The Curse in Her Blood

Chapter 20

Set

I dreamed.

Dark terrible dreams.

Dreams of a burning mercury melting my body while my magic tried to keep me together. I dreamed of Astarte screaming for me, as I struggled to reach her in time.

I dreamed of every imaginable torture and murder method and watched my Astarte live through them, or, more accurately, die through them.

When I had been encased in my prison, with mercury striping me of my flesh, the pain the only thing I knew for thousands of years, what kept me sane was Astarte. Imaging her safe in the mortal realm, imagining that she lived a long life, pining for me. That she was waiting in the afterlife for me to resurrect her so we could finally be together.

This nightmare had wrapped me back up in that pain and then taken the thing that kept me sane away from me.

I didn't think there was a single thing that could make it worse. But it found a way.

Because, quite out of no where, in some terrible twist of fate, Astarte became my mortal. She didn't scream, she wasn't murdered, nor was she snatched away from me before I could keep her safe.

Instead she just stood before me.

She'd turn those Horus sky-blue eyes to me and I'd see the disgust and fear twinkling in them. She'd say vile things, about me, about how foolish I'd be to think a second version of Astarte wouldn't see the same faults that first one had. She'd tell me she was leaving, just like everyone else did, and then Horus would sweep down from the sky and take my mortal from me while I howled.

Honestly it was those dreams, they were worse.

I don't know how long I've been asleep, encased in a Kabus Cobra inflicted nightmare, when the dreams finally leave me.

At first, I'm just in Duat, it's lush and green again. Fireflies dance along the path and I'm walking towards Astarte. Or at least, I think that's who I'm walking towards.

The woman turns and it's not the sky-blue eyes that give away it's not the Astarte I'm walking towards, but the warm smile that is on her face. For even in my dreams my Astarte is never happy to see me.

But my mortal usually is. In reality I mean. This is the first time I've really dreamed of her.

I wake just as my mortal turns to me. I wake to a setting sun and foggy sense of confusion. I know my mortal wouldn't have known what to do, so the fact that in my weakened state, I've managed to stay alive long enough for someone to choose a champion and get me the cure, is remarkable.

"Ah, and the great beast awakens."

I turn to find Osiris sitting beside me. He is out of his finery and he's not even glowing, for a moment he looks like the younger brother I liked to remember him as.

He's smiling warmly at me and I'm just lying there confused. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by the Atet," I tell him and his smile widens.

"Well that's what you get. Letting a Kabus Cobra bite you. What were you thinking?"

"That my mortal would die instantly where I could most likely handle it... for a little anyway."

And then it hits me. Where is my mortal? His eyes shift and then I feel the presence. I turn my head and find my mortal beside me.

She's not pressed into my side but instead curled in beside me. There is a cloth clutched in her hand that she was no doubt brushing over my brow. She's asleep, but I can see the bags under her eyes. I can also tell that it is worry lining her face even in her sleep.