Set by Alessa Thorn

25

Ayla sat up, gasping for air through a honey-soaked mouth. With a cough, she spat out the golden shell of a scarab.

"What…the…hell," she said with a ruined voice, her tongue numb and not working correctly. With shaking hands, she pulled at the sticky bandages that had been wrapped around her.

"Oh good, you're finally awake." A man was watching her from the doorway. He was tall and lean, with a sleeve of tattoos and a slightly ironic smile on his face.

He was vaguely familiar, but Ayla's brain wasn't working properly enough to place him. "You would want to take it easy for a little while, Ayla Neilos. Resurrection does take a toll on the body."

"Resurrection?!"

"Give your memory a chance. The brain doesn't appreciate being turned off for eight hours," the man replied.

Ayla looked through the heavy clouds of incense to the body of a man beside her. No…not a man.

"Set," she murmured. Even with his face covered in bandages, she knew it was him. Ayla rose onto heavy feet and shuffled her way over to him.

"What did you do to him?" Ayla demanded.

"He did it to himself. I am only the unfortunate, very tired bastard that had to put you both back together. You're welcome, by the way," the man said.

Ayla's sore eyes narrowed at his tone. "Who are you?"

"Thoth. We have met, but your memory isn't catching up," he replied. He looked at Set's body. "Get ready for it."

Golden magic seeped out of Set's pores, and with a shuddering breath, he returned to the land of the living. Ayla pulled the bandages away from his face as Set opened his golden eyes.

"Ayla," he groaned. He titled his head to one side and spat out a scarab shell.

"It's okay, you're okay," Ayla whispered, smoothing back his hair.

"There's a bathhouse down that tunnel. Use it before you come upstairs," Thoth said. He gave Set a look that could only be described as ominous. "Don't take too long. We have things to discuss."

"I owe you," Set croaked out as Ayla helped him sit up.

"Yes, you do," Thoth shot over his retreating back.

Set got to his feet and took Ayla in his arms. She was covered in sticky bandages and smelled like a perfumery, but he was looking at her like she was the best thing he'd ever seen.

"Let's find the baths," he said, taking her hand and leading her gently away from the embalming tables.

"Where…where are we?" Ayla asked, one hand hanging onto the stone wall as the tunnel led them down and down and down.

Torches lined the walls, the soft light hurting Ayla's eyes. Her body felt wrong, as if she wasn't in it properly.

"Alexandria. Thoth brought us here," Set replied.

Warm, moist air hit them as they rounded a bend and descended down a final flight of stairs. Ayla stepped out of the tunnel and into an ancient Roman bathhouse. Dark pools steamed, and beside one, Thoth had laid out towels and clean clothes.

"Wow, this place is amazing," Ayla said, looking around in awe.

"The baths were one of the only things Thoth liked about the Romans. It doesn't surprise me he built a base on top of one." Set helped Ayla pull off the bandages from around her neck and chest. Set paused, his fingers touching the smooth skin between her breasts.

"Would you look at that," he murmured. Ayla glanced down to find a tattoo-like mark of a golden scarab now on her chest.

"How?" she asked, her legs trembling.

"Scarabs are the sign of resurrection and rebirth," Set explained, helping her into the water. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Ayla thought, and Set didn't push her. With tender hands, he took a cloth and began to wash the oil and honey from her body.

"I remember a prison. An old man," she fumbled, searching for the images. "Kader. He was there. Another man." Ayla touched her neck where something cold had pressed into it. She shuddered as a hot fire burned through her, and she pulled her hand away. "I was shot."

"Yeah, you were," Set said softly. Ayla curled into his arms, face resting on his chest. "What else happened?"

"Well…it's kind of a long story," Set began. He told her of shooting himself, traveling through the final gates of the Duat with Thoth.

As he described Osiris's throne room, Ayla got a flash of an impossibly handsome man with a green tinge to his skin and fury in his vivid emerald eyes.

Slowly, her memories caught up, and the scarab burned on her chest. The court of the dead. Set on his knees in agony. Tears spilling down her cheeks.

"You were going to give yourself over to be tortured by Osiris for all eternity…for me?" Ayla asked.

Set ran his fingers over her cheek. "Yes. You didn't deserve to be there. I was too late."

"I don't know whether to be really angry at you or really in love with you right now." Ayla sniffed.

"It's okay to be both," Set replied, a rumble of laughter in his voice.

Ayla kissed him hard and fierce. "You wait. We are not done arguing about this—"

"Argue with me all you want. I'm still going to kiss you again." Set pulled her close and did just that. Fire leaped through her veins, her desire igniting as his hands moved over her breasts, down lower between her legs.

"If you befoul my pools with your fucking, I'll turn you back into scarabs," Thoth's voice echoed ominously around the cavern. Ayla jumped and then started laughing.

"Hold that thought, my love. We had best do as the sorcerer says," Set said, his eyes still hot as he stroked her one last time. "He did resurrect us after all."

"Stop touching me like that. Otherwise, I will drag you out of this pool and befoul you right on the paving stones," Ayla threatened.

"You're right. Thoth said nothing about the poolside." Set pulled her out of the water and onto the soft towels that had been laid out. "Hard or soft?"

Ayla nipped at his throat. "I died and was resurrected today. If you even think about fucking me soft, I'll fight you, god of war." Set's grin was sin and promise before he flipped her onto her hands and knees.

"As my queen wishes," he growled in her ear.

Set grabbed her hips, lifting her ass in the air. Ayla gripped the towels underneath her with anticipation as he stroked a hand firmly down her back and over her ass, his fingers caressing and probing her until she was wet, her core pounding with need.

When Set pushed his dick into her, she groaned with relief and satisfaction.

"My beautiful Ayla, exactly where she should be," he murmured, gripping a handful of hair and pulling her head back. His mouth ravaged her neck, and she whimpered, moving back against him to try and get more of him inside her. "I could stay here looking at your sweet ass and my dick buried in you forever."

Ayla couldn't speak, could barely breathe as he thrust into her, harder and deeper, flesh slapping flesh until she couldn't hold back the orgasm and scream that echoed around them.

Set didn't let up, wringing out another earth-shattering climax from her before he found his own.

Ayla groaned when he finally slipped from her. Her heart was pounding, so loud and so agonizingly alive.

Ayla's chest burned, and the scarab began to glow. "Set? What's happening?" Hot power shivered like glitter on her skin before vanishing once more.

"I…I don't know. Does it hurt?" Set checked her over.

Ayla shook her head. "No, just heat inside of me."

"We need to talk with Thoth."