Page 46 of The Secret Shape of Worship
The serpent’s red eyes flared as a realization seemed to strike it. “You are the beloved of Anubis?”
A fire sizzled beneath his skin at the sound of his god’s name. Mina pulled back his shoulders, feeling suddenly taller than the towering serpent. “I am.”
The great god hissed, recoiling as if it had been struck a blow or burned by fire.
“You are a mortal among gods, and yet your soul glows as one of us. I see it now. Forgive me, beloved of the great Anubis.” The god bowed its head. “Forgive me. I have been alone with none but my children for these many eons. No one worships the reviled Apep. We crave companionship. We crave devotion. Please, do not condemn me to your beloved.”
“Show me the way to him, and I’ll make sure he knows you helped me.”
“He waits for you upon the shore.”
“The shore?” Mina looked around for any sign of land. “What shore?”
But the great snake didn’t answer, already coiling upon itself, sinking into the sea, and leaving Mina in total darkness. And once again, he was moving, a familiar lurch in his stomach as he was transported through a tumult of darkness.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
EDEN
Warmth melted away the chill of the serpent skin that still clung to Mina as he slowly opened his eyes to his new world.
Fire.
Fire burning everywhere.
Tongues of flame danced across the sky as Mina’s skin began to prickle with sweat, dripping within seconds. Looking over the side of the boat, Mina saw that even the boat itself floated on liquid fire.
“Why can’t it just be a beautiful field with dandelions and shit?” he asked aloud.
Despite the heat radiating through the bottoms of his toes, the wooden boat didn’t burn. Deep red flames lapped against the sides and rippled away as the boat pushed through an endless red sea into an orange sky as far as he could see.
And then, like a mirage beyond a sand dune, it appeared.
The Temple of Osiris. It filled his view completely, at least three times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Maybe a mile ahead, it sat upon what appeared to be an island in the middle of the ocean of fire. Two giant bird-like creatures the sizeof airplanes circled the gold-tipped pinnacle of the structure, screaming into the sky, the sound like metal tearing through metal.Guardians of the Temple,Mina somehow knew. This was where Osiris sat upon his throne and where the hearts of mortals were weighed upon the Scales of Justice that waited for everyone who made it this far. It was where we would find Anubis.
He’d done it. He made it. No more lands—this was it. But where should he go? Inside the temple, it would be the size of a small city. And surely it would also be filled with gods and monsters and all sorts of terrible things wanting to kill him or fuck him or both.
As the boat continued to approach, something pulled his eye away from the giant structure and to the far right at the very edge of the island. A flash of color that stood out from the rest. As Mina fixated on it, the boat began to turn toward the anomaly. And then he saw it clearly. A tongue of green, dancing and flickering. A fire.Theirfire.
He waits upon the shore.
Mina gripped the sides as the boat lurched forward, racing toward the emerald flame.
Anubis stoodbeneath the wide canopy of an acacia tree in his human form, orange flames lapping gently on the shore, a blazing green fire dancing beside him.
The boat ground to a slow halt on the sandy beach of the island in the middle of the sea of fire, and Mina stood there, unable to move. Unable to speak.
Anubis stepped up to the bow, pulling it further onto the beach so that Mina could step out, safe from the liquid flames. But Mina still didn’t move. His legs threatened to give out.
What felt like only minutes ago, he had resigned himself to eternal darkness for the one he loved. And now here he was. Standing in front of him in the most surreal and terrifying setting he could imagine. But it didn’t matter. Because his heart swelled with impossible love. His stomach churned with insatiable lust. His eyes flooded with so much and everything all at once that the only thing he could do was reach his arms out like a child.
Anubis came. He wrapped his massive hands around Mina’s waist, lifting him from the boat. And he didn’t set him down. He pulled the boy against his body as Mina wrapped his legs around the god, latching onto his hips and staring into his eyes. Those dark eyes, tinged with an ever-glowing red.
“I thought I would never see you again,” Anubis said, folding his huge arms around Mina’s torso, holding him so tight against himself, Mina’s breath came short and shallow. “Even now, I fear some apparition of the underworld.”
“Our fire. It led me to you.”
“I was prepared to wait an eternity by this shore in the hopes that one day, when your body was old and your soul was ready, you might find your way back here. That you would make the journey and find me. But I did not expect to see you so soon. Did you…” Anubis’s eyes flashed wide and red.
