The amulet’s magic had brought him back. Her command made it permanent.
The word is the deed.
“You said you needed me,” Karim went on, fire in his voice. “You ordered me to come back to you.”
“I’m sorry,” Sita whispered, her tears threatening to overflow. “I didn’t realize… I didn’t mean to…” She couldn’t continue. She’d only meant to save him, not to burden him with a life without end.
“You Khetarans,” Karim broke into her thoughts, his voice husky but suffused with good humor. “Always so imperious. Telling people when they can and can’t die. What will you think of next, hey?” He paused, his face growing serious. “Sena, you have told me much about your magic, this ‘heka.’ You say that with object, word, and action, you can make your wishes real.”
“Yes.”
“Then hear me now. Let me cast my own spell this night.” He took her hand and pressed it to his chest. “Do you feel my heart beating?”
Sita nodded.
“That is the object. These are my words.” He licked his lips. “No matter where you go, Sitamun, no matter what darkness befalls us in the days to come, I will always come back to you. I owe no fealty to your king or your kingdom, but your command called me back to this earth and to your side. I intend to obey it.”
“I don’t want you to be bound to me because of this magic,” Sita broke in. “It was never my intention to enchant you.”
Karim leaned closer, smiling. “Wasn’t it?” He laid his hand over hers, pressing it to him. “You gave me this heart, Princess. It is yours, magic or no.”
Sita felt her breath grow shallow. Her belly tingled with the closeness of him, the smell of his body, and the heat of his skin beneath her palm.
“Your action,” she murmured.
“What?” His lips were so close to hers that she could taste his breath with every word he spoke.
“The spell you’re casting…” she said, feathery soft. “You have your object and your words. Spells have three parts. What is your action?”
Karim eyes were filled with the sight of her and her alone. “Only this,” he said, and pulled her lips to his.
They’d kissed before, but that kiss was different. There was a hunger behind it, a desperation. This kiss was one to last for days, weeks, centuries.
There was suddenly too much between them—too much space and too much fabric. They struggled to free themselves from their clothes, tossing them aside and nearly into the fire in their haste to entangle their bodies under the midnight sky.
She pulled him on top of her, eager to feel his weight pressing her into the sand, holding her fast to the earth that seemed to be spinning more and more out of control. He was lean and lithe, the dark hair of his body pleasantly rough against her smoothness, his every movement creating friction that set her senses aflame.
He tore his lips from hers and traveled down her throat, then her collarbone, forging a path of kisses along her body. She gasped as he traversed her curves with his hands like some wondrous, unexplored country. She wove her fingers into his hair, clutching its waves and guiding him down to her belly, her hips.
She lifted her head to watch him, the muscles of his back and shoulders flexing as he moved, serpentine; as he drank her in, open-mouthed, like wine.
Every thought was driven from her mind as sensation flooded her body. When she could stand it no longer, she reached for him, coaxing him back into her arms, pulling him to her.
Karim hesitated, his face flushed with desire. “Are you sure?” he asked.
Above them, the sky was dazzling with stars. It was said that Nut, the sky goddess whose starry body arched over creation, had once been so entwined with her lover, the earth god Geb, that the sun had no space to rise between them. The sky and the earth could not bear to separated, but they were forced to part in order for another day to come.
Never had Sita felt that story so deeply, nor the fierce needto savor a moment that was destined to burn away in the light of dawn.
“I’m sure,” she whispered into his mouth as she kissed him. “I’m sure.”
Sita felt the earth and sky collide. Not even a single mote of light could possibly shine between them, because there was no between. There was only fire and breath and passion, and a yearning to stop the night from ending, stop the sun from rising, to remain together and together and together until all the imperishable stars went out.
They held each other, wrapped in a blanket and nothing else, until the dawn came.
Then she wept.
***
