Thoth by Alessa Thorn

6

Thoth didn’t hesitate. He ripped open a door to the Duat and tossed the chimera through before shutting it again.

“Kema, are you still with me?” Thoth said as the gateway sealed. He looked over and saw the blood. “Fuck.”

Thoth hurried to her side and gently rolled her over. The front of her blue shirt was stained with mud and blood. He shook her shoulder. “Kema?”

She didn’t move.

Thoth went hot and then cold as a strange new panic rattled through him. He had to get her out of there.

“Come on, woman, you can’t die on me now,” he told her, scooping her up in his arms. He opened a portal to his workshop and carried her through, almost colliding with Set.

“Looks like I’m just in time to help you bury a body,” he said cheerfully then noticed who Thoth was holding. “What the fuck happened to your thief?

“Bit of an accident on a chimera hunt,” Thoth said, laying Kema down on one of the embalming tables.

“You took her on a chimera hunt! What the hell is the matter with you?” Set snarled. He stuck his head out of the workshop door. “Ayla! We need you.”

Doctor Ayla Neilos arrived within seconds, her hair bound up in a knot and skin positively shimmering with Set’s golden god magic.

“What was she hit with?” Ayla asked, lifting Kema’s shirt so she could inspect the wound.

“A chimera tail,” Thoth said, earning baleful glares from the couple. “What? It was an accident.”

“Used…me…” Kema murmured, waking with perfect timing. Her dark, furious eyes opened and fixed on Thoth. “As bait.”

“It’s not like it sounds,” Thoth argued, somewhat sheepishly. He was saved from Ayla’s tongue lashing as Kema cried out.

“Burning!” she sobbed, her hands reaching to scratch at her wound before she slumped unconscious again.

“Its tail was poisonous. We need to flush this wound. You clean it up to make sure there’s no dirt in it, and I’ll deal with the poison,” Thoth said.

He moved around Ayla, his magic pulling ingredients from the cupboards around him and dropping them into his stone mortar. He crushed them up with the pestle and smeared the mixture into Kema’s wounds.

Magic pulsed through his palms, and he pressed them over her burning skin. In seconds, the poison drew itself out of her bloodstream and oozed yellow pus onto the embalming table.

Thoth didn’t stop until it was all gone, and the three ugly scratches along her ribs healed over. He washed the blood and dirt away and inspected the scrapes on her palms and elbows.

Thoth hadn’t meant for her to get hurt. Maybe give her a scare, but not an injury. How was he supposed to know that the chimera’s tail was long enough to reach her outside of the trap?

“These scratches look fine,” Ayla said, inspecting Kema’s hands. “You could’ve been more careful with her, Thoth.”

“There’s only so careful you can be on a chimera hunt, doctor,” Thoth replied.

“You shouldn’t have taken her on a hunt to begin with,” Set growled.

“Why the fuck do you care? She’s nothing to you,” Thoth demanded. Ayla got in between them.

“You finish up, Thoth, and I’ll make us all some tea,” she said, tugging Set away towards the kitchen.

Thoth turned back to the woman in front of him. Her jeans and shirt were covered in mud and blood and broken bits of reed. He carefully wiped some muck off her flushed cheek and took a leaf out of her black curls.

“Don’t worry, little sorceress, I’m not going to let you die just yet,” he whispered softly. “I like fighting with you too much.” And after he’d said it, he realized it was true. She argued back instead of backing down, and he liked that too.

When Kema had stumbled through the shop door that evening, Thoth had almost been happy to see her. Maybe he had been on his own too long.

For the first time in a millennium, guilt twisted through Thoth as he studied Kema’s sleeping face. His gaze lingered on her pink bottom lip, and the guilt shifted to something else. He wondered if it was as soft as it looked…if all of her was as soft as it looked.

And this is why you stay far away from females. They distract you too much.

Why had this woman come into his life again? Why had his book refused to leave her no matter how many times she threw it away or destroyed it?

Something tugged deep in his chest the longer he stared at her. Thoth frowned. This thief was a riddle, a puzzle, and Thoth hated a mystery he couldn’t solve.

“Is she going to be okay?” Set asked, making Thoth jump and step away.

“I’m sure she is. Surviving is what she does best,” Thoth said, stepping away from her and tossing the dirty cloth into a sink.

“Don’t be a dick. You don’t know what her life has been like.”

“And you do?”

Set pulled a face at him. “You seem to forget who has been living in the underbelly of this country for centuries. She’s tough, and you had better watch out she doesn’t kick your ass when you least expect it to get revenge.”

“Luckily, my good friend Set is here to protect me,” Thoth said, barely mustering the sarcasm he wanted.

“I might hold you down and let her kick you in the nuts for trying to feed her to a chimera.”

“I didn’t mean it. Things got out of hand,” Thoth replied and then wondered why he felt like he needed to justify himself.

“Leave her to rest. Come and have some tea,” Set suggested. Thoth conjured a soft blanket and put it over Kema. When Set wasn’t looking, he cast a quick healing spell over her and followed after him.

In the kitchen, Ayla was pouring out tea and had found the bag of baklava.

“Did you make these? They are amazing,” Ayla said, giving Thoth his tea.

“Kema brought them with dinner,” Thoth replied. He sipped his tea, and the churning in his stomach eased a little.

“Yesterday you looked about to kill each other, and now you’re having dinner together?” Set asked, mischief lighting his golden eyes.

“You say that like I’m meant to understand why it’s a bad thing.”

“Not bad, just surprising she would bother trying to feed your moody old ass when you’re constantly being a dick to her.”

“I have many charms that you’re too thick to perceive.”

Ayla let out a pained sigh. “Please don’t argue. We’ll never find Anubis if all you do is bitch at each other.”

“I doubt we will find him at all.”

Set folded his arms. “And why is that?”

Thoth waved at them to follow, and he opened the door to one of the bookshop’s many rooms. He had long stopped trying to count them. The shop always created more space when it was needed, and Thoth didn’t worry about it because it saved him the hassle of doing it himself.

“This is everything I have done to search for our dear nephew,” Thoth said and switched on the light.

Every wall was covered in maps, possible sightings, scraps of spells he had tried to use for tracking…and there was centuries’ worth of material.

“Well, shit,” Set finally said.

“Anubis has been missing for a long time, and nothing I have done has provided any clues as to where he might be,” Thoth explained.

“Is Anubis really gone?”

Thoth turned quickly. Kema was standing behind Set, looking pale but focused. Relief hit Thoth in the guts, and he quickly hid it.

“Yes,” Set said, letting her in.

Kema looked around the room before finally settling on Thoth. “Did you ever stop to think that maybe he doesn’t want to be found?”