Page 3

Chapter 3

Osiris

I didn't dare to breathe as the figure in front of me grew clammy, and sun-kissed olive skin paled. Mischievous silver eyes that no longer felt familiar dulled, and Nero's body swayed, before falling limp. I barely caught him before he could hit the ground.

I blinked, expecting the apparition to disappear like he always did when he came to me in my memories, but he didn't fade, didn't slip away. I had to be dreaming, or maybe I'd died myself. How else was this possible?

I homed in on the steely Roman fire that clung to his scent and highlighted the amber in his brown hair. The same fire that had stuck to his words like a brand, a distinction that none could have faked.

The popping crack of shifting bones filled my ears as my spine worked to fix itself. The shards moved, splitting skin and muscle, and the pain that came with it was the only thing leaving me grasping onto the hope that this was more than a fever dream.

That Nero was here.

Alive.

Exactly as he'd been before he'd died. Down to the characteristic arc that framed the curve of his lips as he scowled.

His words trickled into my mind until one stuck. A Rend .

He had no heartbeat, just like Aaliyah had explained before. The lifelessness of it made me sick to my stomach, and all I could think of was him stuck to a pyre in the middle of a frigid Russian winter.

Charred. Dead.

I swallowed that pain, keeping Nero standing as I waited for it to end. Several minutes passed, long enough that I had to question if he'd died again, before he sucked in a gasping breath.

"God, that's so much worse than she'd made it sound." He groaned, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground, and dragging himself away from me as he stood on shaky legs. "I will say, of all the things to remember, why did it have to be streaking ?"

"How—" I started, my mind racing through my own memories to try to catch up.

Nero waved me off with a bat of his hand, his eyes searching the room once again.

"Where is she?" he asked, his tone as unyielding as the steel he used to wield. His face hardened, and his years as a gladiator shone in his eyes as he rocked his head from side to side, popping his neck with a grunt.

I didn't recognize his question until he was snapping his fingers in my face.

"We don't have time for this, Osiris," he pushed. I could only shake my head, another pinch at the back of my neck as more shards of bone shifted into place. My hands went numb, my chest constricting like a noose had just been placed around my neck when he snarled, "Where. Is. Aaliyah? "

Muddled memories kept the answer from me. I took in the room's chaos, the strewn hints of volatile magic and the scent of ancient decay. The pool table was in pieces, and chunks of the wall were strewn across the floor. The reason why came with sudden clarity.

Sebek had arrived unannounced. He'd been in a rage , one like I hadn't seen in centuries, mumbling something about the crypt in Rome.

"She was here. I was with her by the piano when I felt the wards force open and let him in. Sebek snapped my neck before I could react." Fear laced my throat, strangling me as Nero's face crumpled, eyes wide with terror.

I sucked in a hard breath, not realizing I hadn't been breathing, but now I had a reason. I searched the room for traces of her blood, any hints that he'd done what rattled my nightmares, but there was only stale air and the lingering scent of her fear … had he taken her? If he'd seen her as a weakness, he would have killed her, so what made him do this? Some understanding that she was of his blood?

"No." Panic welled in Nero's voice, choking his words and cracking his facade open. "No, no, no ."

His eyes searched frantically around the room again. As though disbelieving.

"Tell me you're lying, Osiris. Tell me Sebek didn't see her." He took a step forward, erasing the space that had been between us, his eyes alight with fear and ire. The hairs on the back of my neck stood. "Please, Osiris, he didn't see her, right? He didn't take her?"

I couldn't answer. She wasn't here, and the only option that made sense was that. My silence was enough, like the deafening call of failure. I couldn't defend my weakness, my inability to combat our Maker.

Sebek had Aaliyah, my light.

Tears bubbled to the surface of Nero's eyes, the desolation in them matching my own. He ripped his hands through his hair, and when he opened his mouth, I nearly dropped to my knees.

Nero's scream made my insides seize, as fight or flight suddenly stole my limbs. Magic churned deep in my stomach, mixing with the acid that swirled there. It was the same sound he'd made as he was burned alive, and we were left unable to do anything as the sun consumed the ground and our brother. That same desperation, the same fear .

He flipped the couch, the one he'd picked all those years ago, and I watched it crash into the wall, shattering, adding to the destruction of the room.

"Nero—" I was cut off by a hand around my neck. Nero, with a strength that outmatched my own in a way that shouldn't have been possible, lifted me off my feet and slammed me against the nearest wall.

The snapping of my ribs ripped a grunt from my lips. My body reacted on instinct, a Charm wrapping around my vocal cords. The need to throw him off me was only outweighed by the understanding that I deserved every bit of his anger.

I let my arms drop to my sides, nails digging into exposed palms. I hoped he could see my worry and my shame … my joy at the fact that he was here.

That I'd take anything he deemed fit to give.

"No. You don't get to speak." His lips were pulled taut against bloodied teeth, his snarl absolute. The Flame burst along my skin, reacting to his touch, sparking along his exposed arms. He didn't even flinch. "I can forgive what happened to me." I didn't fight his hand as it squeezed, cutting off the air I didn't need, leaving bruises. "But you did not let Sebek take her."

"I didn't let him." The words came out past a choked breath. "I never would have let him. I'm sorry, frater ."

Rage morphed in his eyes, breaking down, until all that was left was simmering regret. The tears that had been there fell, and his hand tightened one last time before he dropped me.

The ground felt colder now, the silence in the air weighing down on me.

"How are you—" I paused, a sudden burn aching in my chest. The words were hollow, broken. "How are you alive?"

Nero kept his eyes on the ground, like he might fall into it himself.

"She brought me back." There was a laugh on Nero's lips, the sound hoarse. His hands ran across his face, fingers leaving red trails. "She gave me a gift I could never even dream of paying back … just for me to fucking fail her again."

One by one, his words gave clarity.

His eyes held a love that I'd never seen there before. Nero had known many things when he was alive: rage, pride, lust. But this was something else entirely, something that had swallowed him so completely that he'd found a way past death.

You weren't the first Vivas to meet her. That was what he'd said … before he'd Rended .

He would do anything for Aaliyah, and the reason he would had unjust jealousy burning in my veins. She was ours, mine .

Because she couldn't have him.

"You're Prince," I said, keeping my tone even, hiding the distraught feelings behind a wall of numb. How had we not seen it? Her steadfast protector. The man who'd gotten her through Ascension Rising.

"The one and only," he said, chuckling dryly. The way Aaliyah had described him, from the charm of his smirk to his sheer devotion to her, made sense now. All of her descriptions of him rang true. It had always been him. "Back in the flesh … mostly."

"Your memories?" I asked, a part of me breaking when he looked away.

"Nonexistent. I know pretty much fuck all about everything except for her. The only reason I'm here now is because I happened to get lucky with my last one … and remembered you."

It was as if someone had ripped my heart directly out of my chest, the understanding that he was here … but not at the same time. It felt like a cruel joke. I swiped at the blood that had slid from my ear, a remnant of the trauma Sebek had inflicted.

"Look, none of that matters right now. We need to get Aaliyah from Sebek before—" Nero seemed to rethink his words, shuttering as though haunted by them. "Osiris, there's something you need to know."

He looked sick, like the mere thought of our maker made him ill. A sentiment I shared. "Sebek is Amoun."

The way he said it confused me, the rattling rage in his voice misplaced. Of course, he was Amoun. It was his given name, one that Nero knew, though there was a chance he didn't remember that.

"Yes, he always has been." I held my pain closer when he sneered, forcing my shoulders back.

"No. Osiris. Sebek is Amoun ," Nero said with a shake of his head. His pause made my heart jump in my chest, the declaration pained. "And Amoun is the leader of Ascension Rising."

My blood turned to ice in my veins, freezing me solid as I choked on my breath. The surety in his eyes told me he wasn't lying. The fear for Aaliyah, the instant rage at knowing Sebek had seen her, been here .

He hadn't just taken her away. He was her uncle, and the master of her worst nightmares. I tried to think the same, to put myself in her shoes, but the idea of ending up back in Darius's hands was too much. Too cruel. It wasn't something I'd wish on even the worst of my enemies, to be forced back into the hands of the people that broke them.

I'd let it happen to her, let him take her. I failed again.

Again and again and again .

"No." I shook my head, unable to believe it, even when seeing the truth in Nero's eyes. Sebek couldn't be the leader of Ascension. He'd held Arvand with a sickeningly high regard. Pity overtook Nero's expression when I spoke again. "No. This can't be. He wouldn't have done this. Arvand wouldn't have let him."

"Osiris, he killed Iris and Arvand." Nero completed my thought, even when I tried to reject it. "He did , and now he has Aaliyah all over again."

He'd been with her for years … seen everything . "I couldn't stop him before. You didn't see it. You barely had to hear about it. But I'm not dead anymore, and I plan to make Sebek intimately aware of that fact."

Nero's hand ran across his face, and once again, the look of a warrior took over. His eyes, filled with a rage that was seemingly unending, met mine.

It was still lost to me, that I was looking at the man that I'd begged the gods to give back to us. He was Nero, to the bone, yet there was something else in his eyes now, a wariness that had never taken root before. A fear that had never held a place amongst the silver.

"Now, we need a plan. Any bright ideas?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "This is probably going to get ugly fast."

Not Osiris, but brother. It was more than I deserved, and it was wrong of me to bask in the forgiveness I didn't earn.

"I would do anything for her," I answered without hesitation.

Anything meant anything . I'd been nothing but a burden to her, to this family for the last hundred years, but this was my last straw. I would save Aaliyah.

Or I would die trying.