Thoth by Alessa Thorn

4

Thoth watched Kema disappear before turning to the god that was grinning from ear to ear.

“What was that all about? I’ve never seen your feathers in such a bunch,” Set said, sitting down at the counter.

Thoth let out a long string of curses before he told Set about his morning. They were almost friends after all.

When Thoth reached the part where Kema had kicked out the tent pole, the war god started laughing, a deep, rare rumble of mirth that made Thoth want to throw something at his head.

“Who would have thought that they made sorceresses so pretty and resourceful?” Set said with a smirk.

Thoth rolled his eyes. Of course Set would notice how she looked, and not the amount of trouble she had caused. He would delight in the chaos she had caused.

“She’s hardly a sorceress. She’s a damn thief, who’s been using my magic and knowledge to hustle people. A demon almost ate her in broad daylight!” Thoth complained.

“But you saved her?” Set asked.

“Only because she’s got my book!” Thoth had every intention of annihilating her as soon as he got her into his house, and then she had used those big brown eyes on him again, and he couldn’t do it to her.

Set hummed. “Whatever you say.”

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Thoth demanded. He contemplated more coffee but decided he better not. He was far too agitated. And he had lost his morning’s purchases on top of everything else.

“You told me to check in, remember? Ayla had some business to attend to, so I thought I’d come and visit,” Set explained. His predator eyes were looking Thoth over curiously. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

“I have had a busy morning, or weren’t you listening? I didn’t expect you for another week.”

“Anubis needs to be found, and I can’t afford to wait around. How is your new apprentice going to take all of this?” Set asked.

Thoth gave him a withering look. “She’s not my apprentice. She is going to fix up her mess so we can focus on Anubis.”

“She can’t fix shit unless you’re there to teach her. She’s going to put up a fight, you know that, right?”

“She’s going to do as she’s told, or I’ll—”

“Feed her to demons, yeah, I heard. She didn’t look too frightened to me.” Set grinned. “This is going to be good for you.”

“It’s going to be another pain in my ass.” Thoth pushed his hand through his hair in frustration. “I’m getting too old to deal with this kind of drama.”

“Your drama is only just beginning.” Set laughed. “Look, I can start searching for Anubis, and you can teach your thief some basics. How many creatures did she summon?”

“Potentially twenty.”

Set’s smile slipped. “Damn. She’s got to have some powerful magic in her blood in order to do that. It might be fate that you two crossed paths. There would be no one else suitable these days to teach her.”

“Shai hasn’t ever tried to bother me, and I doubt he’s going to start now. He certainly would know better than to try and tie my fate to a human. Especially a thieving one.”

Set shook his head. “You have to get over that.”

“I do not.” Thoth knew he was acting like an oversensitive child about the whole thing, but something about Kema had unbalanced him.

Until he could figure out what was messing with him, he was going to blame it on the fact that she slighted him after he had helped her. Thoth wasn’t one for divine intervention, especially not in the last millennia, and it was going to bug him until his book was back in his possession.

“Fate or not, I haven’t seen a human with magic for centuries. Teach her, Thoth, or she will keep fucking up or accidentally hurt herself,” Set said.

“Why do you even care? The Set I know would’ve advised me to kill her before she becomes a liability.”

“You put your mark on her, Thoth. You want to be able to find her wherever she goes and know when she’s in trouble. The Thoth I know wouldn’t do that unless he had good reasons to,” Set threw back at him. “I also want no more trouble, so you would want to be careful that girl doesn’t have god blood in her. You know how protective gods can get of their human offspring. And her magic is so potent that you can't ignore the possibility”

"I know, Set." Thoth was smart enough not to argue with him about it. “Why are you here again?”

“Just to let you know Ayla has had no incidents with the magic she got from me, thanks to your dodgy resurrection.”

“Is that your way of saying thank you for saving your ass in the Duat and restoring the love of your life to the land of the living? Because it needs work,” Thoth replied.

Set rolled his eyes and got up. “Fuck, that thief has really got your feathers in a bunch. I’ll be around with Ayla tomorrow when you’ve calmed down. Ayla wants to see you. She has questions I can’t answer about magic, and we need a proper plan to find Anubis.”

“Fine,” Thoth said, his mind already drifting to other more interesting matters.

“Don’t kill the thief, Thoth.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Set shook his head and left Thoth in his kitchen, staring at nothing as he tried to get the knots out of his insides.

The truth was, he didn’t know what compelled him to brand Kema with his cartouche. He knew he didn’t want to lose her again, or his book, for another decade. He could’ve handled twenty supernatural creatures, and with her deck of cards destroyed, there was no way she could summon more.

Don’t you believe it. If anyone could create chaos to vex him, he somehow knew Kema could. Just looking at her made his skin itch.

Thoth pushed his palms into his tired eyes. “Sleep. You need sleep and everything will be clearer.”

Thoth shuffled his way to his bedroom, kicked off his boots, and flopped down on the mattress face first.

His clothes smelled of Kema, an alluring combination of sugar and flowers and female sweat. His treacherous body reminded him of the feel of her curved body pinned beneath him, the wide-eyed expression and soft mouth opened in awe.

Set was right; she was pretty. Not that it mattered. He would still make her undo the damage she had caused, and then he would send her on her way…or he would kill her.

“Damn thief,” he grumbled.