“Is that how you seduced my grandfather?” Anubis growled as he grabbed my arm and swept me out of the ballroom.
Re and Trevor were both distracted by our guests and didn't notice me leaving; Anubis had timed his abduction well. I could have screamed, but I didn't want to make a scene, and I also wanted to believe that Anubis was a good man beneath all of his bluster.
“What do you mean?” I asked as he shoved me into a side room.
“That vision you gave me,” Anubis growled. “You had me going at first, but then I realized that it had to be a trick. And if you could do it to me, then you could do it to the Sun God himself.”
“I didn't do anything to you, Anubis,” I said softly. “I was just as affected by the memory as you were.”
“Memory,” he huffed. “Don't try to sell me your stupid story about this being an altered timeline.”
Ask him how you could have possibly known what his palace looks like,Alaric prompted.You couldn't give him a vision of something you've never seen.
Good point.
“You saw us together in your palace, right?” I asked him.
Anubis narrowed his eyes and nodded.
“I've never been to Aaru, Anubis,” I said reasonably. “You'd know if I had.”
Anubis blinked as he processed this. “You could have come in through Duat. You could have... ”
I just stared at him and waited for him to accept the truth.
“This isn't possible,” he whispered.
“It is,” I said. “It's not a trick. Believe me, I wish it were. Do you think I enjoyed feeling those things? Or seeing you like that? Seeing myself like that? Now, I know why I freaked out about Re's chains. You had me bound like an animal.”
Anubis swallowed roughly. “I admit that I'm a traditional god; I believe in the proper order of things. Humans should not mingle with gods. I can imagine how I might become furious with one for overstepping her place, but I don't want to believe myself capable of such... evil.”
“Did you see how you came through it?” I softened my tone.
“The Fountain?” He asked. “Yes.”
“Will that help you?” I asked. “Can it actually heal your pain?”
“The Fountain washes away any kind of illness or infection,” he said. “Even that of the mind. I believe it will restore me to the man I once was.”
“Then why haven't you done it already?”
“I've grown accustomed to the malaise, I suppose,” he admitted. “Apathetic to my own discomfort.”
“That malaise will become much more if you don't act soon,” I said. “Go home and have a swim, Anubis. Please.”
“All right.” He sighed and started for the door. “I will—”
Before Anubis reached the door, my new husband stormed in; his eyes alight and furious. Re set that burning stare on Anubis and started for him with hands curled into claws. Trevor surged in behind Re and did the same.
“Stop!” I shouted, and the men froze; all of them. “I'm fine; we were just talking.”
Re and Trevor glared at Anubis and then turned to look me over. They shared a relieved look between them and relaxed.
“You had to talk to my bride behind a closed door?” Re asked Anubis. “Why?”
“I wanted to know about the visions I'd seen,” Anubis admitted. “Vervain cleared some things up for me, and now, I'm leaving.”
“You're leaving?” Re frowned. “Why?”
