“Please forgive me,” Anubis said, shielding himself from Xevi’s blows. “It was the only way to save you.”
“I wanted to die!” Xevi growled. “I wanted to take my place with the other gods in the spirit world. You have made me a demon!”
Thomas grabbed his wrist midswing. “This is not the time,” he said firmly. “Our village is in ruins. We must stop the walking corpses and beasts before they spread to the rest of the continent.”
Xevi still shook with rage, but he nodded. The three withdrew from the convent and were immediately met with sparring bodies. Xevi did not stay near them for long, disappearing into the mass of fighting limbs. Anubis squinted into the smoke, observing the reanimated corpses in a languid shuffle. One of the creatures paused to tear a limb from a dying warrior, chewing the flesh from his bones as the dying man screamed. The possessed beasts finished off the rest.
“You can control them,” Thomas’s voice came from beside him. “Your power is magnified now. Guide them into the blazing palace!”
Anubis didn’t have to question if he was right. He shut his eyes, picturing his life before humanity. He saw the jackal in his mind—his jackal—its amber eyes glowing and rows of pointed teeth turned up into a snarl. He heard the whispers and groans of the dead filling the air with sludge, slowing down the world with their presence. He watched as a shadow of dread crawled over every face around him—human, immortal, creature—for nothing in this world was absolved of death. It was forever constant, and it was his. He pulled the reanimated corpses towards him, attracting them with the aubergine light that now surrounded him, fulfilling their desire to be guided home.
Anubis focused on the building inferno and pushed them towards its open mouth. They lumbered over willingly, trailed by the hexed hyenas, who didn’t even scream as their fur caught fire. Anubis relaxed only after the last one was swallowed by flame.
“They cannot truly die that way,” a voice said, breaking through his thoughts. Legba had heard his call, standing next to him in his young man visage, his hair still coiled silver around his ears.
“Where were you?” Anubis demanded.
“We were blocked,” he replied. “Shokpana turned his back on us all, bringing plague back to our homeland as revenge. The sickness takes their souls, but their bodies never rot. Won’t catch fire neither. They will be trapped under the earth ‘til you call them again. Shokpana is a blood drinker now. He works for a group that wants to absorb all gods’ powers. He tried to create a death army and intended to use your power to guide them. But Medusa killed him, right after she saved you.”
“Why did she leave?”
“She killed one of ours,” another voice explained. Anubis turned to see the spirit form of Okanu, the god of dreams, dressed in shimmering white robes. His pristine dress was terribly out of place amongst the devastated village. “She is no longer welcome here.”
“After all Shokpana did, you punish her?” Anubis sputtered.
“You should not question our ways,” Xevi spoke up from beside him.
Anubis blinked. “You see the spirits now, too?”
“Of course,” Xevi huffed. “You are not the only one with powers—I have always spoken to them. They just chose you over me.”
“Tell him the rest.”
Anubis’s heart seized. He turned to see an apparition, none other than Helena. Although she had never been much for affection, he rushed towards her, pulling her into his arms. “Forgive me for not saving you.”
She gently drew away. “We will talk, but first Legba must tell you the truth.”
Legba scowled. “It does not involve us.”
“It involves him,” she shot back.
“I want no part,” Legba asserted and with a pop, he disappeared. Okanu followed suit, leaving Xevi the last one standing.
“I want no part of your struggle, either,” he said with a sneer. “I will be helping make sure the living stay that way.” Then he too disappeared.
Thomas approached from the shadows, up to where Helena stood. “Oh, my dear friend,” he said sadly.
“You both are immortal,” Helena observed.
“I could not get to you in time,” Anubis told her, “or you would be, too.”
“I can do more for us in the Middleworld,” she assured him. “I can travel through what is left of the realms and eavesdrop when I need to.” She turned towards Anubis. “There are other blood drinkers besides the one who turned you and the Ancient Ones you left behind.”
“David.” Anubis nodded. “And my brother, Libraean.”
“There are others who have cropped up as a force against you, who are destroying the realms, and who seek to destroy your Egyptian family. You need to find David and warn him.”
Anubis heard crashing and turned to see the last of the structures crumble in the flames. The entire village was lost. “We need somewhere to go until the humans can rebuild. There we can figure out how to contact him.”
“I know a place,” she said.
The memory faded, leaving him in darkness. Anubis rose to his feet, startled to see Helena standing where he once married her, so long ago. They no longer needed candles, two dead things walking around the land of the living.
“You really have been trapped in memory,” she commented softly. “You were lost in a trance for hours.”
“Since they arrived, I seem to be pulled back towards my former life,” he admitted. He fell back down onto the rock he’d been sitting on. The thin stream that once wound through the grotto had split in two, its soothing trickle amplified within the dome of rocks.
She followed suit, sitting between his legs so he could rest his chin on the top of her head as he hugged her. “Did you know Lucius was my father?”
“I actually did not,” she replied. “Apparently there are some secrets even I cannot uncover.”
“What do you remember most? Your life as the goddess Hel or your brief life as a human?”
“So you are not only nostalgic, you are speculative,” she remarked.
“I think I am finished with my human life,” he told her.
“Honey, you have been finished with this life since you got here,” she laughed.
