Gunmetal Magic: A Novel in the World of Kate Daniels

probably part of some royal archive, because most of it was pharaohs’ correspondence with foreign rulers.”
    “How do you even remember this stuff?”
    “Most of the tablets are from Palestine and Babylon,” she said. “It was part of my required education. Anyhow, the tablets are written in Akkadian, and the name Bel Anapa is mentioned. ‘Bel’ meant ‘master’ or ‘lord’ in Akkadian, similar to the Semitic Ba’al.”
    “Like the demon Baal?”
    Kate grimaced. “Yes. They had this thing where only priests were allowed to say the god’s name, so they just ba’aled their gods. Similar to the way Christians use ‘Lord’ now. So some Greeks ended up thinking that Bel or Ba’al meant a specific god, but it doesn’t: Bel Marduk, Bel Hadad, Bel Anapa, and so on.”
    Great. “Which god is Anapa?”
    “The Greeks called him Anubis, God of the Dead.”
    Whoa.
    “The one with the jackal head?” I asked, raising my hands to my head to indicate ears.
    Kate nodded.
    Okay. No god that had “of the Dead” attached to it could be taken lightly. Hades, Hel, none of them were cuddly puppies.
    “He can’t be a god,” I said. “There isn’t enough magic for gods. We’ve established that.” Gods ran on the faith of their worshippers like cars on fuel. The moment the magic receded, their flow of faith was cut off and the gods dematerialized.
    “He could be just using the name,” Kate said. “He could be the child of a god.”
    I stared at her.
    “Saiman is the grandchild of a god,” Kate said. “Anapa could be also.”
    I thought of the office in Anapa’s mansion. That otherworldly office no human being could’ve made. “Do you think the knife might be modeled after his fangs?”
    “It’s possible.”
    “Does Anubis have any sort of helper animals?” I asked. “Like something about five feet tall with the jaws of a crocodile and…”
    “Body of a lion? With a mane?” Kate asked.
    Damn it. “Okay. Drop it on me.”
    “Demon Ammit, the Devourer of the Dead, the Eater of Hearts, the Destroyer of Souls.”
    I put my hand over my face.
    “Supposedly after receiving the soul of a recently deceased, Anubis weighs the heart against the feather of Ma’at, the Goddess of Truth. If the heart is heavier, it’s not pure and Ammitgets a delicious treat. The soul doesn’t go to Osiris, doesn’t receive immortality, and generally doesn’t get to collect its two hundred dollars. Instead, it is condemned to be forever restless.” Kate squinted at me. “Let me guess, you nuked the Devourer of Souls.”
    “Yup. And since he was guarding Anapa—”
    “She.” Kate drank.
    “Ammit is a girl demon?”
    “Mhmm.”
    I sighed. “Well, in any case, Anapa definitely isn’t just using the name.”
    And if Anapa was Anubis, that meant I had officially pissed off a deity. I had never done that before.
    I tapped the picture of the knife. “It could be an Egyptian knife. Ancient Crete and ancient Egypt traded. Even I know that.”
    “It could be Greek, too,” Kate said. “The worship of Anubis actually spread through Greece and Rome.”
    “So I have an Anubis of some sort, a possibly Egyptian knife, and snakes. Lots of snakes: snake people, vipers, flying snakes…and a Russian staff with a serpentlike head. How does this all fit together?”
    We stared at each other.
    “No clue,” Kate said. “But it’s not good.”
    The gyros arrived. Kate pushed the plate toward me. “Eat.”
    “Why?”
    “You’ve lost at least ten pounds since I last saw you.”
    “I’m getting fashionably slender from all the exercise,” I told her.
    “That last time was three days ago. You’re not slender, you’re starving. Eat the damn food.”
    For ten minutes we did nothing but eat.
    “How did it go with Aunt B?” Kate asked.
    “I caved in,” I said. “I went to see her, sat real calm by her feet, and let her put a collar on me. She was surprisingly gracious about it.” My cup was empty. I raised my glass. A waiter appeared and refilled it. “Thanks.” I looked back at Kate. “I’m not actually all that bitter about it. It cost me a big chunk of my pride, but I’m not bitter. I’m now a Bouda beta.”
    “Congratulations.”
    We clinked our glasses.
    “Why the hell not? I decided that’s what I want and if I have to wear Aunt B’s collar for a few years to get it, so be it. I’ll learn everything she knows. I’ll figure out how she thinks, and then I’ll use it against her. That’s the