Page 52 of Sett and his King
I couldn’t give him the scarab.
I couldn’t sign all our death sentences.
But what choice did I have? Whether I wanted to or not, I had to give him the poison, or we’d all die anyway.
Damned if I did, damned if I didn’t.
“Drew,” he said, his hand coming up to cup my face and caress my cheek and a knot twisted in my throat.
If my theory was correct, I’d already snuffed out his life twice. I’d been a monster. A monster that was only sated when he was touching me. Loving me. Adoring me.
But I couldn't sleep with him again. I couldn't keep distracting myself with sex forever in order to avoid the command thrumming in my head…
It wasn’t fair to him and it wasn’t fair to me having to do it over and over again.
“Are you worried about Horus? Because you shouldn’t. We’ll beat him. I did it before, I can do it now too.”
He was right.
Maybe that was the key.
Maybe…
There was something there. After all, Sett had also been under his brother’s thumb and he’d managed to not only escape him but defeat him.
“Tell me about him,” I said. “About your brother.”
He blinked as if he was confused.
"What do you mean? You know about him.”
“Yeah, I know what he's done to me. But I don't know your story with him. You haven’t told me how you freed yourself. How you killed him.”
It was there. I was sure of it now and got even more certain with each passing second.
The answer was in the past.
Maybe if I knew how Sett resisted his brother's commands, I could do the same.
Sett laid back, his hand sliding down to hold mine as his gaze drifted towards the coffee table, but it wasn’t the furniture he was looking at. It was his life before.
“He was always twisted,” he whispered. “Even as a child, he was…”
“A dick?” I asked.
“Yeah, pretty much.” He nodded. “It didn't take him long to figure out his power. He started spilling all our thoughts and secrets. At first he seemed apologetic but it quickly…it turned into a game for him. He enjoyed probing our minds and reading our darkest, deepest thoughts.
“But then he discovered he couldn’t just read our minds. He could compel them. He could get whatever he wanted. That revelation changed him. By the time he reached adulthood, he wasn't innocent anymore, if he ever was. He’d done things, horrible things to everyone around us. Sowing hatred, resentment, jealousy. It consumed him. He was never satisfied.
“That was when he started taking from people. He became an abuser. Nothing was enough for him. He didn’t just play games with everyone’s lives, he took whoever he found even mildly attractive. He took them against their will and none of us could do anything to stop it. Not even when he came for one of his own.”
“You?” I asked.
He nodded.
“One day he started looking at me different. With a…an insatiable hunger in his eyes, but he was my brother. I didn’t expect him to do something about it. It was as if he woke up one morning and realized how grown and attractive his brother was. Or maybe it was just jealousy. Maybe he didn’t like that people were still worshipping me too. I don’t quite know. I don’t think he does either.
“All I know is one night he walked into my chambers and…touched me. He made me touch him too. He took advantage of me and then fled back to his quarters. The next night, he did the same, and then every night after that until he stopped going back to his room.
