Page 163 of Immortal Sun

“This dagger…” Apep shoves past me, he has no choice but to spread the blood on himself. “…will separate you from us until you’re reborn, and even then, it will only be destiny that we find each other again…” He hesitates, and then something flickers in his eyes. “You know, out of all the children I’ve sired, you must be the bravest, you even sing when you die. How…poetic.”

I grip him by the shoulder flinging him aside. “APEP!” I yell. “You’re out of place! Finish the sacrifice so I can kill you!”

Betrayal flashes in her eyes as she looks between me and Apep. “You’re…truly Chaos then.”

“I bleed for it, and now so will you.” His nostrils flair.

“I’ll kill you!” Enki screams. “Finish the sacrifice, Apep, you’ve done it thousands of times, this is the end for you!”

“Kill me and you kill him…” Apep tilts his head. “Or at least, it used to be the way of things, right Ra? Joined in the thread of time for our fighting, but no more.”

I can’t breathe.

I stare him down. “What the hell are you talking about?”

A dark chuckle erupts from the tree as power floods it.

Apep holds out his hands. “Did you really want this to go on forever?” He grips the dagger and holds it high. “We’re fucking gods!”

“APEP"!” I scream. “STOP THIS INSTANT! AS LORD OF THE SKIES I FORBID?—”

“I AM APEP!” he yells back. “All powerful!! And I am giving her—and us—mercy!” He drives the dagger directly into her heart as a golden explosion fills the air around us. “And now, you know what it is like to lose! We are no longer connected. She stole that connection the minute you slept with her, and now, you will never see her again.”

I grab him but not before the dagger runs down her leg swiping the bells from her ankle sending it sinking into the ground. I lunge for it, manage to grab it.

The ropes release her, and the ground accepts her.

“No, no!” Enki screams. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. She should ascend! Not descend! She sacrificed.”

Apep stares down as the last parts of her disappear beneath the dirt. “Not this time. This time, we didn’t just sacrifice my final creation, we sacrificed a link between immortals because Ra did the one thing he should have never done. He slept with the enemy, and he embraced Chaos. He embraced me! Good luck finding her.”

In an instant, Apep disappears in front of my eyes.

I grip the bell anklet in my hands and stare at it.

Enki was instantly by my side. “The wine, I didn’t know, I didn’t…”

“If she doesn’t ascend,” I state in a harsh rasp, “she won’t be reincarnated.”

“She’ll descend into the underworld,” Enki whispers. “For an eternity.”

I roar up at the sky.

I am broken.

I am nothing.

“And now,” Tyrell murmurs. “Chaos will be at odds with the immortals.”

“No,” I whisper, clutching the anklet. “Now, we are at war.”

I stand and turn, eyes blazing. “Pick your sides wisely, immortals, nobody will go unpunished.” I look to Enki. “Even a friend.”

He closes his eyes, then he turns and disappears into a black mist.

Inti follows.

“So…” Daggon puts his hand on my shoulder. “It begins.”

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