Go back into nothing. Dissolve and be forgotten, so I will stand in your place.

Apep writhed in my jaws, whipping its body at me, clenching, coiling, but I held on and bit harder and harder.

The last of my magic was almost spent.

My fangs found bone. I jerked the body of my enemy up and bit down with all my might.

Apep hung limp in my jaws.

I held him high, showing everyone my triumph.

Witness my might. Remember it.

In the mud, small things knelt. I felt the first stirring of devotion, the delicious addictive splashes of their faith.

Worship me. Feed me.

The pliant flesh in my mouth turned to clay. The serpent’s body crumbled and I released it. It crashed into the mud in chunks of clay. I howled, announcing my victory.

The small things fled. No matter. They would remember me. Soon, when I recovered, I would find them and add them to my worshippers. The current of faith would flow.

I stood there, exhausted, exhilarated, intoxicated by my power. Invincible.

I was a god.

Weakness flooded me, slowly. The last of my magic was spent. I staggered to their former god’s ruined temple. I let go of my form and assumed my new human shape. Healthy. Beautiful. Full of magic and so blissfully easy to heal.

I studied my perfectly formed fingers, my arms, my long, muscled legs.

I was beautiful.

A man walked toward me through the mud. What was the name…

Raphael.

Raphael!

I crushed the small voice inside me, smothering it.

The man kept walking. He had a strange look on his face. Humans are curious creatures. This one was…angry? No…grieving, perhaps, but no, that wasn’t quite right either.

Perhaps I should kill—

The magic jerked me back. I had forgotten. I had made the bargain. I had promised he would live.

The human was close now. Determination. That was it. I needed to retreat, to fold myself into the limit of the human mind, but not yet. Not yet. I had just vanquished my enemy. I deserved this, deserved the worship, the taste of power to come.

Perhaps he was coming to kill me. But then any damage he could do, I would heal.

I raised my arms. “What do you think of my body?”

The human attacked. I saw it, saw the glove on his hand with long pale metal claws, and I willed my magic to shield me, but too little was left.

He thrust his metal claws into my chest and scoured my heart.

It burned! It burned like fire. Pain writhed through me, tearing me apart. I’d never felt an agony like this, an all-consuming, terrible pain. I shoved him back, but the pain didn’t stop.

The claws had broken off. They ripped my heart apart. My magic streamed past it, unable to remove them. I couldn’t heal the damage.

I was dying.