The water was warm, comforting in the weightless pressure that surrounded me. I thought of Leo, his smile, his kiss, and the bonding mark flared on my chest, bringing light into the dark waters.
Nu only chuckled as he watched.
Leo’s voice yelled through the bond, calling my name over and over. Only the desperation in that call, the need for me, stopped me from considering saying yes to Nu.
The god moved back from me slightly as the light grew. “Another bright light, one that clings to you. I shall punish his interruption.”
Nu’s power pushed into the bond until I no longer felt Leo or the bond between us. I heard him cry out in pain as the last connection between us faded.
“I didn’t say yes!”
Nu laughed and pulled back enough so I could grab at my shirt and look at the mark.
It was still there, but not as it had been. The mark was blackened and now looked like the very first bonding mark I had made with Leo.
Nu’s hand emerged from the water, and he stroked my face.
“I did not remove it. I simply washed away the stronger connection, returning it to the form of its first creation. You are only yourself once more. The choice for all is yours.
“I took nothing from you—your power or gifts. I’ve only taken away the control that bond had over you; his power over it.”
Nu had given me freedom from Leo. I was no longer tied to him for an eternity. I had a choice. “If I want it all back?”
Nu smiled. “You must come to me again, for without me, the bond can never return to what it was.”
I swallowed. “How do I find you?”
Nu moved up to me and kissed me. I dared not fight the advances of a god that could alter a power that should have been untouchable.
I felt water fill my mouth until I thought I would choke on it, so I swallowed it down in the hopes of finding air, and Nu released me.
“When you wish to come back to me, I shall find you.”
In the next moment, I was once more on the grass, my fingers digging into the wet blades, and I was soaking wet from the neck down and coughing up water. “Holy shit.”
It took me a little while to get my feet steady and under me. My clothes were still wet as I walked back to Leo’s home.
For the first time in what seemed like forever, I felt completely alone in my head, as if I had room to breathe and be me.
When I entered the house, the door I’d run through was still open. No one was in the kitchen. In fact, no one seemed to be in the house at all.
I licked my lips and called out. “Leo? Sai? Ka—”
“No one else is here.” Set came out of the hallway with an apple in his hand. He bit into it and chewed.
In my mind, it seemed an odd action for a vampire. But hey, he wasn’t exactly a normal vampire.
“You’ve been missing for three days.”
I winced. “Why do I always lose time?”
Set smirked. “Well, you are playing with things far beyond the normal rules of time and space. So, who took you? Mother said it was not her, nor would she aid me in finding you.”
I swallowed and noticed the slight soreness in my throat from the whole water issue. “Nu.”
Set raised his brow. “Interesting.” He took another bite of the apple.
“Where is everyone?” I sat down in a chair in the living room.
“Paimon came when your demon fell apart. Something went wrong with your bond when he used it to try to get hold of you.
“Pai took everyone with him until more information or you could be found, and the damage to your demon was repaired. He whisked them away.” He licked apple juice off his lips.
“I need to summon Pai.” I sat up and was about to attempt to summon him when Set stopped me.
“Wait.” He came closer and crouched before me. “Think about it, Sarah. You don’t need them to do this.
“Do you want to drag them into the conflict with the Fey? With any of this? They are out of the picture, for now, safely tucked away while only you have to face this battle. It’s how it should be.”
I frowned, looking at him as he continued to speak.
“You only really need my help for this. I know enough to seek out most of the targets.
“We can’t exactly take them all to the Fey world anyway, and against the coven, what good would a bunch of poorly trained dream walkers do compared to a god?”
The amount of sense he was making made me suspicious. “Why should I trust you? You could be the reason Nu pulled me away in the first place.”
Set smirked. “I wish I could call upon grandfather’s aid in such a way, but I lack that ability. Look, your demon is weakened right now. Your new friends will only be a liability when we face the Fey.
“Sure, maybe you could ask Pai for help, but a king of hell walking with you into a Fey den? It wouldn’t work.”
I sighed. “So, you think we should do this alone?”
He nodded while moving his hand to the cool, damp skin of my foot.
“Yes, the Fey have no knowledge of who I am. Stories perhaps, but no proof. And they cannot contain me or stop me when I use my true abilities.
“I can walk in with you as a prisoner, a dream walker found alive, demanding for the weapons used against your kind to be made once more.
“We can find out who are the other Fey who were in on it, trapping them all and taking them to my mother. Together.”
I studied the god before me that had hidden that he was a vampire. “Make me trust you.”
Set smirked. “Long ago, Nu was part of eight beings that created the reality you know of and all life in it.
“It is said, Nu was the only one to survive this creation, but this is not true. Nu was just the only one to keep his abilities.
“The others, who lost their powers as a result, were made out to be lesser gods, descendants of Nu.
“Nu refused to let any of his powers go with the creation of new life. Still, without him, creation would not be possible.
“So, from his chaotic waters came life, formed from the powers taken from the other gods. Each time a new god was made, one of the old gods lost more of their power. Nu watched it all.
“One day, a part of Ra, another god, was lost, and when found, it resisted returning to the great god.”
He sidestepped the main story to explain this.
“As gods, if our powers, or ‘parts,’”—It was amusing to watch a god make air quotations—“are separated from us for too long, they live on in other ways, forming their own existence of a sort.
“During the resistance, the eye cried, wishing to keep its freedom, and from those tears that struck the sands, a new life, human life, was created.”
I guess my disbelief was clear on my face because he chuckled. “I know, just listen.”
He sat down on the floor, Indian style. “Now, the story goes that, for the first time, life was created that did not weaken one of the gods.
“When Ra’s eye was returned, and he realized he had not lost anything, many other gods began to experiment with creation.
“Thus, your world was soon filled with creatures and plants of all sorts. But some began to tamper with the creation known as humans.
“Soon, mixed breeds were born, monsters, all for the sake of a chance at the creation of a new god without the loss of power.”
I blinked. “Demigods.”
Set nodded. “Yes, a half-breed god can, at times, become more powerful than the god that helped in their creation.
“While this is a risk we all face, it is a chance at a family none of us had before humans showed us what a family could truly be. This is something that some of my kin seek.”
I swallowed. “Nu?”
Set nodded. “It is possible. While he helped make us all after we were created, he had no connection to us directly, at least as far as I know.
“You are the first human I know of who he has taken an interest in.”
I frowned. “That’s more your fault than mine.”
Set nodded. “Likely it is. It is not often we gods all show an interest in the same human, and you have, what…”
I think his pause here was more for his apparent flair for the dramatic.
“…three of us interested in you? Including demons, shifters, and witches. Your power, while limited, has the potential to turn you into what most mortals would consider a god.”
I blinked. “You can’t be serious.”
Set laughed. “But I am Sarah. You can walk between realities; not just your mind, but your body, as well, now.
“You can control the elements and pull power into your body to fight. You can see into the minds of people. Are these not the powers of a god?”
My eyes grew wide.
“Yes, you are starting to understand. You gained your powers from a demon; your knowledge as well. You have the attention of the gods because some of us can see what you can be.
“Sure, for now, you are mortal, but that can be changed. You hold the possibility of a new race of immortals; immortals born in the way that humans are born.”
I swallowed hard, but he wasn’t done.
“If my mother’s curse is not stopped, she will own you like a child owns a doll. All the remaining walkers now wear her mark, and she can track them all, feed on them all.
“Only if you fulfill her wish will she give you—all of you—the freedom to entertain her.
“She has three hunters in her grasp. Though altered by me, they still have enough of the dream walker bloodline that she can use them without losing more of her own power.”
I sat back, shell-shocked at the new information. “Killing us off weakened her?”
Set nodded. “Yes. She will be able to gain her power back from you all the longer you live. When she was cut off from you all, it weakened her. Thus, making her rather angry.”
I frowned. “Why did you help to weaken her?”
Set sighed. “It was not an intention to weaken her as much as it was self-preservation. Dream walkers are one of the few beings that can pester a god in their sleep, and some of us do sleep.
“But the chance at a new race of immortals—gods that are born? The risk was worth it.”
I wanted to ask if gods were weaker when they slept, but with the way Set was looking at me, my question was already answered.
I was a threat to the gods, and I was also the hope for a new branch of creation and power.
Which made me a target.
