Thoth by Alessa Thorn

13

Kema couldn’t get her mouth to work. She could only stare in wide-eyed wonder at the smiling god in front of her.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Thoth exploded. He pushed back and out of his chair, shimmering with magic and fury. “Of all the fucking gods, it just had to be you. You’re the worst!”

“It’s not my fault. It’s not like I planned this,” Hermes began, but Thoth cut him off.

“You never fucking plan anything. She is proof enough of that.” Thoth shoved Set out of the way and stormed off down the hall.

“Aren’t you going to go after him?” Kema asked Set. He shook his head.

“No point. He’s not going to listen to reason when he’s this pissed off.” Set lifted his wide shoulders in a shrug. “Hermes has always gotten on his nerves, and now, the first woman he’s liked in forever turns out to be one of Hermes’s great-grand descendants. Thoth needs to cool off.”

“He’s being ridiculous,” Hermes said. He tilted his head at Kema. “You better be the one to go after him. You’re the least likely to get blasted with magic.”

“I doubt that,” Kema said, thinking of the day Thoth first came into her fortunetelling tent. She thought they were past him being upset with her just for existing.

Apparently not.

“He likes you, and that’s why he’s so pissy. Better go do the family proud by setting him straight,” Hermes replied.

Family. Kema’s heart stuttered at the word, and she got to her feet quickly to hide her flushing cheeks.

“Any word of advice?” Kema asked Set on the way out.

“Don’t put up with his shit.”

Kema lifted a brow. “Have I ever?”

“Try the observatory. It’s always been his favorite sulking spot. Turn left at the end of the second floor.” As she moved past him, Set took her arm. “Be careful with him. He’s soft-hearted underneath that shitty attitude.”

Kema gave him a wink. “Don’t worry, I always aim for the soft bits.”

“Gods, she really is one of yours,” Selene said to a grinning Hermes.

* * *

Kema tookthe stairs two at a time and tried not to overthink what she should say to the raging sorcerer. She knew he and Hermes had history, but so did they, and Thoth had looked at her like he would a complete stranger.

How had they gone from almost (maybe) kissing to being back to square one? Kema gritted her teeth. She wasn’t having it. She had enough to deal with, trying to reconcile the fact she had actual god blood and a family. If anyone was going to have a meltdown, it was going to be her.

“House, take me to the observatory please,” she asked, hoping it would respond to her like it had with the request for tea.

Shimmering bronze streaks appeared in the air like smoke, and Kema followed them through twisting halls and up two flights of stairs. It stopped at the base of a twisting wrought iron staircase leading to a trap door with a golden star painted on it.

Kema stared at it for a full minute, trying to sort out her surging emotions, but she finally resigned herself to being unable to quantify them. She ascended the stairs and pushed up the trap door.

Kema barely had time to register the large circular room, lined with books and the gleaming telescopes and solar system models, before Thoth was standing in front of her with magic crackling in his eyes.

“What do you want?” he demanded. It was the tone that burned away her timidity.

“Why did you leave?” she shot back, crossing her arms.

“I had to before I blasted Hermes all the way back to Greece.”

“It’s not his fault!”

“The fuck it isn’t. He should have left things alone and not interfered.”

“Set was the one that brought up my alleged god blood,” Kema argued. “Something you could have told me about earlier!”

Thoth smiled unpleasantly. “Now you know, and you can go off with Hermes, your hero. You should be ecstatic. Go on, go bother him.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Kema snapped, stepping forward into his space. “Seriously, what is your problem? It shouldn’t matter whose blood is in my veins.”

“But it does!” Thoth hissed. “You don’t understand.”

Kema groaned in frustration. “Then explain it to me!”

“You have his blood, which means you belong to him and can never belong to anyone else!” Thoth exploded. “He’s always going to have first claim on you, and I don’t share with anyone. Especially not with fucking Hermes Trismegistus.”

“Let me get one thing clear, sorcerer,” Kema said, poking him hard in the chest. “I don’t belong to anyone. I’m not going to be property to a man in marriage, or some god I only just met, and certainly not to a whiney fucking sorcerer who can’t pull his head out of his ass.”

Thoth grabbed her accusing finger and held on. Magic glittered in his eyes, and his divine form came forward. His eyes had gone entirely bronze, and the sensation of power and heavy wings beat against her. Kema’s strange new magic roared through her, called forth by the presence of the god of magic.

“Let me go,” she snarled, and shimmering red light rose out of her skin.

“Or what?” Thoth whispered, voice metallic and deadly.

Kema grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shoved him up against the bookshelf with a strength she didn’t know she possessed.

He chuckled spitefully. “You’re going to have to do better than that, little sorceress.”

“Yeah? How’s this?” Kema yanked him down by his shirt and kissed him.

Thoth started in shock, but Kema didn’t stop, her mouth dominating his. His warm lips tasted of all her favorite things, magic and sugar and man. She had wanted to kiss him for days, and if he was going to obliterate her, she was going to get what she wanted before she died.

Thoth let go of her finger, but as Kema began to pull away, he grabbed her by her hips and yanked her back to him with a growl. Thoth’s hands moved up to grip her thick braids, tilting her head back so he could deepen the kiss.

When his tongue touched her lips, Kema opened for him, and he swept inside of her. Her hands dropped to the hem of his shirt, fingertips tingling as she ran them over his warm skin and across the base of his spine. Thoth made a soft sound in the back of his throat that had Kema doing it again.

In a sudden move, Thoth flipped their positions, pressing her back against the shelves and grinding up against her. Kema’s breathless moan was swallowed by his lips, and he did it again, his hard body feeling so damn good against her softness.

Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs, and they sprung apart. Thoth was suddenly on the other side of the room and extremely interested in something on his desk.

Kema quickly smoothed her dress, grabbed a book off the shelf beside her, and opened it.

“I’m hoping that the lack of shouting up here is a good sign,” Hermes called before he appeared through the trap door. “Oh good, you haven’t killed each other.”

“Yet,” Thoth said, turning to give Hermes an arched look. “What do you want now?”

“I’m not leaving Egypt until I help you, so you might as well get the chip off your shoulder and let me. Also, in order to find where I last saw Anubis, I need your help in return.”

Thoth laughed. “Of course you do.”

“What Thoth means to say is, how can we help?” Kema said.

Hermes tapped his temple. “I told you, Zeus’s curse has left parts of my mind in broken bits. I need you to help me find the memory of Anubis. That way we can go back to that place and try and find some kind of a trail.”

“That memory is hundreds of years old, Hermes. How could anyone find a trail after so long?” Kema asked.

“You never know with gods, especially cursed ones. Anubis could still be there, living as a street mutt and having the barest idea that he is a god,” Hermes explained.

The thought of the god of the dead living as an animal made Kema’s heart ache. “The poor guy. Thoth, we have to do this.”

“I know, but I don’t have to like the idea,” Thoth said.

“You don’t like anything, except maybe Kema, and even that seems reluctant,” Hermes replied.

“It's not reluctant. I do like her, which is why I’m wary of you and the way you love to fuck everything up,” Thoth snapped. He sounded pissed, but his eyes were concerned when he looked at her.

“It’s okay, Thoth, I like you too,” Kema replied with a saucy wink, because she couldn’t help herself.

Hermes turned to her and took her hand. “I want you to know that while I’m excited at the idea of having a living descendant, I’m never going to ask anything of you. I’m not going to demand any kind of loyalty from you. I would like to be your friend one day, perhaps help you understand the magic that you seem to have inherited, but that’s all.”

Hermes cast a meaningful look at Thoth. “So you can stop pulling your feathers out about it, Thoth. It’s obvious you two have a connection, and I’m never going to interfere with that. Unless he irritates you too much, and then I’ll help you teach him a lesson.”

Thoth let out an amused grunt. “As if you could, Trickster.”

“He means thank you again, I’m positive,” Kema said.

Hermes whispered, “Are you sure you’re not here against your will? I can remove that cartouche on your arm if you need me to.”

“No need, I’m not worried. Having it helped me get to him when I was in trouble.”

Hermes laughed. “You go to this guy when you’re in trouble? Oh, sweetheart, he’s not inclined to help anyone in trouble, not even the pretty ones.”

Kema put her hands on her hips, stepping in before Thoth could say a word. “I’ll have you know he saved me from an arranged marriage, stopped a demon from eating me, and healed my wounds when two men beat on me. He also saved Ayla and Set from Osiris’s revenge in the Duat and brought them back to life. I’d say that’s an awful load of helping, don’t you think?”

“I surrender. Thoth helps,” Hermes replied, hands going up. He winked at Thoth. “You big softie.”

“Fuck off, Hermes.”

“Will do. I’ll see you tomorrow at sundown. You can help me with my memory retrieval, and we can check out the site together.” Hermes chucked Kema under the chin. “Behave yourself, granddaughter.”

“Absolutely not.”

Hermes laughed. “That’s my girl. Oh, by the way, that book you’re holding will make a lot more sense if you don’t read it upside down.” With that, the god of tricks vanished.

“Be careful how much you decide to trust him, Kema. I don’t know how to take this new Hermes, but I would hate to see you get hurt,” Thoth said as he joined her.

“Don’t worry, no one can play this player,” she replied. She stood up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Why don’t you stop worrying about Hermes and show me this very cool observatory of yours.”

“Let’s get the roof open, shall we?” Thoth said. He was a little flustered and flushed, and that pleased Kema immensely. She had noticed he was never like that with anyone else, and she couldn’t help but like it.

Thoth walked to the other side of the circular room and began to pull on a chain. Kema looked up as the roof, painted with galaxies, opened up to reveal a glass dome.

Thoth turned off the lamps, and the room was flooded with darkness. The night sky above them glowed with stars.

“This is amazing. How can we see this with all the light pollution in Alexandria?” Kema asked.

“It’s not looking at the sky in Alexandria,” Thoth whispered, his warm breath tickling her ear.

“Where is it looking?” she asked. She could feel the heat of his body behind her and resisted leaning back into him.

“The sky in the middle of the desert. It’s what we would see if Alexandria turned its lights off. Plus or minus a few degrees in alignment,” Thoth explained. His warm arm brushed against hers as he reached up and pointed. “You see that constellation there?”

“Yes?”

“That’s the one I made.”

“You did not. Really?” Kema asked, turning her head slightly so she could see the outline of his smile in the dim light.

“I would never lie about stars,” he said, affronted.

Kema looked quickly back at the night sky. “Tell me about another one.”

Thoth pointed. “Okay, so you see that one there?”

“Hmm, no, which one are you pointing to?” Kema asked. Thoth placed one hand on her waist and pulled her into the warmth of his body. He wrapped her hand with his so he could point better.

“That one, right there.”

“Oh there. I see it now,” Kema replied, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

“You are teasing me,” Thoth said.

“No, really, I couldn’t figure out which one I was meant to be looking at.”

Thoth ran his lips over the back of her neck. “Cheeky, little sorceress. Whatever am I going to do with you?”

Kema grinned. “Don’t worry, when and if the time comes, I’ll give you a list.”