Everlasting ( Descendants of Ra Book 2)

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

 "Your brother is in danger. Only you can save him."

 "My brother is dead." Reign Nicolis refused to take the bait Nephythys, Goddess of the Dead had laid. Shoulders embedded in the wall, feet dangling off the floor, over a pool of his cooling blood, his chin didn't move from it place on his chest.

 "He is alive, for the moment," Nephythys said.

She stood before him. Her voice filled with faux concern for the brother he hadn't seen in two millennia. He wouldn't meet her gaze or give her anything she wanted. But he couldn't stop himself from answering.

"You lie." His voice vibrated with anger. Her words and everything between the crown of blue hair on her head to the tips of her toes were a deception. That's how she tricked him to Chemmis, the home of the Egyptian Gods. With subterfuge and innuendos. He wouldn't fall for it again.

"You know I cannot lie."

That much was true. Nephythys dealt judgment to all followers of the Egyptian gods. Her words determined their final resting place in the underworld. Either ascension to the stars or perpetuity roasting in Duat.

"Come, I will show you."

Freed from the wall, Reign dropped to his feet. His bones creaked and his muscles ached. Whether days or years, he could not guess how long she'd left him hanging until he obeyed. Using Roman was a new tactic in her latest attempt to make him comply with her wishes. He'd tired of her games long ago.

Nephythys turned and lead the way through the dim passages of her white palace to a sunbathed room. So long in darkness, the light stabbed his eyes.

"Look into the Scrying bowl. The first waters of the Nile will show you see the truth."  She pointed at a bowl waiting on a table in the middle of the room.

Made from beaten gold and strewn with hieroglyphics carved into the surface, Reign couldn't ignore his interest. He wanted to see, needed too. But—"How will I know it is not a memory you have stolen from my mind and manipulated?" Finally, he looked at her. He took in her alabaster skin and pale blue hair.

She glided closer. Her whisper thin linen coverings showed more skin that it hid. The delicate fabric molded to her curves drawing attention to her pert nipples and the vee where her thighs joined. He almost wished he could feel something other than disgust and betrayal when he looked at her. This display was beneath her station.

"You will know, Reign. Have trust." Her lips curved.

He laughed. A brittle sound which surprised even him. Trust was not something he would ever do again with Nephythys. Her pouty lips trembled with artful dismay. He waited for a tear to fall just to see how long it would take for her to give up the effort. A full minute passed before she lowered her dry eyes. The Goddess of the Dead didn't cry either.

Reign turned to the bowl and looked into the muddy waters drawn from when the Nile was but a spring. An image appeared in the swirling liquid. His face on another man's body. His twin.

"Roman." Relief and sorrow tore through him. For the first time in two millennia, he saw his brother who should have been long dead. How had he survived all this time? The image faded, but not before he caught a glimpse of a nightmarish creature that stalked his brother.

"No!" He grabbed the bowl. A force shoved him to the opposite side of the room. "Bring him back." He demanded.

"There is no way to reform the link. You have destroyed it. But I can give you more than a watery image of your brother." She rushed through her words as if she read from a prepared script.