Page 11 of Fated Angel

“Fitting that it would be Osiris we see when we come to claim the shard,” Colt says, marveling at the ornate tomb all around him. Osiris, the god of death, ruler of the Egyptian underworld.

“How much do you want to bet the shard is in his hands?” Gabby turns to Colt for the first time since arriving at the pyramids, and Colt swears the whites of her bright eyes flash with shadow. Before he can say anything, her wings snap from her back and with one enormous wave, she vaults into the air.

“Gabby?” he calls, but she doesn’t answer. He only has one choice, and that’s to follow. His onyx wings come out slower, hesitant even, but he bursts front the ground leaving a plume of dust behind him.

Gabby and Colt land on opposite hands, facing each other, and looking at a pool of dark liquid that’s cupped between the giant palms. Gabby steps forward, excited, but Colt leaps over the pool and crashes into her. As one, they plummet from the outstretched hands, only stopping when Colt’s wings flap and reverse their direction.

“Let me go, Colt! It’s right there!” Gabby hisses, but Colt wraps his arms around her tightly. He stares into her face with such intense concern that Gabby blinks, seeming to come back to herself momentarily.

“Do you trust me?” Colt whispers, and Gabby hesitates. She worries her bottom lip with her teeth, looking from him back to the hands. Silently, she nods, as if fighting some internal battle she can’t control. “Look,” he says, flapping his wings so they gain altitude slowly. When they finally rise to the level of the hands again, Colt’s eyes drift over to what he’d seen before he acted.

“That isn’t normal water, see?” Holding her with one arm he points, and it’s only then that the steam from the water becomes visible in Gabby’s eyes.

“What…what is that?” she balks, shivering in his arms. “I almost walked right in…”

“Al-Hameem, the water of Hell.”

“We went to Hell and I didn’t see that anywhere,” Gabby exclaims, clutching him as if the very real fear she should be feeling is finally setting in.

“It is an Egyptian punishment. Allah cursed the people of Hell with intense thirst, but the only water available is Al-Hameem, a boiling viscous liquid filled with pus and disease. ‘Then shall you, O you who err and call it a lie! Most surely eat of the tree of Zaqoom,’” Colt says, quoting the Qur’an. “‘And fill your bellies with Al-Hameem, and those who are made to drink this boiling water will so have their bowels rent asunder.’ One drop of this water on a mountain is said to be able to render that mountain to ash. If you touch it, you’ll be cursed with an unquenchable thirst and disease until you die.”

Gabby shivers in his arms, tears pricking her eyes as they pool over her eyelashes. “If you hadn’t been here…” she whispers.

“We’re destiny, Gabby. I was always meant to be at your side.”

She sniffles, burying her face in his chest as she slips the shard of the obsidian back in her pocket. “How are we supposed to get it out?”

“I don’t know,” Colt whispers, landing them both on the fingertips of the statue and staring down into the pools. “Just a moment. Stay right here, promise?”

Gabby looks from the boiling poisonous water to Colt and a single tear rolls down her face before she nods.

“I need to hear you say it, my angel,” he presses, every bone in his body telling him not to leave her alone. Not here, not with so much on the line.

“I swear on the life of my mother, I will not move from this spot.”

Colt nods once, grimly, and dives off the hand. He doesn’t spread his wings until he’s a few feet from the ground level, and when he does the force of the wind caused by his flight throws jewels and coins into the air all around him. Colt reaches out, snatching a solid gold ring with a ruby inset in his hands. He looks up, his lips a thin line of worry, but he can still see Gabby’s wings trembling slightly in Osiris’ hands.

“I’ve got what I need,” he calls up to her.

She looks down and smiles sadly. He decides then and there that he’ll do everything in his power to make her smile again. It’s not her fault the stones are affecting her, and she needs to know that.

When he lands beside her again, he scoops her up under his arm and kisses her forehead. In his free hand he rolls the ring showing it to her, and her lips thin as she nods. Colt tosses it in the water, neither of them needing to communicate because they’re so in tune. The moment the metal hits the surface it starts to bubble, sizzling and popping. Colt jerks Gabby behind his back protectively as the water sputters, using his wings to shield them both. They watch in disbelief as the ruby cracks and shatters into a million pieces, the gold liquifying almost on impact.

“Oh, my god,” Gabby breathes, and she turns her face away from the sight. “I almost walked right into that!”

“I know.” Colt sighs, rubbing her hands as she wraps them around his waist from behind.

“Thank you.” Her voice is small, full of pain, and Colt’s heart constricts. He turns in her arms and cups her face.

“Whatever’s happening, Gabby, I need you to tell me. I need you to trust me. If you died just now? I would have followed you in.” Colt’s shoulders heave with emotion.

Gabby tangles her hands in his wine-red hair and tries to hold back her own sobs. She turns her face up to the pinnacle of the pyramid and closes her eyes tightly.

“I love you, Colt.”

“I love you, too.”

For a moment they stay like that, just embracing, proving to themselves they’re still alive. When Gabby opens her eyes she’s looking right into the face of Osiris, and the statue's eyes seem to glint with victory. As if it knows there’s no way to get the fourth stone.

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