Wardens of Eternity Read online

  “We found a partial cartouche,” Sweeney admitted. “But there are so many royal names containing the hieroglyph ‘nefer-’ like Neferneferure or Nefernefernuaten . . .”

  “Where is the artifact now?” Nasira interjected impatiently.

  “At—at the British Museum in London,” he explained. “I found hieratic script painted on the surface, which was odd since that writing system was used by the priestly and royal classes for informal and legislative purposes. Further, the script’s characteristics didn’t fit the artifact’s age.”

  “Perhaps you found it odd because it wasn’t meant for you to read,” Nasira said venomously.

  “How was it different?” I asked him.

  Sweeney gave a frightened glance at my friend. “This was written in columns and by the time of Nefertari’s rule, hieratic was written horizontally. The letters also failed to translate literally. They simply didn’t make sense. The jar was sent to the British Museum for further analysis.”

  “We appreciate your help,” I told him. He wasn’t an idiot; he was educated and curious. And he’d stumbled across something he couldn’t possibly understand.

  Nasira turned and started toward the door, and Sayer and I kept up with her brisk pace. Any wasted time spent here only asked for trouble.

  Once we were alone in the elevator, I couldn’t hold my tongue any longer. “Nasira, was all you did back there necessary? Taking Sweeney’s air looked a lot like torture.”

  Sayer turned and studied my face, his gaze roving and penetrating. I wasn’t quite sure how to take it.

  Nasira licked her lips and said, “Sometimes, as Medjai, you must do what you must do. It hurt him, but in the end, it didn’t kill him.”

  My mouth formed a tight line and I couldn’t help feeling skeptical.

  The wind had begun to kick up, threatening a thunderstorm. Our drive home was relatively quiet once we discussed how quickly we needed to move out of the mansion and head to London. If it were possible, overnight would’ve been ideal. Every day we remained in New York—even hiding out here on Long Island—increased the chance we might be located by our enemies. I was plenty glad it was Anubis who’d found us first.

  Us.

  The word still seemed so foreign to me. I’d never been part of an “us” or a “we.” But the word felt good, like a dessert I’d never tried before. Unfamiliar, but good.

  As we pulled up to the mansion, I saw the front door was alarmingly wide open. I glanced up front and saw the others had noticed it as well. The wind was a ruthless force now and the darkening sky had grown the color of a bruise. Dread felt so close, like an icy wind upon the back of my neck.

  Nasira lowered her window and a terrible crashing sound and cry rushed inside the Delage. Sayer punched the gas and the engine roared, tires squealing, toward the portico. The car came to a drifting, then abrupt, stop and the three of us launched ourselves out the doors, leaving them open, and dashed up the steps and into the entrance hall.

  Sayer’s cautious voice was a purr in the darkness. “Don’t be afraid.”

  I drew a breath and said, “I’m not afraid.”

  The broken, battered body of a Medjai woman lay sprawled across the marble. A skulking power descended the staircase toward me and slowly devoured the hall like invisible vines stretching, creeping, choking.

  I gasped for air as magic flared within me, poured from me, fusing flawlessly with adrenaline to craft a cocktail that lit fire in my veins. I shed the extra layer of clothing meant to conceal my weapons and I drew my asaya as a kriosphinx’s haunting, guttural bugle echoed through the cavernous hall.

  CHAPTER

  10

  Movement to my left ripped me into action. I whirled to face the leaping kriosphinx and Sayer stepped between us, slamming his right ax into the beast’s chest. It dropped hard and didn’t rise again after Sayer buried his left ax into bone at the base of its skull. Its body seized violently as it was drawn through its wounds like a vacuum, vanquished. Shadows drowned us, stealing our vision, and I pushed through them into the light. The sounds of a woman’s wicked laughter and shattered wood and bone reverberated through the hall.

  “Kauket is here,” Nasira murmured, her tone low and cold.

  The walls and ceiling seemed to draw closer, threatening to crush me. I bit my lip, bidding the piercing pain to refocus my mind and body. “How could she have found us?”

  The air around Nasira prickled with magic. “It was only a matter of time.”

  A thump and a crash came from above.

  “I need to make sure Mum is all right,” she said. “It’s too quiet in here for the siege to have just happened.”

  “Go,” Sayer agreed. “We’ll sweep the first floor, then follow you.”

  She gestured at me with a flick of her chin. “Look out for her.”

  He didn’t affirm her instruction in any direct way, but he didn’t need to. I trusted him enough to know he’d have my back—and I’d have his. Nasira shot toward the stairs and darted to the second floor, treading stealthily when she reached the top.

  “We need to vanquish whatever kriosphinxes remain and help anyone who’s survived,” I told Sayer. “I’ll go this way, so we’ll cover more ground. Yell if you need me.”

  He nodded. “Likewise.”

  I proceeded cautiously, my asaya held in both hands, ready to defend or attack at any moment. In my head, I went over the incantations Nasira had taught me. My memory felt fresh and gave me confidence. I had all the tools; now I needed to utilize them.

  I first checked an office opposite the parlor and found a mess of overturned furniture and piles of books with torn pages and broken spines. The shelves they’d fallen from had been snapped in half and splintered. I stepped around something dark pooled on the rug beneath me. My jaw tightened as I searched a little closer, but I found no one.

  A whistling whine came from outside the office and I wheeled around, asaya above my head as I stepped into the corridor. A kriosphinx, so enormous it seemed to swallow the walls and ceiling, stalked in through the open door of the next room. I moved quickly and silently toward it undetected, and I leapt, casting a taw spell at the floor to propel my body higher—my asaya whirled until it screamed and slashed. Obsidian sliced deep into flesh at the base of the beast’s neck, severing the spine. Its huge body dropped, and I landed in front of it in a roll, stopping just beyond the burst of its dying shadows.

  I continued and heard a crash come from the dining hall. I took off at a run. Two kriosphinxes occupied the room, each taking turns ramming the far door with their thick horns. One backed up, lowered its head, pawed the floor, and launched. Its skull smashed into the door, muscles rippling beneath its dark pantherine coat. The white paint on the door splintered, revealing the crushed wood beneath. They would breach the door soon and attack whatever or whomever they wanted on the other side.

  They didn’t seem to notice me enter the hall, allowing me the element of surprise. I braced myself on my heel, turned my asaya behind my back, and cast out my free hand. My magic flared to my fingertips. “Taw!” I roared, and the blast torpedoed toward the beasts, slamming into the banquet tables between them and me, lifting them into the air and tossing them to either side of the hall with a crash. My power slammed into the kriosphinxes, shoving them into the walls in a tangled heap.

  The confused kriosphinxes weren’t prepared when I shot toward them, my asaya whirling and gaining momentum. I deflected slashing talons and jabbed the obsidian blade of my asaya into the top of one creature’s skull. The second sprang through the air and I whirled my staff, one of the blades cutting the kriosphinx’s throat as it landed on me, dragging me to the ground. I climbed out from beneath the bodies as both were vanquished.

  I rose, took several steps away from the door, and slammed a taw spell into the broken wood. What was left of the barricade exploded into splinters and fine dust. I stepped through the opening to find a Medjai opening the throat of a kriosphinx with a whirl of her a
saya. Once it was vanquished, she turned to me and offered me a nod of solidarity.

  “I assume you took care of the two outside?” she asked, breathless. “I hadn’t liked my odds against three. Separating them seemed a wiser option.” She was a fawn-skinned woman with a long, elegant face and large eyes made even more expressive by the dark kohl tracing them. Her dark hair was a mess in its long braid down her back and her gear suffered tears from claws.

  “We are agreed,” I said, impressed, and glanced around the room for any other threats. This was some sort of smaller dining parlor, perhaps once used for tea and socializing, with a lovely view of the gardens.

  “My name’s Haya,” the woman said in an amusingly polite manner for the circumstances. “I don’t believe I’ve had the opportunity to meet you yet.”

  “I’m Ziva,” I replied, grinning and feeling a burst of laughter rising in me.

  She gave me a lovely, friendly smile, her dark eyes glimmering in the flash of lightning outside. “It’s been a pleasure, Ziva.”

  “I’ll leave you to it, then,” I told her with a salute of my free hand.

  I hurried from the room, casting Haya a smile over my shoulder, and returned to the corridor. More sounds of battle attracted me toward the main hall. As I slid into the atrium, a sudden force struck my body and crushed me against the wall. My asaya clattered to the floor beneath the kriosphinx pinning me by its great horns. The beast backed away from me, relieving me of the pressure, and I took a deep breath. I used that breath to cast a spell before it could charge into me a second time.

  “Sena!” I cried, throwing up my hands. The charging beast struck the magical wall mere feet from me and bashed its horns in a rage, muscle rippling beneath its coat. “Khet!” My fire spell blew up in the beast’s face, illuminating its fury. The kriosphinx bugled and my fire pushed it backward. Its talons dragged on the marble floor.

  A spell erupted from above and rushed down the grand staircase, hitting me with so much force I lifted my arms to shield myself. The spell was visible, tangible, a beautiful but terrible and destructive thing as it beat against the walls and floor. I lowered my arms and watched the magic pause and reverse direction like a storm called back to the sea.

  From the floor above me, a vortex descended. It was light and heat, power and ancient magic that weighted on me, made me want to drop to my knees beneath its force. The walls rattled, potted plants were stripped of their leaves, and all manner of debris was sucked into the tempest. At the vortex’s crest hovered Cyrene Tera, summoning her magic with a fierce concentration that turned her beautiful features to steel and stone. She settled on the marble below as lightly as a feather. Her magic bloomed in light around her, spiraling, radiant, and magnificent.

  The kriosphinx loosed a low growl with a shake of its head. I snatched my asaya from where it had fallen and shot toward the beast. It met me with ferocity and a claw hooked my leg, ripping my jeans, but I whirled the asaya hard. One obsidian blade cut deep into the kriosphinx’s throat, spilling red. I slashed out with the other blade. Black glass cleaved the beast’s head from its neck and within a dark implosion, the rest of the body disappeared.

  I no longer feared death—only the cruel threat of failure. Magic wreathed my body, filled my eyes, head, and bones with a sparkling electric current. I drew in the fallout of the spells cast all around me, feeding myself until I built a throne of magic, from which I would rain destruction.

  Another kriosphinx descended on me, but I shoved my shoulder into its gut and flipped its body over my head with an assisting sena spell. As the beast landed on my other side, I slammed one end of my asaya into its heart. Claws reached for me and I deflected the blow with an arc of the staff. I balled my free hand into a fist and punched the kriosphinx in the snout, snapping its head back. The obsidian knuckles of my gloves ripped its face wide open. Sparks of magic and netherlight filled my vision. I slashed the black blade across its exposed throat and at last it died.

  Claws grappled around my shoulders, tearing at my jacket, dragging me to the ground. I rolled onto my back as a kriosphinx covered me with its huge body and I kicked with all my might into the beast’s head, crushing bone. With a savage howl, I cast out a hand, slamming a sena spell into its gruesome ram’s face, and the magical wall halted it in its tracks. My power withdrew into an incandescent, gleaming orb of magic in my open palm. I cried out a khet spell, and the light exploded into flames. The inferno blasted the kriosphinx, toppling it end over end in a tangled knot of limbs, its ghostly bugle lost in the scream of magic.

  Kauket’s smooth laughter echoed through the atrium. “You’ve been overwhelmed, Medjai.”

  I spun, breathless, to see the goddess and Cyrene face off in the center of the atrium. The priestess’s only reply was a rush of magic that hammered into Kauket, whipping her hair and the folds of her dress into a storm. But she did not bend to it.

  The masked goddess stood her ground, shielding herself with darkness, as Cyrene’s spell slammed into the staircase like a cyclone, ripping out the handrail and half the stairs before hitting the walls. A chandelier snapped and shattered on the floor with a perfect halo of glass. Windows exploded outward into the night and their curtains blew through the gaping frames. The thunderstorm invaded, heaving giant raindrops onto the marble floors. Lightning cracked its fury across the blackened sky and the crash of thunder shook the walls and my bones.

  Kauket emerged from her shadows like a dark birth, flicked a hand upward with lightning speed. She slammed her open palm into Cyrene’s chest and a gust of air and agony expelled from Cyrene’s mouth. She buckled, and her magic returned to her, leaving the atrium cold and dark and still.

  “The gods’ power is not for you, priestess,” Kauket hissed, her crimson gaze examining Cyrene as though she were a mere insect.

  The goddess didn’t seem to have noticed me and she vanished inside a flash of shadows and netherlight. Cyrene curved inward, her body trembling, and she collapsed to one knee. I rushed to her and caught her arm before she crumbled into a heap. Her eyes were wide, and she struggled for breath. One hand clutched her chest, her fingers crooked and bloodless.

  “Tell me what to do,” I said, unable to hide the panic rising in my throat like a scream.

  She managed to grab a gulp of air, and her free hand clapped onto my shoulder, squeezing me so tightly I submitted to the pain and my own knees hit the floor.

  “Sayer,” she rasped, with several emphatic nods.

  “Can he help you?”

  She nodded harder. “Go.”

  “All right,” I agreed. I hated to leave her, but the only thing I could do was trust her and obey.

  I shot to my feet and darted through the great hall in the direction Sayer had headed the last time I saw him. The parlor I’d seen him enter was empty, so I ducked out of the room and back into the hall—and nearly smacked into Kauket. Fear was a flame-hot knife twisting inside my belly. I drew a strangled breath of surprise and horror, reeling backward, limbs flailing as I skidded to the floor.

  The expression the goddess of darkness wore was thick and sticky with satisfaction. I had to stifle my fear, or it would give her yet another power against me. She would kill me if I allowed her to. Cyrene, the woman who gave me a real home and a place where I belonged, could die if I didn’t get help. Nasira and Sayer, my friends who brought me home and showed me what it meant to have a family, could be killed if I weren’t there to have their backs as they had mine.

  I pushed myself to my feet and raised my asaya. I had to be faster and stronger than a goddess I knew was faster and stronger than me. The only way to beat her was to do precisely what she didn’t expect me to. It wouldn’t have been the first seemingly impossible thing I’d done today.

  I cast a blinding benu spell and the goddess shielded her eyes, snarling. I leapt through the light, asaya high and arching, as Kauket swung a taw spell straight toward me. Instinct guided my protective sena spell, but with a firecracker flash of magic crash
ing into magic, I realized it hadn’t been enough. Kauket’s spell slammed into me, sending me soaring. My back smacked the floor and the air rushed from my lungs. Blinking hard, I refocused my eyes in time to see the goddess appear over me. Kauket raised a hand and blasted. I screamed as the magic savaged me as though she were boiling me alive.

  I rolled to the side, forcing myself through the pain, and pushed to my feet. A spell Nasira had mentioned in passing came to my thoughts and now seemed like a perfectly desperate time to try it.

  “Sekhem,” I growled, and raised my hand, spreading and curling my fingers like spider legs, and then crushed them into a tight fist. Kauket stopped cold and something in her changed. Her limbs clamped against her body and she jerked, struggling to free herself from an invisible power.

  I was both horrified and awed by the constricting force my own spell inflicted on the goddess. Kauket lifted her chin, her carnelian eyes widening. Her head dropped back, and a disembodied, shrill, skin-ripping scream leaked from her, rising into a crescendo that made my blood run cold. Kauket’s power surged and she exploded in a flash of shadows and netherlight, transforming into the colossal cobra of my nightmares. Kauket’s scream became a hiss of rage and with a violent jolt of her serpentine body, she thrashed free of my sekhem spell and lurched forward, jaws agape and fangs shining.

  A bright flash of light and heat made me shield my eyes. A khet spell large enough to swallow us whole rocketed toward Kauket. The goddess hissed and swung her body out of the fireball’s path, ramming the walls. Paintings and photographs crashed to the floor.

  The flames burst and died, and the evanescing light revealed Sayer. The enormous cobra swept toward him, forgetting me entirely. He threw a taw spell, but the goddess continued her charge. A force collided with me from the side and I was dragged to the floor. The kriosphinx’s horns blocked my vision and I scrambled backward only for it to rake its claws down the front of my jacket, tearing fabric. The beast slashed with a paw and knocked my arm aside so hard the asaya was torn from my grip. I ripped a was dagger from its sheath inside my jacket sleeve and as the beast opened its mouth to release its shrill call, I slammed the dagger into the side of its head, cutting its cry short. Its body erupted with shadows and netherlight, swarming me, and I stepped out of their reach and returned to clear air.