Set by Alessa Thorn

15

Set was pulling fresh date and honey bread from the oven when Ayla wandered into the kitchen. Her hair was a gloriously tangled mass of curls pulled over one shoulder. Her face was sleepy and smiling as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed his shoulder twice.

"You know, if you keep cooking for me, I'm never going to move out," she said. Set turned so he could press a kiss to her forehead.

"The coffee is just brewed too," he replied, delighting in the way her smile lit up her whole face.

"Thank God you're back. I missed you yesterday. I had to cook for myself, and it was awful." Ayla filled up a cup, making appreciative noises when she had her first mouthful. "What?"

Set hadn't realized he had been staring. Dressed in one of his robes and looking like she had been well fucked, the sight of Ayla made him unable to look away.

"You made a very similar sound last night," he teased.

"Well, this is good coffee."

Set bit his bottom lip and waggled his eyebrows at her. "You wait until you taste my bread."

Ayla's grin widened. "I hope it tastes as good as the rest of you," she replied, and with that parting shot, headed for her bedroom.

Don't follow her, Set warned himself. He didn't want to crowd her, even if he wanted to spend the day in bed with her. He thought he needed space to think clearly, but the time away from her had made no difference. Ayla smiling at him wiped every thought that didn’t include her out of his head.

Set didn't remember the trip from Banha to Naqada. He had let his chaotic god power overtake him, and he'd surrendered to the oblivious freedom of it.

It was Ayla's soft words and touches that had brought him back to himself. Without her, he doubted he would have gained control again so quickly.

Ayla had looked after him, unafraid, tenderly persistent as she forced the beast back until Set could think straight again and found his arms around a warm and wet woman.

My Ayla.It hadn't been the intensity of the sex that had wrung the words out of him. He had known it since the minute he had seen her strapped to the chair in Aswan. His Ka had come to life again, and now he was going to have to find a way to tell her, to get her to understand what she already meant to him.

Set hadn't opened himself up to a possible rejection in a long time. Just because he knew it was more than a quick fling didn't mean Ayla felt the same. She had her own life and independence that didn't involve a man trailing after her like a love-sick hound.

Set's phone started to ring, and he groaned when he recognized Kader's number. Pushing down all the feelings and lustful thoughts, he answered.

"Hey, boss."

"Set. What the hell did you do?" Abasi demanded. He must've been visiting Kader or reporting to him for the prison lines to come up.

"I did your job and dealt with Moussa."

"You slaughtered over a hundred men!"

"A hundred men that won't be hunting Ayla. Now Ayla's bounty doesn't have a sponsor, so everyone will leave her alone," Set replied. He calmly cut up the date and honey bread he had made and arranged it on a plate.

"This could start a war—"

"How? There is no one left to fight it. If Kader isn't moving in on Moussa's territory, he's wasting an opportunity."

"He is taking care of it."

"Good. The mole no longer has anyone to tell his business to, and once the bounty disappears, Ayla will be safe."

Abasi groaned in frustration. "Did you do this for Kader or for her?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it does! Kader is going to make this look like revenge for Moussa thinking he can attack his family. Still, it doesn't change the fact everyone knows Ayla exists. You need to tell me where you are so I can send some men to take her into protection."

"Ayla is protected. Anyone who wants to doubt that can ask Moussa." Set hung up and turned his phone on silent. He wasn't interested in politics, and he didn't need Abasi aggravating his Ka. If pushed, Set would go and deal with him and Kader the same way.

You can't kill Ayla's father.Abasi, on the other hand…

"What's that frown about?" Ayla asked, returning to the kitchen. She had showered and dressed, her hair tamed and pinned up, exposing her throat in a way that made him want to taste it.

"Abasi is pissy that I took care of Moussa and his legion of assholes. I don't know why he's bitching. Kader will now run the whole of Cairo without anyone to challenge him," Set explained, unable to lie to her.

Ayla took a grape from the fruit bowl, toying with it between her long fingers. "Do you want to talk about it?"

No, because you will see the monster and won't give me any more of those sleepy smiles.

Set placed the bread and honey on the table, and Ayla brought the fruit with her as she sat beside him.

"There isn't much to tell. I knew where Moussa had his base. Abasi has been fucking about, and I was sick of it. There will be no bounty if there is no Moussa," Set said, not looking at her. "It was the quickest way I could think of to deal with a problem that would never go away otherwise."

"They were bad people?" Ayla asked, face pale.

"Yes. You should've seen the state of the women I rescued. Who knows what Moussa had planned for them. Actually, I know exactly what he had planned, and they might have a chance of a longer life now than whoever he sold them to," Set growled angrily. He had suspected that Moussa was into trafficking, but he'd had no proof. He would have to make sure that Kader didn't decide to continue that lucrative part of his business.

"And coming home on a sandstorm?" Ayla asked softly.

"I haven't used my god power in a long time. It was let out in Aswan because I wanted to protect you. I'm having problems getting it caged again."

"Does it need to be?"

Set looked across at her in surprise. She didn't look scared or disgusted, just...thoughtful. "It's easier to pretend I'm human if I lock it away."

"But you're not human, Set. You're a god. Hiding away your power is denying a huge part of yourself."

"I'm not like the Greeks, Ayla. I don't want to be the center of attention."

"That's not what I mean." Ayla rested a hand on his thigh, her warmth seeping into him. "You have incredible gifts, Set. You can use them without anyone noticing if you wanted to."

"My incredible gift is slaughter, Ayla. You saw what I was like last night. That's what I am."

"No, that's what you do with it."

"You should be frightened, not trying to comfort me," he muttered irritably.

Ayla's brows drew together. "Is that how others have reacted to seeing your true self instead of trying to understand? I'm not like them, Set. I want to understand you. All of you."

"Why?" Set asked, vulnerable and raw.

"Because everyone has been so wrong about you. Maybe they painted you as a monster, and you gave into that instead of fighting against it. You were happy to become the villain. It might be a part of you, but from what I have seen, it's not all of you."

Set ran a hand through his hair. "That's because you're different. You bring out my better side."

"Miryam and the people that live here see that better side. The women you rescued from a horrible fate last night did too. There's nothing special about me. You only choose to let me see it."

"Yes, you are special. You've disrupted my life and my peace of mind just by meeting you. You unlocked things that I can't put away. You are dangerous and make me weak because I let emotions dictate my actions instead of thinking about the consequences," Set ground out, his jaw clenching together.

Ayla placed a hand on his cheek. "I feel exactly the same way."

Set finally looked at her, and the acceptance and understanding on her face knocked the anger out of him.

"We'll figure it out, Set. We are very smart," she said, a smile dancing in her eyes.

Unable to say a thing, he turned his face to kiss her palm. She winked at him and poured another coffee. Easy. Natural. Set didn't know what to do, so he changed the subject.

"What did you do yesterday while I was gone?"

"I did what any person would do. I went through all your stuff," Ayla replied.

"Find anything good?"

"A book of Hippokrates's notes in your library, a treasure horde with enough gold to turn my hair white, and a suspiciously large number of sarcophagi. Can I ask who the woman is?"

Fuck.

"Which one?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"The fancy one."

Double fuck. Set cleared his throat. Angry voices shouting at him for centuries ago filled his mind. "That is Nephthys."

Ayla put her coffee down. "Shit, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I killed her," Set replied. Ayla frowned, and he could see the information churning over behind her eyes.

"Nephthys asked me to kill her. She came to me about it...I don't know, five hundred years ago? I hadn't seen her for five times longer than that. She was tired of immortality and everyone dying around her. Isis had abandoned her long ago, tired of her bullshit and cleaning up after her. Nephthys wanted to die and knew I hated her enough to do it."

And Set had hated her so much that it was like ice in his veins. He just didn't know he had still loved her until her head fell from her body. Ayla was looking at him like she knew it too. She took his hand, and something cracked inside of him.

"I should've looked past my hurt and tried to help her. I tried to get her to leave me alone; told her that she needed to find a new purpose like we all had to," Set continued, that horrible day playing through his mind.

Nephthys's beautiful face, so full of rage and hate as she attacked him.

Women will only ever want one thing from you. You will never know love because you're not capable of giving yourself to anyone, and no one would want your monstrous heart, your filthy, blood-stained Ka. And even if they did, you would never sacrifice anything for the love they gave you. You would destroy it because that's all you do.

Set dragged himself back to the present and to Ayla. "She got angry and started to berate me. No one had a tongue as vicious, who could spew poison that not only hurt, but maimed. She pushed me, and I gave her what she wanted. I thought I would be happy that she was finally gone, but it turned out she got to wreck me one last time."

Set let go of Ayla's hand. "That's what happens to the people that I get attached to, Ayla. I hurt them, or they die, or both. I'm not good, or good enough, for you. I refuse to let you be another life I destroy."

With a sigh, Ayla got to her feet. Set froze as she wrapped her arms around him and kissed the top of his head.

"Let the guilt and the past go, Set. Choose to be something better, and stop punishing yourself. You deserve to be loved, just like everyone else. You just have to let someone in to prove it to you."

Ayla let him go and walked away, leaving Set alone and drowning in the river of his own long memory.