Isis looked up and saw a tiny pinprick of light zoom toward them. It slowed when it neared, hesitating, and then it finally sank into Osiris’s chest just where his heart would be. The body glowed as if lit from the inside with a celestial light, but unlike Anubis’s flame, this light carried no heat. The skeleton and muscles of the god were outlined clearly through his flesh. Tiny plants sprouted all around the form, a sure sign that the god of growing things had returned.
But then, just as Isis allowed the flame of hope to fill her as well, the light inside Osiris’s body dimmed and retreated from his limbs, first at his fingertips and then his arms. The seedlings shrank and shriveled, turning brown and dying before her eyes.
“Quickly!” Nephthys cried. “Do not let his life essence escape!”
She knelt by Osiris’s head and told Isis to kneel at his feet. Together they raised their wings and prevented the orb of light that had risen from the body from fleeing. It bounced against their soft feathers, trying to return to the Waters of Chaos. “Sing him back into his body again, Isis!”
The goddess lifted her voice and the tiny orb drifted closer to her, hovering near her before entering the inert form again.
“Keep singing and stir the air with your wings. It brings life,” Nephthys instructed, and then she turned to the god standing next to her. “Anubis, I need your help. We must bind his life essence to his new form.”
“What do I need to do?”
“I cannot leave my position. You must use your scythe to take our hair.”
“You want me to cut it off?” His brows knitted in confusion.
“Yes. Then you need to wrap it around him. Every part of him will need to be bound. You’ll have to take it all.”
Anubis hesitated for only a moment. Raising his scythe, he sheared off Isis’s hair, then moved behind Nephthys and did the same. Gathering fistfuls of their long hair, he wrapped Osiris’s body with the soft locks, tying it off in knots as he did so. When every part of Osiris’s new body had been encased, Nephthys instructed, “Now whisper his true name again, sister.”
Isis obeyed. The light spread, filling the newly made form once again, but this time it glowed brighter and brighter until the rays of it burst from between the strands of hair and dissolved it. When the light faded, Nephthys said, “It is done. Come, Anubis, we will leave them alone.”
“But he’s still not breathing!” Isis cried as Anubis helped Nephthys to her feet.
“The rest is up to you,” Nephthys said gently. “When you place your lips on his, the breath of life will enter his new body.”
Nephthys staggered as she moved ahead and leaned heavily on Anubis.
Isis let out a heavy sigh and stared after her sister, resolving to decide what to do about her betrayal later. As they left, Isis’s body shook with spasms of deep fatigue. She felt drained as she never had been before. To have wrought two spells of such power in the span of one day would have killed a lesser being, but Isis was determined. All that remained was a kiss. Surely she could muster enough energy for such a small thing.
Kneeling beside her husband, she stroked his soft hair. Her hands trembled as she drew them down to his face. Tilting his head, she gently pressed her lips to his. She tasted the salt of her tears and felt the residual heat from the fires that had baked him. Then there was a rush of wind. The chest beneath her rose and fell.
A hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer as his lips moved against hers, first tentatively, then hungrily. Osiris sat up, shifting her with him. Taking hold of her shoulders, he eased away so he could look at her. He wiped away her tears with his thumbs and slid his hand into her shorn hair, his expression thoughtful and sad as the short strands fell through his fingers.
Isis couldn’t stop touching him. She caressed his neck and his powerful shoulders and swept the hair from his eyes. Osiris did the same with her, but then he finally took hold of her fingers and brought them to his lips for a quick kiss.
“I’m here, Little One,” he said. “And I won’t leave you again.”
“How do we know?” she demanded with a sob. “How do we stop Seth’s next attempt?”
“Amun-Ra will stop him. We should go now. We’ll need his aid if we want to contain Seth.”
She nodded and he helped her to her feet. Osiris shifted back and forth, moving his limbs, testing out his new body for the first time. When he was ready to go, Isis said, “Wait.”
“What is it?” he asked.
She waved her hand over his chest and a golden chain with a red gemstone appeared.
“What’s this?” Osiris asked as he examined it.
“It contains my lifeblood. It ties us together. If he unmakes one of us, he unmakes both.” She took a step closer and grasped his hand. “I’ll not be separated from you again,” she said. “Even if it means my death.”
Soberly, he nodded. Then he kissed her and trailed his fingers over her neck. When he lifted his head, she felt the tickle of a chain. He had created a necklace for her as well. Isis lifted it and saw it was an amulet crafted after the fashion of an Egyptian ankh, but the sides turned down instead. When Isis looked up, he explained.
“It’s a tyet—a knot that binds and brings life. These are your arms and your wings when they are wrapped around me,” he said. “This”—he tapped the center—“is the kiss that gave me breath. I am bound to you, my love, my Isis. My life is yours. No matter what the future brings.”
Isis nodded and her eyes closed, causing her to stumble. Osiris caught her, briefly kissed her lips, and said, “Rest now, Little One. It’s my turn to fly.”
Lifting his wife in his arms and cradling her close, Osiris called upon the heart scarabs that bound them, relishing in the flutter of her heart that was locked within his chest. He took to the skies, knowing he’d have to confront the most powerful god he’d ever faced and that it might result in the deaths of both of them.
Chapter 8
Transplanted
“Are you sure you need to do this?” Anubis asked.
“He is my husband,” Nephthys answered simply, as if that were explanation enough. When she saw Anubis’s furrowed forehead and hesitation to leave her side, she placed her hand on his arm. “All will be well, Anubis. Our fates are written in the stars, and my light will not be snuffed out this day.”
Still seeing he would not leave her, Nephthys left him instead. Steeling herself, she looked heavenward for just an instant, silently asking her mother to watch over her, to watch over them all, and then entered the chamber. “Seth?” she called.
There was no reply. She surveyed the room carefully, knowing he was there. Gooseflesh rose on her arms. Finally, she caught sight of a black scorpion tucked beneath a chair. She crouched down. “Ah, there you are.”
The small creature scuttled out, its body transforming into a snapping gray crocodile and then to a bristled boar. It shook its head and bellowed, its dangerous tusks nearly spearing her leg, but Nephthys didn’t move. Didn’t even raise an eyebrow.