Page 58 of Feline Good

Maya grinned giddily. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with that.” Her heart soared to the highest of highs. Her men would be hers for as long as she wanted. She could spend lifetimes with them.

The thought was absolutely thrilling— she could only imagine the ways—

Another cough interrupted her giddy happiness.

“And what about me? Can I get out of this gods-forsaken time pocket?” Sekhmet nudged him in the side when she came close. “Please get me out of here.”

A look akin to pity crossed his face and Maya knew what he was about to tell her wasn’t going to be something she liked.

* * *

“Ra, you’ve got to be kidding me.” Sekhmet laughed, the sound far from anything humorous, more of a nervous tick than something belying joy.

Kyril stood not too far away, a furious look on his face as Sekhmet pleaded with Ra.

He was having none of it and gestured to the man in question. “Why would you want to take him with you anyway, he tried to kill you.”

The sun god made a good point, but Sekhmet couldn’t even think straight with all the emotions surging through her body.

“But how is that fair?! I spent hundreds, thousands of years here! Is that not enough?” Sekhmet's voice came out shrill with emotion. Her throat constricted, her fears pronouncing themselves in the tenor of her fingers. Her heart ached like a fist squeezed around it within her very body. When Ra looked at her with a dreaded emotion in his face, pity of all things, Sekhmet knew his words were true.

She closed her eyes against the wave of emotion that swelled so high and strong she feared she would drown in its furious depths.

Slowly, she turned to the one person she loved most in the world. The only person she loved in this world. His strong, handsome features were stricken as he met her gaze, his bravado fading as he stared at her. The tears that had welled spilled as he spoke as if trying to convince both of them.“You don’t love me, Sekhmet. Don’t do this.” A touch of anger still colored his tone, and she couldn’t blame him.

Her heart was breaking, and it was the worst feeling she could ever imagine. She’d rather be embalmed alive than for this hole to grow and fester as it was.

Ra’s words speared her just as efficiently as Kyril’s blade had.

You must give up what you love most.

“It’s what Ma’at requires of you to start over. A blank slate.” Ra spoke softly.

Suddenly, an inferno of anger, pain, and fury rose within her, her eyes sparking as she turned to the sun god. In the same instant, a calm overcame that, eclipsing the wave of violent emotions in her like a cold breeze.

This could be a blank slate. This could be her blank slate. Ra was right. Kyril had tried to kill her. But Kyril was wrong; she did love him. However, she also now understood that he didn’t love her. With that, her decision was made. “Fine. I can pay your balance. It will get me out of here?”

He simply nodded, and hope bloomed within her.

“I can go wherever I want? And you’ll leave me alone?”

Studying her for a moment longer, he arched a brow. “Alone? I thought this whole…” his hand motioned to the chaos around them. “…ordeal was because you didn’t want to be alone.”

Sekhmet stared hard at Kyril, not even blinking as he sputtered at the dead look in her gaze. “Sometimes alone is better than being with those who don’t want you.”

Empathy might have been something she struggled with, but in this moment it was sympathy that she couldn’t conjure into her heart.

Not even when Kyril made a move to step forward, maybe to take her into his arms and whisper sweet apologies. She would have none of it and focused only on her freedom. With wide eyes, he brought his hand up to his line of vision, watching as first his fingers, then his palm dissolved into a dusty sand to disperse on the mysterious breeze blowing in the room.

“No, Sekhmet, I’m sorry— please don’t do this.”

Sekhmet could feel— even if she couldn’t empathize with what others were feeling. Maybe if she had this quality, this trait, she would have seen his betrayal coming. Maybe he wouldn’t have betrayed me in the first place?

His pleas broke her heart even as it hardened her, too. “No, Kyril. You showed me exactly how you felt about me today. You tried to kill me.” The last was spoken through gritted teeth, and she willed the dusting faster, his other hand and arm matching the first, his feet following in the same fashion. “My love kept you alive, and you killed that too.”

Staring at his beautiful blue eyes, she shed exactly one tear for him and locked the rest away. He would get no more reaction from her, he would feel no satisfaction in succeeding in hurting her. None.

His legs were now faded, until he existed just as a torso. Her throat tightened as if a vise squeezed, or perhaps from the familiar feel of Kyril’s perfectly placed palm. Shaking herself of the thoughts, she spoke to him one last time, whispering between just the two of them.