Page 76 of Immortal Sun

I’m still.

I feel nothing and everything all at once as fire burns around the boat in a massive circle above the water. The roll of thunder tries to take the boat down vibrating it and splintering it into pieces.

I scream.

A hooded figure watches from the bow of the boat. He’s huge as he stands over me, and then he flips his hood off and braces me against the boat. “I thought you wanted the burn. The truth.”

“Cyrus?” I ask.

“Ra,” he corrects with a wicked smile. His eyes are so bright, it’s almost painful to look into them. His inky hair sticks against his cheeks. “And now, you’ll start your lessons. You’re not ready. I was waiting, actually, for a few more days, but you’ve gotten too curious, too…” He turns toward me. “Stupid.”

“I’m not stupid.” I snap, tears welling in my eyes.

“Okay.” He shrugs like he didn’t just insult me. “So we’ll go with curious. Either way, you’re mine until the last drop of blood”—his grip around my wrist and twists. He presses a knife to the vein next to the very first rune on my wrist—“drains from your body, feeding everything it touches.” His forehead bangs against mine in a painful thud, his lips mouth the words against my own lips. “You’re mine.”

I exhale.

He inhales as the boat around us implodes to ash, everything happens in slow motion around me, the wood flying around us, the flames getting higher, and the sea allowing us to sink deeper.

“Now,” he whispers against my lips.

I taste him, I taste ash, I taste salt, I taste the earth. I taste fire.

“You can fully see…why.”

We look around.

Hundreds, no thousands of boats are burned from the scorch of the sun.

The earth is burning around us.

“The end”—he pulls me harder against his golden armor—“is always near. And to prevent that, I’ll sacrifice you.”

“Why me?”

“Because…” He leans in and kisses my ear then tugs it with his teeth. “…of what you are.”

“And what am I?”

“An abomination,” he finishes.

I jerk awake in my bed. The fire’s blazing in my room. I’m still shivering, and the cat’s completely out next to me.

What the hell was that?

A dream?

Reality?

He said he was Ra. Maybe it’s all a bad dream. That’s like saying you’re a Titan, or the Titan of old. I mean come on.

Did that all really happen?

I look at my wrists and see bruises. I’m actually sad that I don’t see the marks of the hieroglyphics.

What?

There is no way.

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