Light seared through my eyelids, pulling me out the cold darkness, bathing me in warmth.

"Milk or sugar?" a gentle voice asked.

I opened my eyes in surprise.

We were in a loft. A massive space with white walls and white furniture - all of it just-out-of-the-box spotless. It was clean to the point where it didn't seem like anybody really lived here. There was a window stretching out from one side of the loft to the other, overlooking a vast, empty space. Outside, there was only blackness, waiting to swallow us whole.

Adrian and I were seated on a white leather couch. The confounded look on his face was a reflection of the one on my own. Neither of us said anything, we just turned our head to look forward at the woman sitting in a chair across from us.

The woman looked to be in her thirties - dressed in a pastel pink power-suit and hair like mine. She was smiling as if we knew each other, and it felt like we did. Something about her was familiar. Warm.

"I thought Osiris was a dude," Adrian said, shattering the silence with the tact of a hammer.

"He is," the woman said, shifting her gaze to him. "I'm Nephthys." She gestured to tea tray on the table between us. "Milk or sugar with your tea?"

"Both," Adrian said.

"We were calling for Osiris," I said. "Why are we with you?"

Nephthys added a generous amount of milk and sugar to Adrian's cup before handing it to him. "Osiris wasn't going to answer you, so that... call, as you call it, would have gone to Anubis. I intervene on your behalf. Milk or sugar, sweetie?"

"Um, milk."

"That's my preference as well," she said, pouring it into a second and third cup. "I assume you wanted to discuss this nasty curse with Osiris, yes?"

I nodded, taking my cup. "But why did you say he wouldn't answer us?"

Nephthys sighed. "Nobody has seen dear Osiris for some time. We don't know where he is. Or if he's alive at all. The odds of him appearing to talk to two mortals are practically nonexistent if he won't show himself in his own realm."

"What do you mean you don't know if he's alive? Gods can die?"

"Of course. Just not quite as easily as you."

"Is that why Anubis is in charge? Because nobody knows where Osiris is?"

"Yes." Talk of Osiris seemed to be bringing down her mood. "And which one of you is it that's decomposing? I can smell it from here."

"Me," Adrian and I said in unison.

Adrian rolled up the left leg of his jeans up to his calf to reveal his own rotting flesh. The sight of it made my stomach turn. It was far worse than mine.

"That's awful." Nephthys reached across the table and offered him a sympathetic pat on the hand.

Adrian pulled his hand out of her reach, looking at me instead. "I showed you mine."

I pushed up the sleeve of my shirt, holding out my arm for her to see. "It started yesterday."

Adrian's brows drew together. "It started for me the day before."

"Your case," Nephthys murmured, "seems to be progressing slowly."

"Can you help us stop this?" I asked.

"If it was possible for deities such as myself to interfere with another's magic, I would have undone this by now. If you want to stop this, I'm afraid all you can do is whatever Anubis told you." Nephthys took hold of my hand and I felt a surge of warmth, of power, of the same light I'd felt before opening my eyes in this place. "I wish I could help. I truly do. But Anubis' curse is beyond my control."

I have to kill Jake.

"It was lovely to meet the both of you. I wish you the best." She pressed a thumb against both of our foreheads. "Sleep."

⁂

My eyes shot open.

Gran, who was hovering above me, smiled when she saw me awake. "What did he say?"

"It wasn't Osiris," a tired Adrian groaned, sitting up next to me.

I followed his example, feeling a little more present than I had since my return. "We talked to Nephthys. She said that Osiris was missing."

"Nephthys?" Amanda said from over on the couch. She way laying down, eyes shut, massaging her temples. "Why did she say then?"

I straightened my back, stretching my arms out in front of me. "That she can't do anything about the curse. That gods like her can't interfere with it."

"What did she say to do? Just go with it?"

"Yeah."

Gran scowled. "We will think of something."

Adrian got to his feet, looking toward the door. Something about him was drastically different - it was in the stiffness of his shoulders, the tilt of his mouth. "I have to go look for someone."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that it was his stepfather that he was going to go search for.

"I'll come with you," I said.

"You don't want to come with me."

"Sure I do." I stood up, looking over at Gran. "I'll be home soon."

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Asking?"

"Get changed first."

I ran up to change and came hurrying back down in a minute, my shoes still unlaced in my haste. "Where'd he go?" I demanded, when I didn't see Adrian.

Gran was on the couch with Amanda, both their eyes shut. "Waiting outside. Bring some bleach on your way home."

I nodded without realizing that she couldn't see and went out, hoping that Adrian hadn't run off on his own for some rage-fueled search.

Adrian was there, standing at the end of the driveway with his arms crossed. "You can't talk me out of it."

"I never-"

"Tell me why he deserves to live more than I do."

"He doesn't. I'll help you find him. But I won't let you commit homicide until we're exhausted every other option." The words that came out my mouth felt hypocritical when I was considering going after Jake myself. "Okay?"

Adrian barked out a laugh. "Wake up, Neith. A goddess, an actual goddess, said that there is no other way. Who are we to argue with that? It's arrogant to think that if she can't do anything, we can. I want to live. I've barely had the chance. And that man took that from me. I have every right to do this."

This wasn't a fight I would win, so I didn't push it. "Let's argue over this later. Right now, let's just find him, alright?"

Adrian let his arms fall to his side. "Okay," he sighed, but I didn't buy it. He had relented, but I knew that didn't mean he'd truly given up - not with that bloodthirsty look in his eye.