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No one wanted for anything here. No one had more than anyone else. They didn’t need to because it wasn’t what they wanted. It wasn’t what they lived for.
But Luca continued.
The tiny bells on the anklet he wore kept time with his footfalls. The whisper of his cotton kilt caressed his skin.
He stopped at the chamber’s archway at the end of the walkway.
The emeralds, rubies, sapphires set in his wristbands shattered the stark line between the sunlight and the shadow.
There, a silhouette of darkness waited for him, and everything beyond the temple walls became irrelevant.
The Anubis approached, its movements liquid. It stopped in front of Luca. A massive body of muscle and fur, tall ears, long limbs, prehensile toes.
Rage, anger, and terror radiated from its core. And Luca’s heart quickened, but not because he was afraid, but because he knew those emotions were cultivated to protect him.
And if the beat of that energy didn’t send the threat running, then the creature who breathed it would destroy them.
Luca slid his fingers from the tip of the Anubis’s muzzle to the slope of its browbone, to the top of its head.
Threads of black peeled away, sliding along Luca’s fingers, crawling around his palm to his wrist.
Do you remember? The Anubis spoke in Nox’s voice, but it still didn’t sound like him.
“Remember what?”
Do you remember?
Luca frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Howls rose. Thunder summoned by thousands of voices. Luca turned and beyond the courtyard where the flowers bloomed, the skyline burned and bodies cut mountains on the horizon. Black wolves moved in mass, churning up the ground with their massive claws. Destroying everything they touched. Everyone they touched.
And they would never stop.
Do you remember now?
The heated exhale of the Anubis caressed the back of Luca’s neck.
This is for you.
Blood filled the rivers. Flesh paved the roads.
Luca shook his head.
This is all for you.
People screamed in agony.
“Stop.” Luca trembled. “Stop. Please. Stop.”
Never.
The walls of neighboring cities cracked. Buildings fell. And the dying flowed over the rubble.
I will destroy all of it.
A lost child called for her mother. A father pleaded for his wife.
“No… no…” Tears slid down Luca’s cheeks.
