Darkest Sinner (The Dark Ones Saga 5)

“You ask a lot of questions.” He sighed like he was annoyed but he seemed to be enjoying our conversation enough to sit across from me and smile.

I shrugged. “Like you said I’m out of time, I’m curious.”

“Humans are so convinced that anything which is light is pure and good whereas darkness is evil. What if it was the exact opposite? The absence of light is not evil, the mind is evil. It is where we make decisions that alter the course of history. Anubis is one of the purest gods in existence, his darkness protects, it heals, it kills, it gives life. His very existence helps keep the balance between immortals and humans. It bothers my father, has created a jealousy that runs so deep that it has caused a cancer in his soul. A sick soul starts to fester, especially with a god. The baser instincts start to take over. In my father’s instance, and in ours, we turn into something else entirely, a reminder to stay pure, a reminder of who created us in the first place.”

This. This was it. This is what happened to Timber! “So…” I was desperate for more information. Alex, Mason and Tarek had even leaned in. “Out of curiosity, if one of you loses your soul… or if one of you is… cursed, what happens?”

Horus narrowed his eyes. “Is that why you’re here, human?”

“Maybe.” I gulped. “Maybe not.”

He sighed. “Only Anubis can pull a soul from a body.”

“Oh.” Deflated I sat back against the chair.

“Set traps them.”

“What?” I nearly collided with Mason who had suddenly jerked to his feet at the same time.

He ignored me and whispered. “And I, Horus Prince of Light, can set them free.”

TIMBER

Egypt, Same Day

“Something’s not right.” My father paced in front of me. His smile was in place, but I could feel the irritation burning on his skin, pulsing through the air. “Are you sure her soul is pure?”

Paranoid. He was being paranoid, another sign that he was losing his grip on his godhood.

One day, he would wake up and find horns.

I looked forward to that day more than I should.

“She’s pure.” I swallowed the bile in my throat. There was only one reason he would be so obsessed with the purity of her heart and soul—the purity of her body.

He was going to marry her.

And then he was going to suck her soul dry.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How long have you been planning this?”

He jerked his head in my direction, and his skin took on an ash tone. “What?”

“She has the blood of Apollo running through her veins, the soul of a god and lucky for you it lacks the essence meaning she’s no longer immortal. How. Long?”

A shaking hand reached for a goblet of wine. He downed it in one gulp and looked away. “I’m losing my power.”

“Then pray to the Creator for more.”

He snorted. “The Creator has abandoned us. Cursed us to the land of the humans. We do not die, we just lose our power more and more every year until we turn into—”

“Don’t say it.” I hissed

There weren’t many of them, the demons that sucked on human souls, just old gods that had lost their way, a creation that was born out of necessity to stay in our godlike state.

Because the only way to stay powerful was to be remembered.

And people were forgetting.