This time the ball of light was golden bright. It exploded in rays that filled a space roughly the size of a human form, each ray growing more dazzling until Ashleigh had to look away. When the light dissipated, another body had taken shape. The golden man I could not bear to see stepped toward it.
From the deep place where I hid, I looked upon the form of the man and saw a chiseled jaw and molded lips. His strong chest was bare like Asten’s and covered with smooth, golden skin. Dark lashes brushed his cheeks, and when he took his first breath, his lips parted. Brilliant hazel eyes fluttered and opened. Immediately, they locked onto mine. I trembled, and the aura around him brightened, casting his form into pure golden light once more.
His shoulders slumped visibly. But after just a moment of hesitation, he approached and held out a hand. “Young Lily?” he asked. “Will you come with me?”
Ashleigh liked Amon and would have readily accepted his help in rising, but I held her back, knowing it wasn’t her he was asking.
Let me, I told her quietly.
When my hand grasped his, it was because I’d willed it myself. He lifted me to my feet, nodded to both of his brothers, who watched us with searching eyes. Amon indicated that I should walk with him. He released my hand in what I assumed was an attempt to help me feel more comfortable.
I followed the golden man as he led me farther away from the pit where the snake had curled up to sleep. We walked around stones and rocky arches until we were far enough away from his brothers that we could be alone. Of course, we were never truly alone, not with my inner passengers, but at least we were as alone as we could be given the circumstances.
When he stopped and turned to me, the first words he uttered were not what I expected. “I’ve missed you,” he said, trailing a fingertip along my hairline, brushing the loose strands back. Something inside me cracked. An inner wall that I’d built between us.
I swallowed and tilted my head, reaching for something to say. “But you’ve seen me,” I stammered, “in my dream.”
“Yes, but it’s not the same. Not like it used to be.”
“How was it before?” I asked. My breath caught as I waited for his reply.
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he pressed his palm to his chest and pulled something from it. It gleamed with a different light than his skin.
I gasped. “Is that…is that your heart?” I asked, shaken at the idea.
“No,” he replied simply. “It’s yours—your heart scarab, anyway. If you want to know how we were before, then take it. All you need to do is cup it in your hands and will it to restore all that has been lost.”
My fingertips stretched out almost of their own volition, but then I drew back. The other two voices in my mind were quiet and still. They waited expectantly to see what I’d do. “Why?” my voice cracked. “Why do you want me to remember?” I turned my back to him, unguarded and vulnerable.
“Because, Nehabet. What you feared came to pass anyway. Wasret has been born. I won’t have you giving yourself over to her again without you knowing everything.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. Warmth and love trickled into me. “That’s why I sent her back, though I knew it damaged all of you.” My stomach quivered; my limbs shook. “Please, Lily,” he said. “I know it hurts. It hurts me, too, when I think of what we might lose.”
I turned to face him, and his hand slipped down my shoulder to grasp mine. He pressed on. “Don’t you see, Nehabet? I need to know which path you’ll choose to walk upon because I am determined to walk it with you. If you are being asked to weigh your own life against the good of the cosmos, then you need to put everything on the scales. Only you can determine which value is greater.”
The fear and pain that had sunk deep into my heart, weighing it down like a stone, like something baleful and lifeless, melted at his words. His utter acceptance of me caught hold of my soul and cradled it. Amon was what compassion and unconditional love felt like. It was freeing. Whatever I chose to do, he’d support me.
I took a deep breath, taking the scent of him into my lungs and stepped closer. Running my hand behind his neck, I pulled the golden god down to me and pressed my lips against his. Light filled me as his sunshine lips molded against mine. Stroking my hand down his arm, I opened his fingers, and placed my palm over the heart scarab. Our hands locked together and a rushing wind filled my mind.
Memories flooded me. I saw everything at once—all the pain, all the joy, all the triumph, and all the loss. It culminated in the netherworld, in that last dream we shared together before I left him behind.
We were to be separated again. The gods were content with the fact that I’d saved Amon, brought him back to the afterlife. They saw no reason that we needed to be together, but they’d granted us one last moment. A single opportunity to cram an infinite amount of love into a finite period of time. One last chance to say goodbye.
I’d told Amon that I would never forget him, and I hadn’t. I’d just locked up everything I felt for him in my heart, hiding it away, and then placed it into his hands. I knew that by doing that, even if the gods used me for their own purposes and tossed me out when they were finished, even if it meant my demise, Amon would at least have that part of me. I’d hoped we’d find each other again. And I’d also known that our reunion might not happen until the afterlife.
He’d thought the gods were responsible for keeping us apart, for stealing our dreams. We hadn’t been able to see each other, not truly, since that last time, despite our bond. But Amon came to realize that the reason it happened wasn’t because of the gods, it was because of me. I’d done that to him. To us.
Still, I didn’t regret it. He was right that I’d been worried about Wasret. I’d been afraid that losing myself meant losing him. I’d known what could happen, would happen, if he chose to remain by my side through the inevitable trials. I’d thought that forgetting him, moving away from him, would keep him safe, keep our love safe. Or at the very least, that forgetting myself would make the transition easier when Wasret inevitably rose up. How could I willingly, knowingly give up something as amazing as I’d found with Amon? Not knowing was the coward’s way, but it was the only way I could see at the time.
The kiss ended, but I moved toward him again to kiss him briefly, softly, once more—an apology for what I’d done. When I opened my eyes, the golden gleam had diminished, and I could finally see the face of the man I loved. “I’m sorry,” I said, my eyes filling with tears. “You’re right. We should have done this together.”
“They didn’t give us much time to talk it through,” he said reassuringly. “But know, Young Lily, I am with you, whatever you choose,” he said, stroking my cheek. “If you want to run from this, from their expectations of us, we’ll run.”
“No,” I answered. “At least, not yet. I need to talk with Tia and Ashleigh first. And then we’ll have to consult with Asten and Ahmose as well. It’s not just us anymore,” I said, touching my forehead to his. I folded his fingers over my heart scarab once more. “Will you keep it?” I asked, unsure if he still wanted to after all we’d been through.
“Always,” Amon said, and touched the scarab to his chest. His skin absorbed it, and when it disappeared, he wrapped me in his arms.
“You’ll have to teach me that trick,” I said, pressing my cheek against the hard planes of his bare chest, listening to his new heartbeat. We stood like that for several moments, until finally I stepped away and held out my hand. He took it and together we made our way back to the others.
Two sets of eyes flickered to my face and then to our clasped hands.
“She remembers,” Amon told them.
Asten nodded, an unreadable expression on his face.
Ahmose grunted, turning away and collecting the things we’d brought with us. When he handed me my bow and quiver without making eye contact, it hurt. He was important to me. I loved him. But I loved Amon and Asten, too. Everything was confusing, and I had a hard time sorting out my feelings from Tia’s an
d Ashleigh’s, especially now that we’d fully bonded to become Wasret.
Amon refused to let go of my hand and was content to let Ahmose lead the way. He followed our path back toward the open shaft where we’d first entered. Asten passed us by, giving me a small smile that only lifted one corner of his mouth. It was as if the rest of his happiness had deflated and that meager effort was all he could muster. He gave me a nod and then moved alongside his much larger brother.
I studied them as they walked together. Asten attempted to draw Ahmose out with halfhearted jabs at humor while Ahmose strode with a stiff back and a too-quiet demeanor. There was a telltale slump to their shoulders and a tiredness in their gait. Sadness over the state of those two men leached into my heart and burrowed deeply. The happiness I’d felt over my reunion with Amon ebbed.
Seeing Asten and Amon step over the rocky ground with bare feet made me wince. It was within my power to make clothes for them, and yet I shivered at the notion. None of us were too eager to embrace the powers of Wasret again. Personally, my plan was to avoid channeling both her and her power at all cost. If I’d thought my shoes would fit either of them, I would have gladly given them up.
We came to a section of recently fallen rock, and Ahmose paused. “This is the way we came earlier,” he said as he crouched down, inspecting the rocks, looking for a path. While he did, a tingling sensation crept up my spine, tightening the skin along my scalp. Something was watching us.
Rubbing my arms, I glanced around. It smells of anguish, Tia cautioned.
“It’s smelled like that since we came in,” I replied.
Yes, but somethin’ watches us from the shadows, Ashleigh said. Can’t ya feel it?
I could. When I alerted the others, they fashioned weapons from the sand and guarded Ahmose’s back as he worked. My senses prickled as a sensation of one’s hot breath on my neck flared and then melted away. Lifting my head, my cat eyes peering into the darkness, I sniffed and caught a new scent on the air. It smelled of rotting meat, swamp, and corrosion.
From the surrounding corridors a steely fog crept over the ground creating a soupy, fetid cloud. The air became sticky and humid. Amon’s and Asten’s bare backs and arms soon glistened with sweat.
“What is it?” Asten asked. I wasn’t sure if he was asking me or Amon. Before either of us could answer, we froze. A clicking sound, of claws or talons against stone, echoed from the surrounding caves in such a way that we found it impossible to tell where it was coming from.
The sound wedged itself deeply in the place inside me where fear existed. Each scrape of a claw chafed and irritated the already raw unease I felt. It was like prickly clothes against sunburned skin. Of all of us, I knew what hid in the caves. True, we’d passed through them easily enough before, but that was because Wasret knew which ones to avoid. Her abilities frightened off most of the creatures. Now they knew she wasn’t with us, and they were coming.
Finally, Ahmose cleared the path. Rocks and debris hurtled all around us. Stalactites with surfaces smoothed over like refrozen ice cream fell, crashing down around us, making the passageway even less traversable. Once the dust settled, he jumped into action.
“Let’s go,” Ahmose called out, grabbing my hand and pulling me along. He didn’t even pause to see if his brothers followed.
“Amon?” I called out, but he and Asten trotted behind us, weapons drawn, as they picked their way across the debris, trying to find the smoothest places to step. “I can’t stop them like Wasret did,” I warned him. “She hid most of them from you. Some of them were simply horrible, but others were dangerous.”
“Yes,” he answered. “I knew she kept things from me.”
I felt like I should apologize, but we were moving too quickly for me to get a word in. We passed a ghost. He was very bright, considering. His head snapped up at our passage, and his mouth formed a rictus grin as his eyes flashed. His cloak was torn and shabby, and when he moved it aside I saw he held a skull in one hand, à la Hamlet.
He stroked the smooth top of the skull and cackled as he called out to us, “Come back! We have questions.” I had twisted to glance at him once more before we turned a corner and was shocked to see it wasn’t the ghost speaking, it was the skull.
The three men around me glowed with power, their skin as luminous as if they stood in a spotlight on a stage. “You might want to tone down your light,” I warned them. “The two of you aren’t wearing enough clothing. Ahmose is like moonlight through a small window, but the two of you are shining like New York City. People in space could see you.”
Asten’s lips curved upward, his brown eyes glinting as his light dimmed completely. Amon, too, reduced his light, though I could still feel his warmth at my back. It was as if the light had been merely a trick to disguise the true heat that radiated from deep within him. Now the only illumination came from the little light put out by Ahmose. Our rasping breaths and the pounding of our feet drummed out the other noises I heard as we passed through cave after cave.
“We’re close,” Ahmose said finally.
A brush of fresher air hit my face, and I smiled as we rushed toward the main cavern. We came to a sudden stop at the end of the passageway. The small pools of water that sat stagnantly in rocky hollows had grown. The entire area was now filled with black water that lapped at our feet. In fact, the stony floor had changed.
Amon lifted a leg, and I saw that the once-dusty passageway was now spongy and soft. He shook a foot, and thick clumps of mud dropped to the cave floor. Above us, the lights of the little dead creatures winked slyly as if they had orchestrated the entire thing from their lofty posts.
The fog crept in again from dozens of passageways, and I saw a ripple in the black water. It stirred the dead starry creatures that made it their home. The stench I’d smelled before—swamp and rotting meat—returned, and my nerves prickled as the lioness sensed a completely new predator.
Still, something smacked of the familiar for both of us.
“Let’s not wait around here,” I said, then pointed up. “The shaft we entered through is up there.”
Ahmose put his hand on my arm. “You can’t fly without the power of Wasret, can you, Lily?”
I bit my lip. “No.”
“Then I’ll carry you.”
“You can’t,” I insisted. “You need to conserve your energy.”
“Lily, you’re hardly—”
Whatever he was going to say didn’t matter because not five feet away from us, a monster burst out from under the water. It was the largest crocodile I’d ever seen. It targeted Amon. Fortunately, instead of clamping on to Amon’s waist, the giant crocodile slammed against a boulder and the heavy jaws of the creature snapped together mere inches from Amon’s belly.
Asten took hold of my arm and wrenched me close. Amon quickly levitated out of the range of the beast, who had slipped back into the water. Asten picked me up in his arms and followed. Ahmose trailed behind, his ascension slower than his brothers. I wrapped my hands around Asten’s neck, his soft hair tickling my fingers.
“That’s not just any crocodile,” I murmured.
Looking down, I gasped as the beast sprang out of the water and snapped at the place where Ahmose’s legs had just been. He’d drawn them up just in time.
“It’s gotten bigger!” I shouted.
The three of us surged up. Amon entered the shaft first. Just before Asten plunged ahead, I looked down. To my horror, the crocodile had grown three times its original size. It attempted to catch Ahmose one last time, scrambling with claws up the sides of the dome, before it fell back with a splash high enough to get us wet. After we were inside the cool confines of the well, I let myself breathe a little, especially when I saw Ahmose coming up behind us.
Asten set me down on the edge of the well, and Amon took my hand and helped me down. An island breeze stirred the edges of my shirt, along with the leaves in the trees. The full moon had nearly set. It sat low in the sky, cold and hard against the supplenes
s of the dark jungle as it drenched us in its garish light.
When Ahmose finally touched his feet down on the thick grass next to us, he took hold of my shoulders, his eyes raking over me. “Cherty might be gone,” he warned.
“Maybe he waited,” I offered. “If we can just make it to the beach before sunrise—” I began.
Ahmose looked disconcerted. He rubbed a hand through his hair as he interrupted. “Lily, it’s been three days.”
“What?” I demanded. “What do you mean?” My heart dropped as if I’d been tossed back into the well. “That’s not possible.”
“I can sense the paths,” he said. “Not only are the creatures on the island lost, but the island is, too.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“I’m afraid that time works differently in the well. All I know is that the path that led us here has aged longer than we would expect.”
“Are you certain?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, I am,” Ahmose replied.
Just as he finished those words, the ground shook, and I stumbled against him. “What was that?” I asked. “Has Apep returned?”
“I’m not sure.”
The ground heaved again and buckled. This time I stumbled to the jungle floor along with Ahmose. Asten helped me up. Amon had picked himself up from the base of a tree that stopped his roll. Before I could form another question, the well cracked as something boomed beneath it.
“It can’t be,” I murmured as Ahmose handed me to Asten and took a look down.
“It is,” he said gravely as he scrambled backward. “We’ve got to leave this place. Now!” he declared.
The land beneath our feet surged violently, and all four of us were sent flying. Nearby trees tore away from the jungle floor and crashed around us. The Well of Souls burst explosively, the stones shooting like cannonballs, some of them ripping away branches.