Page 97 of Immortal Sun

I am carried by more people in armor, and then we descend through what feel like the gates of hell as Enki holds the book in his right hand and continues to walk with me over his shoulder.

“Stop,” I hiss. “You don’t have to do this.”

“We do,” Kratos says quickly from next to me, his voice sounds different, all teasing’s gone, even his smile is cruel. “There is no choice.”

“But you’re just a contractor!”

He laughs. “And you’re just a girl.”

“What?”

“You’ll see, they all do eventually. I always wonder what it would feel like to know that your entire existence was planned from the beginning—to be born only to die. That the very thoughts your father had when he conceived you was your eventual death, all in a sick way to hide his power away.”

I squirm against him. “That’s not true!”

“Sadly, it is.” Enki heaves me up over his shoulder higher and makes it to the beach then walks in front of the cliff until we reach the hole of a dark cave. “Take the book, and take my advice, do it fast so that you aren’t sitting there with anxiety about what’s to come.”

“My death.” I want to throw the book at him when he hands it to me. “Right?

“Don’t think of it so negatively.” Enki cups my cheek. “It’s life.”

“At the expense of mine?”

He moves his hand to grasp my chin and leans down. “It is why you exist and theonlyreason you exist.”

I jerk away and stumble back until I’m in the mouth of the cave. Torches flare to life, and suddenly he’s gone. When I try to run back toward the entrance, severe pain hits me from the bell on my ankle surging through my body.

He imprisoned me.

I glance around the room and see blood-red sheets on a bed, torches lighting a small area of the cave, grapes and wine, and a brand-new book on the bed with a pen on a table next to it.

Dread fills my stomach as I slowly walk over and pick up the pen. It turns into an old quill clutched between my fingers. I drop it when I see Bast running across the beach toward me. He breaks whatever seal they have on this place and enters the cave then turns into a freaking giant ass cat—this time with fur, holy shit he’s Bastet, or she, a goddess revered in Egypt. She’s fully black like a panther, huge, and seems to pity me or want to protect me I can’t tell which.

She approaches slowly, at least a hundred pounds of black fur move with her paws and then she plops at my feet near the bed.

I let out a scream and collapse onto the bed as darkness takes hold.

CHAPTER 23

Man, know yourself… and you shalt know the gods. —Egyptian Proverb

CYRUS

“Where’s Bast?” I ask Enki as he types furiously on his phone. He’s taking notes for what’s to come and probably can guess what I’m going to say before I even say it.

He sighs heavily. “How would I know? He disappears all the time. You know he has his own weird rituals. He’ll show up when or if he’s needed.”

An eerie feeling washes over me. I don’t necessarily feel anything except for curiosity at why Bast isn’t in the house, why Cow won’t leave the tree, and why Rat refuses to look at me.

I’m not concerned.

I don’t feel.

It’s more like an equation I can’t solve which, yes frustrating, doesn’t cause me to back down from the schedule Enki has.

“Ten days.” I nod. “I think ten days is sufficient for her. In the meantime, I’ll take her to the festival and scare her a bit, then do the usual for the eclipse.”

“And Jake?” he asks in a bored tone. “He curses you on a daily basis. Even the dragon’s getting annoyed, and you know how Damon can be. His fire likes to melt the ice in that realm, which then makes the ice get angry and we don’t need another war on our hands.”

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