Someone was screaming—a woman. The shriek sliced through the pain, piercing my soul. The power within broiled, and from it, a curse spilled from my lips. I’d curse them both and make them burn. With all the power of the underworld, with everything I controlled, I’d bury their souls.

“Bae sra sudk, omd orr sros rok reqad. Bae sra kuir uk sruka I roqa cumkikad. Bae sra resrs, sra dord, Ikek, I cumdakm—”

“Seramca!” Silence, Osiris boomed.

His glare pierced me as sharply as Isis’s blade. The compulsion, and his power, thrust deep. I slumped over my knees. Silenced, perhaps until I died, which, given the amount of blood I’d lost, could be very soon. The terrible thudding sounded like a death knell and pounded throughout my body. With every beat, the numbness crept deeper into my bones.

“Husband!” Isis gushed. “It is done. You are safe.”

Osiris’s power shifted around him, flexing, pushing, and settling, but I wouldn’t look. I couldn’t.

“What is this?” he asked, mildly intrigued.

“She was the last girl. My gift to you, my beloved. Thoth warned me you’d been sowing seeds in fertile ground. From one such seed a boy would spring who would have ended your reign. Thoth never lies. I know you are busy with politics—with those stuffy men and their silly world—so I acted on your behalf. It is done.”

I heard a sob and lifted my head. What was left of my heart broke as I watched Bast frantically trying to cover the gaping wound in our daughter’s throat. It occurred to me, somewhere distantly, where my thoughts had gathered to be alone, that Bast had gone to Osiris. She’d told the god everything, hoping to stop him, but Osiris hadn’t done this. We’d been wrong.

“Isis, my light…” Osiris crooned. “My love. Once again, you save me. Every day you save me.”

“Wa roqa orvoaek baam susasrar. Wa verr orvoaek ba susasrar.” she replied. We have always been together. We will always be together.

Bast roared. The sound shuddered through the floor and beat the air. Something wild, ageless, and primal had joined us in the room. She whirled on the couple, her fingers stretching into claws.

Isis flicked a hand. From the queen’s fingertips a blast struck Bast mid-leap, tossing her against the wall.

Isis laughed. “Bad kitty.”

I heard Osiris rain apologies down on Isis and the two gods declare their love like it was a glorious thing and not the twisted obsession that had killed a dozen innocent women. I might have fought, might have argued, but crippled with pain, chilled and suddenly so empty, I was done. I hit the floor, falling onto my side, and rolled my gaze toward the protection spellwork on the ceiling. I traced the design the way I always had. I was tired. It was time.

“As entertaining as your death would be, I’m not finished with you.” Osiris’s warm hand settled on my abdomen. The other hand he placed over my eyes. Flesh spasmed, squeezing pain out of every cell. I’d have screamed if I’d still had my voice. He spoke old words, ancient words, words I didn’t understand, and then, too quickly or not soon enough, he let go.

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The god towered over me. His eyes narrowed and a displeased frown marred his timeless face. He looked at me as though puzzled, or perhaps surprised.

I blinked, and he was gone—Isis too. The combined weight of their presence bled away until all I could hear and feel was the cool wind, which brought with it New York’s cacophony.

Bast’s hands fluttered around my chest and came away glistening with blood. “Ace…oh, by Sekhmet. What were you thinking?” Her hands clasped my face, and she searched my eyes. A tear fell from her eye and tapped me on the cheek. “You stupid fool.”

“Chuck…” I croaked. At least I had my voice back.

Bast shook her head and more tears fell. “I was too late. I’m sorry. I thought… I thought Osiris would stop if I could bargain with him. I didn’t know it was Isis. He didn’t know. I tracked her scent here, to you…she could have killed you.”

I reached for Bast’s face and brushed a thumb against her cheek, mixing my blood with her tears. “Chuck…”

Her hand caught mine. She clutched it close against her chest. “She’s gone. I’m sorry, so sorry. I wish I’d never told you.”

She buried her head in my shoulder, sobs racking her body.

Turning my head toward the bed, I fixed my sharpening gaze on the pair of gold-flecked eyes peering out at me from under the bed.

“Chuck…” I croaked. “Come out. It’s safe.”

Chuck slithered forward on her belly, crawling out from under the bed. She still wore my shirt, which was now covered in a few years’ worth of dust. She coughed.

Bast lifted her head. She blinked at the girl, who was very much alive. Her face went from despair to rage in a split second, and the next thing I felt was a slap burning my cheek.

Bast scrabbled off me, onto her feet, and backed up. “What? How—I…?”

Chuck shrugged in that noncommittal way of hers. “Ace said it would work.”

I’d admit that smiling probably made matters worse.

Bast’s green eyes flared all cat like. “You bastard!”

She moved in for what would have been a decent kick had I not shifted sideways. Osiris’s healing had chased away death, but I still had some healing to do. Healing that a kick to the gut wouldn’t help.

“Hey! The dead girl was fake, but nearly dying wasn’t!”

“I hate you!” Bast snarled, rumbling the walls again.

“I get that…a lot.” Clearly nobody was going to help me up, so I hooked my fingers onto the bed and dragged myself onto my knees. The body was still there, in all its gory detail.

“I don’t…” Bast mumbled. “I can’t…she was dead. She’s dead. She’s there. How?”

I sat my ass on the bed and focused on breathing. That had been close—too close. I’d been ready and willing too. I’d have died to keep Chuck safe, a girl who deserved to live more than I did.

“Shukra switched my protection spellwork for an illusionary spell,” I explained. “The body isn’t real. None of it is real.”

Bast marched to my bed and looked at me. “You brilliant bastard.” She rounded the bed and touched the illusion of the dead body. “It feels real. I can smell the blood.”

“It’s a good spell.” It had to be to fool Isis, although it had been designed to fool Osiris. “I can’t dispel it while I’m drained. Would you do the honors?”

Bast hesitated, sweeping her eyes over the carnage, and then undid the spell with a few ancient words. The body and the blood shimmered and dissolved, leaving no trace. Above, the spellwork glowed and burned itself out.

Bast swore some more, throwing in some colorful, ancient curses for my benefit.

I looked at Chuck. She’d been hiding under the bed the whole time, listening to it all and seeing Isis toss me through a window. I’d told her to stay hidden—no matter what. It had been important that the gods sensed her inside the room. She’d hidden well.

She caught me watching her and smiled. “Is your life always this interesting?”

“Only on Tuesdays. What day is it?”

She laughed, and Bast cursed my name until she ran out of breath.

We’d survived the wrath of the gods, but it wouldn’t last. Chuck had to run, far and fast, and she might never be able to stop. If either of them discovered she was alive, there wasn’t anywhere she could hide.

I fell back on the bed and closed my eyes, exhausted, wrung out, and running on empty. “Wake me up for the next disaster.”