Seth by Laura Greenwood
CHAPTER5
Menhit
A light breezeswirled through the oasis, carrying with it the scent of the various plants that called it home. Being here always filled me with a sense of peace, even if it was never truly quiet and always filled with the chatter of the creatures who lived here.
I took a deep breath, savouring it all. I’d lived many places in my life, but none brought me as much joy as the haven I’d created for myself in Purgatory. And with my duties topside no longer taking up much of my attention, all I needed to focus on was enjoying my life.
I knew some of the gods struggled with that, but not me. I liked having the time to focus on the things I enjoyed. Even if some of those brought some frustration to me at the same time.
Like speaking with Seth while he still had no idea who I was.
A rustle from the undergrowth caught my attention, pulling me from my thoughts. I turned in time to find Rufflebum peeking his head out.
Meow.
“Hey,” I said to the Tomcat, grabbing my phone so I could take a photo to send to Seth. I knew it was silly, but now that I’d told him about Rufflebum, I wanted to share the cat with him.
He hurried over and brushed his back against my legs, purring loudly and giving me the urge to pick him up. I knew better, and stuck to taking a single photo. It wasn’t the best, but it would be enough for Seth to get a good sense of him.
“I’m going to visit Bastet.” I gestured to the cattery that backed onto the oasis. It was a recent addition, but one I was pleased with, especially as it meant my friend was closer by. “Want to come with me?”
Hiss.
“You like Bastet,” I reminded him. He’d told me multiple times of his affection towards the cat goddess, and yet he seemed to dislike the mere idea of going inside.
“All right, fine.” I shook my head, rather bemused by the whole interaction. Rufflebum was never going to be a pet cat, but that didn’t change the amount of affection I felt for him.
He hurried off back into the trees, clearly done with me for now. He’d be back when he felt like, the same as any independent cat. I had no idea where he’d come from, but he’d been here longer than Bastet’s sanctuary had.
I pulled open the backdoor and stepped inside to be assaulted by the loud meows of dozens of cats. Bastet seemed to think that they responded like this because they could sense the lioness inside me, but I was pretty sure it was simply because they liked the attention and saw me as two extra hands that could be used to stroke them.
The low rumble of voices came from the other room, and for a moment I considered turning around. If Ptah was here, then I should make myself scarce and leave my friend to what would surely be an afternoon she didn’t need me for.
A laugh sounded, revealing that it wasn’t Ptah in the other room, but a woman I didn’t recognise. I sat down on one of Bastet’s sofas, only managing thirty seconds before Jemima climbed on my lap and curled into a ball. I absent-mindedly stroked the cat. She’d always been one of the more affectionate ones, but since coming to the underworld, she appeared to be getting even more so. Something about the air here seemed to agree with her.
I pulled out my phone to send the photo to Seth.
< I promised a photo of Rufflebum, and here it is! > I hit send, hoping it wouldn’t be too long until I’d get a response.
< He looks fun. > The reply came almost straight away, which wasn’t too surprising.
< He is, but he won’t let me pick him up. >
< I’d let you do that to me, especially if it was to go on a date. >
My heart skipped a beat as I considered what this could mean. I wanted to go on a date with Seth even more than I had before, but it had the added complication of meaning he’d discover who I was, and that I knew who he was too. There’d be no way of hiding that I was a goddess if we met in person, he’d be able to sense it the moment we were in the same room.
Which could also mean that it was the perfect way to make the reveal.
< I’d like nothing more. > It was the truth, even if things were complicated. He could be relieved when he found out that I wasn’t Merry the human, but Menhit the goddess. Or he could be angrier than he’d ever been before.
But it was worth the risk. I needed to know if we connected in person the same way that we connected online. Because if we did, it felt like this could be something truly special.
I pushed the thought aside. I needed to focus on one thing at a time.
< Do you want to pick where we go? >
Now there was a question I didn’t have an answer to. If he was angry, then it would probably be better for us to be surrounded by other gods who had the power to counteract his.
And there was one place that had an abundance of gods in attendance every Wednesday evening.
< Have you heard of DeLux Café? > The message was sent before I could consider if it was a good idea. Perhaps I should tell him the truth before we met in person and he discovered a room full of people he was trying to avoid.
< Vaguely. Is it good? >
I sighed with relief. That was a good sign. Perhaps he’d only encountered the human side of the café and not the one frequented by paranormals, but at least he wasn’t completely oblivious to its existence.
Perhaps he wouldn’t be bothered that I was a goddess after all.
< They have an event on Wednesday night. We should go. >
< What kind of event? >
< Speed dating. I know it seems out there, but it’ll be really fun. And it’ll take the pressure off. If you don’t like me, you can try find someone else. > Jealousy rose its ugly head inside me at the mere idea, but I knew I had to persuade him some time.
< Doesn’t sound like my idea of a perfect date. >
< Maybe not, but I’m meeting a stranger off the internet, I’d rather there were a lot of people about. > Which was true. By being at speed dating, I could also ask Bastet and Ptah to come as backup. That would be reassuring in case it all went awry. But I had to keep faith that it wouldn’t and that I wasn’t imagining the connection the two of us had.
< Sure, though I’m not so sure about the speed dating part of it. Send me the details and I’ll be there. >
< We can just watch. >
< Then it’s a date. >
I blinked at the screen, hardly believing the words on it. Was that really all it had taken to convince him to come? I wasn’t going to question it too much when I was ultimately getting what I wanted,
My phone buzzed, drawing my attention back to the screen.
< I can’t wait to meet you properly. >
My heart skipped a beat. I knew it wasn’t good to get my hopes up about where this could lead, but I couldn’t seem to help it. I wanted this to be the real deal.
“What are you smiling at?” Bastet asked as she entered the room.
“What? Nothing.”
She raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing me. “Do you want a drink?”
I nodded, relieved at her decision to change the subject. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t tell her about Seth, especially when she thought I was trying to meet with him so he could tell us more about the Sons of Seth cult that had briefly kidnapped Ptah.
Except that I did know why I wasn’t telling her. My desire to meet with Seth had almost nothing to do with what we needed him for, and everything to do with my own desire to spend time with him.
“Who was here?” I asked, partly to distract myself. “It didn’t sound like Ptah.”
“Tamesis, do you know her?”
I shook my head.
“I think she’s the goddess of a river in England, I’m not sure exactly, she didn’t say.”
“What did she want?”
“To adopt a cat.”
“Huh, you’ve been getting a lot of people coming to do that.”
“I guess a lot of gods want a companion, and I’m a great place to get them. And it isn’t as if I’m short of new arrivals, I have more cats than ever.”
I chuckled. “That’s true.” They seemed to multiply faster than ever now she was in the underworld. At least I’d insisted on her using a lot of the space by the edge of the oasis so there was room for them all.
As if to prove my point, a dark grey cat with beautiful dappled black markings sauntered into the room and examined each of us in turn.
“Are you new?” I asked the cat, certain that I hadn’t seen her before.
“Oh, you won’t get an answer out of her,” Bastet said, setting a glass of wine down in front of me. “She doesn’t seem to want to say anything. Won’t even tell me her name.”
“So she is new?”
She shook her head. “She’s been with me for years, but she seems to be more present now we’ve moved. Maybe it unsettled her.” She sat down opposite me and leaned back in her chair.
“Maybe.”
“So, how are you getting on with Seth?” she asked.
“What? Why would you ask that?” I blurted.
Bastet frowned. “You told us that you’d try and get him to come talk to you after everything that happened with Ptah.”
“Right, sorry. Still working on it.”
She nodded, not seeming surprised. “Hopefully, he’ll be able to answer some of our questions. Especially about how the warlocks are managing to harness enough power to subdue a god in the first place. That doesn’t fully make sense.”
“What do you mean?” I picked up my glass and swirled it around, inhaling the heady scent of the red wine she’d picked. She had excellent taste when it came to the beverage.
“Just that even the most powerful warlock in the world shouldn’t be a match for a god, right? Which means they’d need a lot more than just a handful of them to subdue Ptah.”
“Huh, you’re right.” I hadn’t thought much about it to have come to any conclusions myself.
“So how are they doing it?”
I shrugged, not having a single idea, especially as I’d never gotten myself involved in a fanatical cult before. “Could they be channelling a few hundred warlocks?”
“Maybe,” Bastet responded. “But I doubt it. I think we’d have heard more about them by now if that was the case.”
“And that’s what we need Seth for,” I finished for her.
“Precisely. I know he’s not involved with the cult, but they have to have named themselves after him for a reason. He might be able to shed some light on them, even if it’s only about how they think.”
“Hmm.” Did I really want to reveal to Seth who I was just so that I could grill him for information about the Sons of Seth?
“You’re not so sure? I thought you were pro-Seth?” She cocked her head to the side. “You said you thought he was misunderstood.”
“He is misunderstood,” I countered. “You were there, you know he didn’t do all of those things he was accused of.”
She sighed. “I was there for some of it. And that does make me think that the rest is unlikely,” she conceded. “So why don’t you want to talk to him about this?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Okay. Well if you want to talk about it, I’m here.” She smiled warmly, making me certain that she meant the words.
“You’re not going to press me on it?”
“No. You’ll talk when you’re ready.”
A surge of affection rushed through me. She was right, I would, but I wasn’t ready yet. Though I didn’t have long to get there if I wanted her and Ptah to come with me to DeLux Café.
