth.” Isis reached out and took hold of Osiris’s arm as she told him what had happened. Uncharacteristic rage filled the gentle-natured god. When she told Osiris that Seth had destroyed not only the sweet creature but every one of them that existed in the cosmos, Osiris’s hands shook. To stop them, he drew Isis up and into his arms.
“It was called a typhon,” Osiris murmured as he stroked her hair.
“And now they no longer exist,” Isis said. “You were right,” she admitted, blinking the tears from her eyes. “He desires me. Seth thinks he can rip my heart from my chest and keep it for his own just as he ripped his way out of his mother’s womb.”
Osiris cupped her face in his hands. “He cannot take what you do not offer.”
“His power is great and terrible,” Isis said. “You didn’t see it. And I worry that he—”
“What is it?” he asked as she stepped away from him.
Wanting to comfort her but not knowing how, he simply moved closer. She shifted her wing behind her, wrapping her arms around his waist, and laid her head on his shoulder. “I fear that he will try to unmake you.”
Stiffening, Osiris asked, “Do you think he can do such a thing? Unmake a god?”
“I don’t know. I only know that the possibility exists and that he intends to take me as his own. If he threatens to harm those I love, I’ll have no choice but to accept his terms.”
“You will not!” Osiris stated abruptly, and when Isis’s eyes shot to his, he tried to calm himself. “You will not,” he said more gently. “I will not allow him to force you into such an arrangement. We’ll go to Amun-Ra.”
“No.” She shook her head and stepped out of his embrace. “You know Amun-Ra. He’d come up with a wait-and-see strategy. Either that or he’ll just add more rules to his long list. Even if Amun-Ra wanted to do something about Seth, he might not be able to. Meanwhile, while we rest on our laurels, Seth will harm living creatures—plants, animals, even mortals. Do you want him to destroy your great rain forests? Your fields and your orchards?”
Osiris sobered. “That must have been what happened to the nut trees.”
“You mean the place we were together last night?” A chill shot ice through her veins. Had Seth been watching them?
Osiris nodded. “It suddenly disappeared. Nothing in the entire area is growing. There isn’t a weed, a nut, or a worm to be seen in the whole place. What’s more, the ground is now infertile. Barren. Nothing will ever grow there again. Such power . . . it’s . . . it’s unimaginable. We’ve got to find a way to stop him.”
“We do,” Isis agreed. “I won’t have him erase the people I love from existence.” The goddess bit her lip and then sucked in a breath, turning to Osiris. “Why did you summon me?”
“What?”
“Why did you summon me here? Was it to show me the animal, the typhon?”
“Yes,” he answered automatically. Then seeing her crestfallen expression, he clapped a hand on the back of his neck and rubbed. “No.”
Her eyes lifted. “Why, then? Tell me, Osiris.”
“I . . . I did want to show you the animal, but it was just an excuse to get you to talk to me.” He glanced at her face but couldn’t read the thoughts behind her stormy eyes.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked pointedly.
“Us.” He sighed.
“Us?”
Osiris settled his hands on her shoulders. The sparkle of a forgotten tear lingered on her sooty eyelash. He hoped he would never be the cause of her tears. Not ever again. Steeling himself, Osiris said, “You’ve shared your feelings openly with me and I haven’t been as forthcoming. But now I see that it would be wrong for me to deny you from knowing mine.”
She sucked in a breath. “Then tell me, Osiris. How do you feel?”
The way she looked at him was intoxicating. She was the perfect mix of power and vulnerability. He found he couldn’t resist touching her and cupped her cheek, brushing his thumb over the still shiny trails of her tears. “I told you I needed to think, and I did. All night. When you told me of your feelings before, it shook me. I’d never considered such a thing. But even as I tried to set thoughts of you aside, I found I couldn’t. Your face haunted me. And last night, when we kissed . . .”
Isis shifted closer and Osiris took hold of her hands and brought them to his chest. “Yes?” she encouraged.
“Last night I realized that in denying my feelings for you, I was denying myself happiness.”
“Then are you saying—?”
He pressed her hands flat against his chest. “I’m saying that I love you, Isis. That my heart beats for no one but you.”