Page 45 of Feline Good

Her brows furrowed as she thought about her plan. Once the Keepers arrived, she would make them take her and Kyril to the past, to undo her mistake, and they would rule together.

But as she lay there, the silence comforting around them, the body beneath her warm and perfect… she questioned herself.

“Kyril…” she paused, suddenly wishing for something else. In that moment, her shoulders slumped, and she realized she was… exhausted. Which was funny, considering they’d spent lifetimes doing nothing.

His arm shifted beneath her as he caressed her bare shoulder blades. “Yes?”

“What if... “ Sekhmet hated the vulnerability in her voice. “What if we didn’t go back in time?”

He stiffened beneath her so abruptly she brought her head up to study his expression. His brows furrowed, mouth slightly agape as he stared at her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Frowning at his tone, she tried to put her thoughts into words. “We’ve been here for how long?”

“I don’t even know. It’s been millenia.”

“Exactly. Why waste that? We could just use the amulet and escape. Get out of here, and make our life together elsewhere… somewhere of our own choice.”

He seemed dumbfounded, completely at a loss of words as he stared at her. “But you— you’ve waited so long for this chance. You’ve planned and worked so hard. Why waste that?”

Sekhmet sighed and laid down on his chest again, stroking his skin instead of the amulet. “Exactly. I’m tired of planning, of plotting and wasting my days obsessing over something that happened so long ago. Yes, it infuriates me that Ra fucked me over, but he hasn’t bothered me in the least since then. I haven’t had to deal with the drama of the other gods and goddesses. What if I don’t want to stir them up? What if…” she trailed off and stared up at him again, peering into his sky blue eyes. “What if I just want you?”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed before his features relaxed. “Sekhmet… I think we should sleep on this. Let’s not make a rash decision, okay? We can talk about this tomorrow.”

Sekhmet wasn’t dumb; he was trying to placate her. Feigning her relaxation, she burrowed into his warmth.

“If only you knew how easily this could all end.” She traced the jewel that had landed on his torso when she laid on him.

“What was that?” He questioned her, but she ignored it, still staring at the amulet.

She wanted him. And peace. Peace sounded lovely. Nothing and no one to answer to, no expectations… It sounded wonderful. She would wait and see how she felt, if she would call for the Keepers in the morning. However, she didn’t foresee changing her mind at all.

Then again… she also hadn’t foreseen Ra’s betrayal so long ago.

* * *

Kyril waited long, long after Sekhmet fell asleep before grasping the amulet in his own palm. The amethyst seemed to twinkle in the low candlelight of their room. The silence of the opulent place she called a hovel pressed in on him, until he gripped the amulet so hard, the golden curls bit into his flesh.

“Come to me,” he commanded in his mind. “Keepers, come to me, now!”

The amulet seemed to send a shockwave through his body, and he sucked in a sharp breath as he stared at the swirling mass inside the jewel. Yes.

He’d done it. His call was sent, and hopefully when Sekhmet awoke, they would be here. She might have spent millenia plotting, but so had Kyril.

Quietly, he scoffed at her proposal. She wanted to what… retire to an island somewhere? Kyril hadn’t even done anything to warrant retirement in the first place! And he doubted she would let him retire as her fuck toy.

That’s what he’d been created for in the first place, after all. To curb poor little Sekhmet’s loneliness inside her private dimension.

Kyril wanted to feel the sun on his face, the rain on his skin, the chill from a winter night. He couldn’t do any of that trapped here, at her disposal. She dusted his men easily enough, but she had never even considered dissolving him. Instead, he was forced to befriend, train, and ultimately watch his friends die, again and again with no chance escape from this hell. More than anything, Kyril wanted— craved his freedom: from Sekhmet, from this fucking prison.

With every granule of sand that had slid through his fingers over the years, he’d plotted. He would never have existed without Sekhmet’s boredom, but he sure as hell could live without her now. Not that she would ever give him that choice; he’d have to take it for himself.

No, she was too selfish to let him go easily. Too selfish to even let him leave with his own men for a single mission. Kyril was expected to train them, teach them what they needed to know— all for them to earn the right to leave this fucking pocket of time, to experience the real world.

He envied them almost as much as he hated her for keeping him here.

Sekhmet trusted him though, with everything. Even her darkest, most dangerous secrets. In the quietest of evenings, when she was well-fucked and delirious with drink, she would vent about the unfairness of what had happened to her. He would agree, nod, and rage with her— anything to keep her talking. Thanks to all of that, his carefully placed words and perfectly timed questions, he knew.

By the gods, he wanted his freedom. And with his knowledge he’d ensure he gained it.