The Pharaoh

Chapter 15

Tears welled in my eyes as I watched Aiden fall to his knees. His home was in flames and there was nothing he could do. The strong smell of smoke wafted up and a blast of heat made me take a step back. Aiden, however, just took the heatwave and closed his eyes. I watched as the mighty pharaoh in front of me had a single tear run down his cheek. I couldn't stand to see the demigod so sad, so I turned my head towards the flames.

As I scanned the burning landscape I noticed something moving. I squinted my eyes as I tried to make out the small dark clump.

The darkness made it impossible to tell what it was. I gulped and put my hand on Aiden's shoulder. He looked up at me with his storm-cloud eyes and I asked him, "What is that?"

He scoffed and responded, "Flames and ashes, Alison, flames and ashes."

"Not that!" I said and then pointed to the moving object, "That!"

Aiden's eyes narrowed as he focused on what I was talking about. Once he saw it he stood up, making me stumble a few steps. He unconsciously put a hand out for me to catch and then helped stabilize me. "You okay?" He mumbled.

I nodded and asked him, "So what is that?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted, "We need to go down there and see. The smoke is messing with my powers."

I nodded then thought, "Wait... won't the smoke like... kill us."

"That's a good point," he muttered, "Do you think you could do what you did at Thoth's?"

"Make a shield appear? No! I have no idea how I did that. A part of me still believes that Thoth just handed me one!"

"Hey guys, what are we doing?" A new voice asked behind us.

I let out a scream and jumped. Aiden caught me in his arms and turned us both around to see who spoke. I felt my legs trembling as I took in the bald head and silver eyes of Thoth. "Thoth, what are you doing here?" Aiden asked.

"My servant came back with the ring. I assumed something was wrong. So what's going on?" the god replied.

"Everything's on fire," I said.

"What?" Thoth exclaimed. He ran up by our sides and looked down from on top of the dune. I watched as the reflection of the flames flickered in his eyes. His demeanor went strangely calm and he raised his hand.

I looked out at the landscape just in time to see all of the flames and smoke vanish. Leaving a clear darkening sky.

"Alison! Rhett was that thing that was moving! He's alive!" Aiden exclaimed.

Thoth put one hand on each of our shoulders. Aiden grumbled something under his breath and Thoth told me, "Close your eyes."

"What?" I questioned.

"Just do it," Aiden told me.

I looked between the two men and decided to just do what they said. I closed my eyes and felt an insane amount of wind consume my being. My stomach lurched and I felt all the food I'd eaten in the last day make its way up my throat.

Suddenly everything froze. The air was still and there wasn't a sound in the area.

"You can open your eyes, my dear Amari," Thoth said.

I opened my eyes to see that I was down where the flames were just minutes before. Thoth kept an eye on me, probably making sure that I wasn't going to throw up, and Aiden was looking at the ashy remains of his home. I walked up to Aiden's side and followed his line of sight.

Two bodies. Both holding each other and nearly burnt beyond recognition. Their healthy and beautiful faces flashed in my mind and I immediately hunched over emptied my stomach.