Page 30 of Ra (The Scarab Prophecy #1)

The next morning Azi and Ra lay in the disheveled sheets of Azi’s bed. Nothing woke them — not Azi’s phone ringing incessantly from downstairs. Not the sun shining brightly through the window. Nothing. Until Abasi began pounding on the door.

Ra was the first to sit straight up in bed and try to identify the incessant banging. “What is that noise?!” he demanded.

Azi turned over and began to stretch her body this way and that. “I don’t hear anything.”

Abasi pounded on the door again.

Azi sat up. “That’s the door. Someone’s knocking.”

“That is not knocking. It is pounding.”

Ra got up and pulled on a pair of shorts, then headed downstairs with Azi right behind him as she pulled on a robe.

“Wait a minute! Don’t just open the door, we don’t know who it is!” Azi warned.

Ra yanked the door opened and glared at Abasi. “Stop assaulting our door!” he ordered angrily.

Abasi immediately cast his eyes down. “Apologies, Ra. But we have a problem.”

“We do not have a problem. You, however, seem quite upset. Explain to me why we should care in the early morning hours of the first day of our lives together that you are upset,” Ra demanded.

“Actually, it is a problem that only you can handle, and it’s past 2:00 in the afternoon. The morning is long past,” Abasi said, daring to glance up at Ra before casting his gaze at Ra’s feet once more.

“It is still our first day!” Ra insisted.

“The first of many, Ra. Abasi, what’s the issue?” Azi asked, standing just behind Ra while trying to squeeze around him to get to the door.

He held out his hand, palm up. The scarab sat on his palm.

Azi’s sharp intake of breath had Abasi looking up at her. “We forgot the scarab!” she rushed out.

“But you removed it in time, correct?” Ra asked hopefully.

“In time for what?” Azi asked.

“The report I received from the security guards were that at least half a dozen persons walked out of the entrance of the tomb late last night and disappeared into the darkness.”

“They allowed them to leave?” Ra shouted.

“Human or not, they are our ancient deities. It is not our duty to stop them.”

Ra left the door standing open and walked into the living room where he dropped himself to his favorite spot on the sofa.

“Ra, are you alright?” Azi asked.

Ra shook his head as he stared at the dark screen of the TV that had yet to be turned on. Finally, he shifted his gaze to Azi. “Do you recall the promise of adventure we made each other?”

“Yes, it was just last night.”

Ra smiled exaggeratedly. “Remember that you wanted adventure.”

“I don’t understand,” Azi said.

“The others were supposed to resurrect one at a time, as I did. If they do not follow the rules, the entire prophecy is void. All of us will be returned to the temple, forever. They all left at once. They’re out there.

Without their powers. As overwhelmed and lost as I was.

We have to find them before Neith is made aware. ”

Azi closed her eyes and took several deep calming breaths. “How can we possibly find them? The only way we found each other is because I was there when you arrived.”

“It will be difficult to find them, but not impossible.”

“Where do we start?” Azi asked. “Surely Neith can locate them in an instant. And you followed the rules! She won’t take you from me and lock you up again! We can trust her!”

“No!” he looked over at Abasi. “Does she know yet?”

“She does not.”

“We will keep it that way!” Ra commanded.

“How can you seriously believe that Neith doesn’t know?!” Azi asked.

“She’s not here. She’s not threatening us. As long as she’s not here demanding that I go back to the temple for all eternity, we’re working on the assumption she does not yet know.”

“Perhaps she’s distracted. She is very busy,” Abasi said.

“She’s not that busy,” Azi insisted.

“We are not helping her become aware if she’s not already, and we are proceeding as though she does not know!” Ra proclaimed — literally, just like he would have delivered new laws back in the day.

Abasi bowed his head in submission. “As you wish, Ra.”

“This isn’t going to be good. She’s going to be so angry when she finds out we hid this from her,” Azi said.

“Which is why we have to find them before she finds out.”

“There are six of them! How do we hide six gods of ancient Egypt as they wander around causing chaos as they try to fulfill the requirements of their own parts of the prophecy?” Azi asked.

“More than six,” Abasi clarified.

“Oh, dear god,” she whispered.

“Fear not, my dear Azi, I am here. I will fix things,” Ra said.

“You can do no more than I can. You’re human, Ra,” she reminded him.

“I will still try. Neith did make it seem that I might regain my powers. At least some of them.”

“Because that’s going to make things easier,” Azi muttered.

“It will! And if it doesn’t happen, we have each other. All will be well,” Ra said, recovering his composure.

“I suppose all we can do is try,” Azi said. “I can’t in good faith leave them out there in the same situation you arrived in. We have to help them.”

“We have to help them just as you helped me. If only because I refuse to give you and our life together up.” Ra growled thinking of the situation they’d be thrust in by the gods making a mass evacuation of the Temple of Ra.

“They are still selfish, uncaring, impatient, spiteful gods that I should have left mere thoughts, rather than giving them life!” Ra said, growing more and more irritated.

“Do you see the difficulties they are causing me?”

“Did you mean to say ‘causing us’?” Azi asked.

“I said us! You know I said us!” Ra insisted.

“Yes, this will be fun. Abasi, you get to help this time, out in the open where I can witness it first hand. Come on in,” Azi said.

Abasi stepped inside and closed the door behind himself, smothering the hint of a smile he couldn’t keep from his face at the knowledge that he’d won the bet between himself and Neith.

He’d had no doubt that Ra would never desert the rest of the gods he’d created, no matter how happy he was in his mortality with Azi.

He’d not hesitated at all to locate them and help them find the answers to their own parts of the prophecy.

He had truly become a man of integrity — for the most part.

The End

Thank you for reading Ra, book one of The Scarab Prophecy.