Chapter Twenty-One
This was bad, really bad. Seth was right in that Ra wasn’t a physically demonstrative person. He’d never had a fight, he’d never needed to, but Arvyn was hurt, Kirill was looking mutinous in the corner with him, and Ra knew in his heart his mates deserved he fight for them the way they would for him.
“This room’s too small. We’ll take it outside.” Ra blew out a long breath before turning to where his mates were. Arvyn was on his feet which was a good sign, although he wasn’t fully upright. “Please, Kirill, stay here. Take care of Arvyn for us both. This won’t take long.” Because Seth is going to freaking do me some major damage and then laugh as he disappears ready to fight another day.
“Ra?” Kirill looked between Ra and Seth, torn.
“Kirill, please.” Ra kept his voice soft. “The powers a god uses during a fight could kill you both. You’ll be safe in this house; you have my word. Trust me.”
Kirill swallowed hard, and then nodded. Arvyn gave him a thumbs up, even though he winced as he did it. Determined to give his mates space to heal – Kirill from his shock from earlier, and Arvyn from his meeting with the wall – Ra turned to Seth. “Outside, now.”
“You actually mean it. You’re going to fight me?” Seth’s eyes couldn’t get any wider.
“You dared to lay a hand on my mate. When I beat you, and I will, you will be forced to show my precious men the respect they so rightly deserve forevermore.”
“I don’t believe it.” Seth shook his head. “Fine, if that’s the way you want to go, what am I meant to do with them?” He pointed to the two vampires he’d brought back from Osiris’s realm, both of them bound in what looked like spiderweb, with large gags in their mouths.
“They are Kirill’s to do with as he pleases. You are mine. Outside.” Ra didn’t dare look at his mates again. He knew, if he did, they’d see and feel the insecurities bubbling up inside of him. Instead, he followed Seth out, ducking under the doorway to get through, and prayed that his power wouldn’t desert him in his hour of need.
The air was chilly, a lot chillier than his beloved deserts, or the ambient temperatures of his own realm. With a sweep of his arm, Ra created a giant ward shaped like a bubble designed to stop anyone seeing the fight and preventing any magical spillovers. It would’ve been easier to fight on his realm, but Ra didn’t want his mates to think he’d abandoned them. He’d not even turned to face Seth when he was tackled from the side and shoved to the ground. That shit hurts, Ra thought as he rolled to avoid the fist coming for his face and scrambled to his feet again.
Seth didn’t make it easy on him, but then the man had been a brawler his entire existence. While Ra used words, and subtle applications of his power to get others to follow his way of thinking, Seth waded in with sheer brutality, and from the way the hits were coming thick and fast, Seth must have been dreaming of the day he could take out his frustrations on Ra’s body. And not in the sexy way.
Ra tried to meet Seth at his level. He threw a few punches but Seth barely blinked. The thuds and ground shaking were all Ra as he was being punched against the wards, punched into the ground, his ears ringing after a particularly harsh blow around the head. But Ra kept getting up, time and time again. Gods didn’t fight – not physically like this – it was the power levels from them as individuals that kept the peace, but Ra couldn’t take a breath long enough to summon his, so he had to keep taking the hits.
The sun moved across the sky – Helios will be having a good laugh, Ra thought fondly of his friend – and still the men kept fighting. Or rather, Seth kept hitting, Ra kept getting up. And so, it went on, and could’ve done for days, except Seth was getting frustrated and wouldn’t keep his big mouth shut.
“Gods were never meant to mix with mortals.” Seth accompanied his words with a vicious punch to Ra’s belly.
Ra doubled over, but only for a second. “Without them there’s no point in our existence.” He managed to get a kick into Seth’s thigh.
“You’ve soiled yourself.” Seth lunged, and Ra ducked. “Soiled yourself with mortals just like fucking Zeus did. You should be ashamed of yourself. You let that beast and that vampire… They’re not your mates. There are no mates.”
Ra didn’t have anything to feel ashamed of, so he didn’t bother answering and that seemed to infuriate Seth even more.
“Your so-called mates will be mine,” he snarled. “I will take them, break them, and send them back to the ether where even their souls won’t find peace.”
“You won’t touch my mates.” Ra skipped out of the way of another attack, before diving in and kicking Seth’s knees out from under him. “Do you understand? They are my mates. The Fates granted them to me, and they are mine.”
“They are not your mates.” Seth rolled away and clambered to his feet. Ra noted the heaving chest and split knuckles. “There are no mates. Those two will only bring you pain. I protect you, but I can’t protect you when you foolishly run off on a whim. They only have one use for us and that’s our power. This pairing makes you weak and gullible. It reflects on all of us. How dare you try and bring us down this way. If you persist with this, we are nothing. Without me, you are nothing.”
Those words struck a chord, and Ra didn’t know if it was because he was mated now, or if he’d just had enough of Seth’s goading. “I am everything.” His words were said automatically, a nod to the title he’d held since he came into existence. But as he said the words, Ra felt a rush of power, unlike anything he’d felt before, filling him up, easing every ache and broken bone. “I am the earth beneath your feet, the limitless sky above. I am the power behind the waves and the rush of the wind. My sun warms the desert…”
“I rule the desert,” Seth screamed, but it was as if he couldn’t move, his feet frozen and Ra realized it was his power holding the god in its thrall.
“I gave you the rights to rule the desert,” Ra glared. “What you are is because of me. I am the Father of Everything and that means the father of you. What I give, I can take away. Is that what all this is about, Seth? Have you got daddy issues? Are you trying to prove you can finally better your old man?”
“No! I’m a god in my own right. I always have been. I don’t need anyone. I never needed anyone.” Anger and rage drowned out the hint of pain in Seth’s voice.
“You’re a god through my boon,” Ra insisted stalking closer, his power billowing from him like waves, knocking Seth over. “The Egyptian pantheon exists through me. Just because I don’t use my fists doesn’t mean I’m weak. Simply because I don’t adhere to your ideals about mortals doesn’t make me stupid or wrong. The Fates blessed me, and instead of celebrating the fact we haven’t been forgotten after so long, you come down, manhandle one of my precious mates and insist he kiss the ground I walk on. And you expect me to accept that?”
Seth was beaten. He could fight with his fists, but his power levels surged against Ra’s like pitiful mosquitoes in a windstorm. “They’re mortals. They will only betray and use you, then leave. I know. We…” He hesitated, uncertainty written across his face, before resolve set in. “We’ve never had demigods in our pantheon before. Look at the trouble demigods have caused throughout history.”