Page 73 of Gambling with Time

I looked up, but he was focused on Bellamy. Turning my attention back to Bell, I watched as he pushed off the floor, and then he held his hand out to me. I curled my fingers around his, and he tugged me to my feet.

“Looks like you need to stay with me,” Lex said, dropping an arm around Bellamy.

“Nah, I’m fighting.” He shrugged him off with a smile.

“You’re poisoned,” I said.

“I’m a demon. Poison isn’t going to kill me.”

Rai wiped his hand over his face, attempting to hide the smile that had started to spread over his face.

“What?” I growled at him.

Rai lifted his shoulders helplessly. “He’s just you in male form. If you could fight while poisoned, you would.”

“Incoming,” Lex said as three hybrids came around the corner to see the desecration of their friends.

One of them turned to run, probably to raise the alert, but Alastor shot a vine out to stop him. I fucking loved those things. While I was distracted, again, Bellamy swiped my extra dagger from my hip holder and shoved it into one of their chests. It was a pile of ash in seconds, and the other one had been taken out by Raiden.

“We need to get moving. The more of these things we run into the higher chance of Osiris figuring out we are here,” Raiden said. Scales shimmered over his skin, telling me he was shifting at least part of himself each time. And a puff of smoke came out of his nose, as if he had taken a hit of a joint.

“Are you okay?” Lex asked as we moved down the next hall. “You aren’t yourself.”

“I’m just a little distracted I think. Or emotional. Fuck, I think hormones are messing with my head,” I admitted.

“You think?” Rai asked as he glanced over at me. A smile tugged at his lips telling me he was joking.

I shook my head as I grinned back at him. “You be pregnant next time.”

“Is that possible?” Bellamy asked, eyeing the dragon. “Does your kind have babies?”

Raiden rolled his eyes and left the two of us behind him as he lengthened his strides and walked next to Alastor. We shared a look and almost dissolved into laughter.

Lex shook his head at us but indulged us in a smile. Then Alastor and Raiden gestured for us to line up against the wall as Rai looked around the next corner. I wrapped my fingers around my dagger, sliding it from the sheath. I’d be ready this time.

“Come on, I think the throne room is up here,” Rai said as he disappeared around the corner. We scrambled to follow him.

He shifted into his dragon the second we entered the throne room. Alastor’s vines sprouted from pots, crowding out the plants that were in them. Lex’s shadows tore into hybrids, and Bellamy used my extra dagger again and cut through others. I joined the fight, and we moved as a unit, each of us seeming to know what the other was going to do. Cerberus didn’t leave my side, being extra protective of me.

There was no way that only one of us could have survived this fight alone.

Osiris clenched his jaw as he watched us approach, the woman, presumably his sister-wife, Isis, beside him. Panic flickered across his face, but it was quickly replaced by a sinister grin. His fingers danced over a hidden switch on the ornate throne-like chair he was perched upon.

As we closed in on them, the room around us began to change. The walls, which had been adorned with mesmerizing hieroglyphics, shifted and contorted, forming a barrier that encased Osiris and Isis within an impenetrable dome. It was like watching the ancient magic of Egypt come to life before our eyes.

Alastor's spirits tried to penetrate the magical barrier, but they were repelled with a force that sent them scattering in all directions. Desperation painted Alastor's face as he tried to regain control of his unruly spirits, but it was clear that the tide had turned against us.

Osiris leaned back in his throne, his confidence growing with every passing moment. "You underestimated my power, greek interlopers," he sneered, his voice resonating through the chamber. "You thought you could challenge a God and win? How foolish."

Isis, who had been hesitant moments ago, now wore a wicked smile. Her eyes glinted with malice as she whispered incantations that further fortified the protective dome. It became apparent that she was a formidable sorceress in her own right, and she had no intention of letting us escape.

I exchanged a grim look with my companions, realizing the dire situation we were in. The odds were stacked against us, and we were trapped in a chamber with two immensely powerful beings who had no qualms about destroying us. As much as we had prepared for this confrontation, we had never anticipated the extent of their magical prowess.

Osiris continued to taunt us from behind the barrier, reveling in our helplessness. "You see, you’re a meager group, and you can never hope to defeat us. You are nothing but insects in the presence of Gods."

With our only exit now sealed, and our powers proving futile against their overwhelming magic, the realization sunk in: we were on the brink of defeat, facing a godly wrath that we were ill-equipped to withstand.

As the hopelessness of our situation settled in, a heavy silence hung in the air. We stood there, surrounded by the shimmering, impenetrable dome, our once-determined expressions now replaced by ones of resignation.

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