Thoth by Alessa Thorn

3

Kema hadn’t needed to run for her life in years, but she ran now. The bookshop owner had found her. He was so pissed, he glowed.

He has to be some kind of sorcerer. The strangeness of the indestructible book was starting to make sense.

A book that you stole, Kema’s mind reminded her, and she ran faster. The sorcerer had found her, and despite her curiosity about him, she had bolted. He looked like he was about to kill her, and she wasn’t dealing with that today.

“You think you can run from me, thief?” his voice boomed through the surrounding trees, making Kema stumble. The golden sandals she was wearing looked great, but they had no grip on them. Kema dashed out of the park, wove through traffic, and slipped down a side street.

The air grew hot and thick around her, and Kema slid to a stop as the alleyway in front of her seemed to tear open. She glimpsed a landscape of desert sand and red sky before a creature made of black smoke and glittering embers ripped the hole in the sky open and dragged its way through.

“This isn’t real,” she said, too afraid to move. Had she been hit by a car and not realized?

The creature laughed with multiple fanged mouths and raced towards her. Something heavy slammed into Kema from behind, and she hit the street hard.

The smell of warm spice, incense, and man surrounded her as the sorcerer pinned her to the ground underneath him. Pure wrath had twisted his lean, handsome face into something feral and dangerous.

“Stay the fuck down,” he snarled. Kema was too scared to do anything but stare at the man above her. Glittering bronze light rose from his skin, filling his eyes and wrapping around his hands.

The creature hissed something at him, and he responded in its own language. All the hairs on Kema’s body rose, and she wanted to clamp her hands over her ears. The creature screeched, and bronze streaked through the air like a whip, striking the monster in the chest and turning it to dust.

The man above her chanted something under his breath, and the hole to the other world closed, the awful landscape vanishing. Bronze eyes turned towards her, and Kema squirmed beneath his weight.

“What the fuck was that?” she demanded, her voice coming out in a slightly hysterical pitch.

“That was a demon,” he replied. Kema went to move, but he brought his forearm across her chest, pushing her back down. “I think it’s time you and I go somewhere for a little chat, thief.”

“I don’t like your tone. Get off me before I scream.”

“Scream all you want.” The sorcerer’s lip curled in amusement before he was off her and dragging her to her feet.

Kema brushed at the dirty marks staining her dress. “Where did that thing come from?”

“Somewhere else. I should’ve let it kill you and serve you right,” her reluctant rescuer said, staring down his nose at her.

“Serve me right? For what?”

“For letting the damn thing in to begin with.”

Kema laughed. “What are you even talking about? Don’t let the costume fool you. I don’t have any magic—”

The sorcerer held up one of her cards. The same card she had drawn for her last customer.

“I don’t understand what my cards have to do with anything,” she began.

“You will,” he replied. He crushed the card with his hand and grabbed her wrist with the other.

Kema tried pulling her hand back, but his grip only tightened. The air grew sultry again, and another tear appeared in the ally beside them. This time, there weren’t any desert sands or red sky. It looked like a messy office.

“Let me go!” she demanded.

The stranger ignored her, dragging her through the opening. Kema yanked her hand free, but as she turned to escape, the alley vanished, and she crashed into an overstuffed bookshelf. She swore foully before rounding on him.

“I demand you let me out of here at once! This is kidnapping, you know,” she hissed, poking the sorcerer hard in the chest. He gave her a look somewhere between contempt and amusement.

“Like I care,” he said and walked out of the office. Kema hesitated for a whole two seconds before she hurried after him. She tried not to get lost in the maze of corridors that had books stacked from floor to ceiling along the edges. She wanted to pause and look at them but worried about getting lost.

“What do you mean, I let the demon in?” Kema asked when she found him in a kitchen. Unlike the rest of the house, the kitchen was uncluttered and relatively neat, with timber cupboards and bench tops. He scooped ground coffee into a copper pot.

“I mean exactly that, thief,” he said without turning around.

“My name is Kema.”

“So?”

“So you kidnapped me, asshole! You could call me by my real name.”

“I probably could.”

Embarrassed and confused, Kema tugged the now bent golden laurel leaves from her hair. “For what it’s worth, I tried to find your store again to give the book back.”

“Doesn’t make you less of a thief.” He put the copper pot on the stove before turning and leaning back against the counter.

If it wasn’t for the attitude and the look of annoyance on his face, he would’ve been handsome. Tall and leanly muscled, he had stubble and shoulder-length curly hair, tousled from the fight. He looked exactly the way Kema had remembered him.

“Why haven’t you aged? Who—what are you? Are you some kind of sorcerer?” she asked.

His copper-colored eyes narrowed. “None of those questions matter. Where is the book? Do you still have it?”

Kema folded her arms. “If you answer my questions, I’ll tell you.”

Bronze light flashed in his eyes as he took a step forward. Kema’s stomach clenched in fear and anticipation, but she didn’t move. It seemed to piss him off more, and he loomed down over her.

“The arrogance of you, mortal, to demand any answers from me after what you have done.”

“All I did was steal a book when I was desperate. As I said, I tried to return it, but the shop had vanished,” she said, failing to keep the tremor out of her voice.

Whatever confusion he saw in her face convinced him, and some of the anger in his eyes eased. “You really don’t know, do you?”

Kema shook her head. He opened his mouth and shut it again as the coffee pot on the stove whistled. “I’ll take a cup of that too, please.”

He muttered something under his breath but poured out two cups anyway and set it down on the counter in front of her. They sipped in tense silence for a full minute, the sorcerer’s brow creasing.

“Thank you for saving me. What’s your name?” Kema said, hoping that he had calmed down a bit.

The sorcerer stared into his coffee cup like he was searching for the right answer. “Thoth,” he replied finally.

“Sure, and I’m really Madame Heka.” Laughter bubbled out of her, but she choked on it when his expression didn’t change.

“Seriously? Your parents really named you Thoth?”

“No parents. I named myself Thoth,” he replied, bronze flashing in his eyes.

The arrogance of you, mortal… Kema swallowed hard. Surely, he wasn’t a god, just a sorcerer who took the name, thinking he was cool. Unlike the Greek gods, none of the Egyptian deities had gone public.

It’s just your imagination.

Thoth reached into his pocket and pulled out her cards. “I’m going to try my best to be polite, which is very hard for me, considering the fucking mess I’ve had to clean up because of you. Do you have any idea what these symbols are?”

Kema shook her head. “No. And neither did anyone else I showed.”

“You showed them to others?” Thoth shut his eyes, took a breath. “Fuck.”

“They didn’t have the book for long. I only quickly showed them, and no one could make sense of them. What are they?”

Thoth selected the rumpled card she had pulled in her last reading. “This is a sketch of a gateway spell to the first realm of the Duat. That demon would have been set loose if you hadn’t run straight towards it.”

Kema frowned. “But I don’t know any spells. I only liked the pictures and wanted an interesting deck—”

Thoth pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let me get this straight: you liked the pictures in my journal, so you fucking made tarot cards out of them?”

“If I say yes, are you going to yell at me more?” Kema asked.

Thoth glared at her. “You’ll be lucky if I only yell at you.”

“How was I supposed to know they weren’t just pictures? I don’t know magic!”

“But clearly you have an ability to use it, or I wouldn’t have spent the last two years running about Egypt, cleaning up the chaos you’ve unleashed with your fucking fortunetelling,” Thoth replied.

Kema put her cup down before she dropped it. “You think me turning cards released other things like that creature?”

“I don’t have to think. I know.” Thoth shuffled through the deck. “This is to summon an ifrit, and I had to banish one three weeks ago. I could feel my own magic resonating from the place it was summoned. That’s how I knew someone was using my journal for their nefarious shit. I thought I was dealing with a sorcerer, not some charlatan robbing tourists of their pounds!”

“Sorry to disappoint.” Kema’s lips lifted in an unfriendly smile. “You have them now, so I guess you should let me go.”

“How many readings did you do today?” Thoth asked.

Kema thought about it and then shrugged. “I don’t know. About twenty?”

“Twenty.” The cards ignited in Thoth’s hand. The bronze magic turning them to glittering ashes that disappeared. “That means, I’m going to have twenty fresh problems to deal with thanks to you.”

“Sorry, a girl has to make a living.”

“Not with my magic, she doesn’t.” Thoth gave her a long, considering look. Kema was used to men looking at her, but not like they were deciding whether or not to murder her. Finally, Thoth made an annoyed sound and glanced away from her.

“I don’t have time to deal with twenty on my own, so you are going to help me fix this, thief.”

“Me? But I don’t know magic. Can’t you call in another sorcerer friend to help?”

“I know no other sorcerers because they are pathetic.”

“Or because you’re a jerk and have no friends,” she muttered.

“You are going to help me fix this to make amends and learn that magic comes with a price,” Thoth replied, his voice dropping threateningly to a whisper, “You broke this, and by the Ogdoad, I’m going to make you fix it.”

“And if I refuse?” Kema demanded, folding her arms.

Thoth stepped towards her, heat and magic crackling in his eyes. She could smell his cologne again, and she hated that part of her was suddenly very aware of him and not because she was afraid.

“You will help me, or I will throw you into the first realm of the Duat with a thousand demons to eat away at your flesh and pluck out your eyes before—”

“It’s a little early in the day to be threatening eye plucking,” an unfamiliar voice said, making Kema turn.

An enormous man was standing in the kitchen doorway. He looked her over with glittering golden eyes and gave her an amiable smile.

“I didn’t think you had any other friends but me, Thoth. Especially attractive women who like to play dress up.”

Kema snorted at the implication. “He’s not my friend, and I’m not his call girl, either. This prick kidnapped me.”

“Is this true?” the big man raised a brow at the sorcerer.

“Don’t give me that look, Set. This is the person who stole my book and has been unleashing demons, ifrit, and everything else that has been plaguing Alexandria!” Thoth argued.

Kema’s eyes widened, and she looked the big man over again. Set. Surely not the Set. What the hell had she walked into…

“And because she stole a book, you’re going to throw her in the Duat? Seems a little unfair,” Set said.

“Thank you! I was a kid, and I was scared,” Kema replied.

“You aren’t a kid now, and you’re going to be back here tomorrow at dusk, or I will throw you in the Duat.”

As fast as a striking adder, Thoth grabbed her arm. Magic and heat burned under his palm, and she yanked her hand away. A bronze cartouche was now branded into her skin.

“What the fuck?” Kema hissed.

“That is so you can find your way back tomorrow.” Thoth opened a doorway, and on the other side was a street near the Shalalat gardens.

“I won’t be back tomorrow, you arrogant ass—” Kema started before Thoth shoved her through.

“And bring my damn book with you,” Thoth called after her.

Kema was telling him exactly where she was going to shove his book when the doorway vanished, taking the strange sorcerer and the grinning Set with it.

Kema touched the cartouche on her arm, and a tingle ran through her fingertips. Brand or no brand, there was no way in hell she would go back to that bookshop.

Kema was game for most things in life, but tangling with gods wasn’t one of them.