Chapter Fourteen

Day 13.

"Oh my god!" Hazel screeches. My eyes widen so rapidly that it feels like they're going to pop out of my head, my jaw dropping with a click. Ahmose, of course, has a far less dramatic reaction than Hazel and I, with only change to his expression being the small triumphant smirk that creeps across his face. I don't even need to ask him to know what's going through his mind.

Of course he's not surprised. The smug idiot knew it was Thoth the entire time.

Thoth watches our reactions with detached interest, like he's watching a documentary on the world's most mundane group of animals because its the only thing on television. After a few more moments he finally grows sick of our gobsmacked silence, and speaks up again.

"Are you quite down with your gawking?" He asks, boredom dripping from his tones. I snap my mouth shut, my cheeks warming. Thoth chuckles at my embarrassment. "I assume you three are here because you solved the Sphinx's riddles. I applaud you for your acumen; I did not expect you to be here quite this early."

Hazel opens her mouth, ready to fire off what I'm sure is a bitingly sarcastic retort, but I elbow her before she can get a word out, giving her a sharp look. She harrumphes, glowering sullenly as Ahmose takes advantage of her silence.

"We did." He says, carefully watching the god's reaction. "I believe you have something of mine."

Thoth watches Ahmose for a few more seconds, before inclining his head and slipping his hand out of his pocket. In his hand is a shining lapis lazuli scarab beetle, encapsulated by a ring of sparkling, shimmering gold. He holds his hand up, the silent offering hanging in the air like a pendulum. Just as Ahmose reaches for it, he snatches his hand away again, the ring dancing tantalisingly past Ahmose's fingertips. Ahmose grunts, flicking his nose and failing at checking his annoyance. Thoth smiles.

"Patience is a virtue, young Ahmose, one that even the simple rooster posses. Had he no patience, he would never crow at precisely the right moment every day." Thoth says simply. He vanishes from view and appears right in front of Ahmose. He places the ring in Ahmose's palm. "You would be wise to remember that lesson, lest it get the better of you a second time around. Or a third or fourth."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ahmose demands. "What does any of this have to do with chickens?"

Thoth smiles conspiratorially. His eyes twinkle. "If you need ask, then you do not know."

Ahmose stares at him, studying the god suspiciously as he slowly slips the ring onto his middle finger. The minute the ring touches his skin, however, he seems to forget all about his skepticism of the god's advice. A sigh ripples through him as he relaxes all at once, colour returning to his previously pallid skin in the form of a warm golden glow. The tension seeps out of my own limbs as I watch it leech from his. Relief washes through me.

It worked. Reuniting Ahmose with his ring, with his ba, with whatever it is that was draining the energy from him... it worked. He's okay. He's okay.

Ahmose slowly flexes his hand, glancing up at Thoth. Gratitude lights up his face. "Thank you."

"You are welcome." Thoth inclines his head once, stepping back into the shadows. His outline starts to melt into the darkness. "I wish you all the success on your endeavours, godlings. May you possess the wisdom to break the curse one and for all."

"Wait!" The outburst rips through my lips as I hastily step forward, stopping him before he can disappear completely. Thoth pauses, raising an eyebrow at me. "Why did you have Ahmose's ring?"

"Because I owe the person who bestowed it upon me a great debt." Thoth replies sagely. "It was the least I could do to help them when they asked, particularly when they are in the perilous situation they have found themselves in. Ahmose is not the only one who has found their ba draining of late."

"Who?" Ahmose asks, his brow furrowing. "Who are you helping?"

Thoth's gaze snaps to me. His eyes bore into me like lasers as he utters one word. "Isis."

He disappears.

"Isis?" My exclamation echoes through the night. "Isis is the one he's helping? She stole your ring?"

"It appears so." Ahmose murmurs, his expression troubled.

"But why? Why would she do that? What could she hope to achieve by that?" I stop myself, my forehead furrowing into a deep frown. "Actually no, I have a more important question: did he seriously just say what I think he said? Did he just say that Isis was in a 'perilous situation'? That she's losing her ba? Can a goddess actually lose her spirit? Why—"

"Kiara." Hazel cuts me off. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" Hazel gives me a pointed look. I freeze, guilt stealing over me. "Oh. Too many questions?"

"Try way too many questions. Questions that even Mummy-boy doesn't know the answer to." She replies wryly, glancing over at Ahmose. I suck in a sharp breath.

"Really, Ahmose?" I ask. He nods and shakes his head all at the same time. "Wait, what does that exactly mean then?"

Ahmose is silent for a long time.

"It means," He finally begins, something flashing through his eyes so quickly that I almost miss it. Something that looks an awful lot like fear. "It means that there is something much bigger than I could have ever imagined going on."

I swallow hard, my heart jittering up into my throat. "What?"

"I don't know." Ahmose says. Even though there's conviction behind his words meant to assuage my fears, it's not successful for even a breadth of a second.

"I don't believe you."

Both Hazel and Ahmose do a double take.

"You don't?" Ahmose echoes, his tones soft as he stares at me.

"Why don't you believe him?" Hazel asks. "I don't either, but usually I'm always the one calling him out on his lies. You've always backed him up."

"I don't always back him up." I dissent. The look she gives me is so disbelieving it borders on sardonic. I sigh and shake my head, glancing over at Ahmose as I remember the promise I had made him three days ago. His golden gaze betrays absolutely nothing, not even a hint of an emotion. My frustration flares up. Before I really realise what's happening, words start tumbling over my lips like lava spewing from a volcano. "We've been helping you for two weeks now, Ahmose. We've been chased by mythological creatures into the dead of the night, almost died on several occasions, and more than proved our loyalty to you, and you're still keeping things from us. You say that you trust us, yet you lie about something that's clearly important and will clearly impact us, even though you just promised me you wouldn't keep any more secrets. You've said yourself that I'm special, that Isis chose me. If anything, don't I deserve to know what's going on in case it impacts me?"

Radio silence follows my outburst, like ripples from a stone dropping in a still lake. Hazel whistles, the sharp sound piercing the tranquil night.

"Dang, Keeks. How long have you been holding that in?"

I ignore her, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on Ahmose. He glances down at the ground, clearly uncomfortable under my heavy gaze.

"What is going on Ahmose?" I repeat, the emphasis on each word growing sharper the longer he stays silent. "What are you not telling us?"

"Leave it be, Kiara." Ahmose's tones are subdued but more biting than a sword. "Sometimes the reasons for being kept in the dark are more dangerous than the secrets themselves."

"We're being chased by dog-men with scythes for fingernails, Ahmose." I shoot back scathingly. "What could be more dangerous than that?"

Ahmose finally raises his eyes to meet my gaze. My heart seizes in my chest at the molten fury bubbling away in their usually warm depths. He's never looked at me like that before. Never. His words are even more clipped than mine. "You have no idea."

I swallow and try not to let my resolve waver. "There's a really easy way you can fix that."

"There is no easy way it can be fixed. As I said Kiara, let it be." He snaps, stopping me just as I'm about to fire off another cutting retort. He steps forward, his eyes blazing. "Did I not make it clear to you last time that I would tell you if I could? You ask me to trust you, yet you seem to lack all semblance of trust in me. Has it at all occurred to you that I am keeping you in the dark because I want to protect you?"

I open my mouth. No sound comes out. Ahmose snorts, laughing humourlessly.

"That is what I thought. Kiara, there are dangers out there that are less fathomable than you could ever imagine — dangers that I have been running from my entire life — and the less you know about them, the safer you are. I will not let my personal feelings cloud my better judgment and put you in danger. I will not be responsible for your demise. Not again." He flicks his nose, his jaw setting as he turns away from me. He stares out into the inky darkness. "You know all you need to know to help me break my curse. After that, you can go back to the safety of your mundane human life, free from all of these preternatural disasters that meeting me has obviously caused you."

My heart stops. I stare at him, rendered completely and utterly speechless. Almost without thinking, I step forward, my arm reaching out towards him.

"Ahmose..."

He moves away before I can reach him. My arm falls down into the infinite space that's suddenly sprouted up between us, my wrist burning like someone's taken a hot iron to it.

"We will be safe here tonight. The anubites will not dare attack us near the temple of one of the gods." He says abruptly, stalking off into the darkness. He throws another icy sentence over his shoulder as he walks away, the words trailing after him like smoke from a gun. "Get some sleep. I will return in the morning."

I cross my arms tightly over my chest as I watch him storm off, suddenly feeling colder than I ever have in the humid Egyptian night. After a few moments of silence, I catch myself stroking the tingling ankh-shaped mark on my wrist and start, clearing my throat. I glance over at Hazel. She's paler than a ghost as she stares after Ahmose, just as taken aback by his glacial outburst as I am. She meets my gaze, the question that's ricocheting through my mind mirrored in her gaze.

What is going on?

— — —

"Kiara?"

"Hmm?"

"Kiara."

"Hmm?"

"Kiara!"

I start at the loud sound, tearing my attention away from Ahmose's back. It's the morning after our argument, and Ahmose had spoken all of ten words to me, every single one of them sharp and lathered in arctic bitterness; Hazel he didn't even acknowledge. He didn't even give us ten minutes to get ourselves ready from the moment that we woke up, merely snapping at us in gruff tones that we "needed to get a move on," and taking off without telling us where we were getting our move on to. I had tried talking to him multiple times — Hazel had even hung back to try and give us a semblance of privacy — but every time I tried, it was like talking to an ice wall. That hurt a lot more than it should; a lot more than I wanted it to. "What?"

The irate expression on her face deepens. "We need to talk."

I blink in confusion and hoist my pack further up on my shoulders. "About what?"

"Hello? About our lives right now?" She raises an eyebrow at me incredulously, throwing her hands up in the air. "About the stick Mummy-boy has permanently stuck up his ass at the moment? About the fact that you basically haven't said anything since you blew up at Ahmose yesterday?"

I sigh and shrug at the same time. "I don't know what you want me to say, Hazel."

"Literally anything. Anything that you say right now would be helpful."

"I don't know anything that would be helpful, Hazel." I reply quietly. My attention returns to the hunched-over, stiff figure stalking towards the horizon. "I don't know what Ahmose is so angry about. I don't know what he's so angry at me about, or why he's giving me the cold shoulder. I don't even know where he's leading us right now. I don't know anything because he won't tell me anything."

"Well are you going to do anything about it?"

"Did you miss the part where he's ignoring me completely?"

"Trust me Keeks, I would have to be blind, deaf and desperately dense to miss him ignoring you." She responds dryly. I scowl at her. "Don't give me that look, we both know it's as clear as the sun in the sky that he's ignoring you. My question still stand. What are you going to do about it?"

"Why am I suddenly the one who's supposed to fix everything? You have a mouth and a brain. Use it for good instead of sardonic comments."

"Keeks, come on." Hazel gives me a look. "You and I both know that he won't listen to a single thing that I say. He barely even acknowledges that I exist."

I open my mouth to contest her point but she holds her hand up, shaking her head with a small smile.

"It doesn't bother me Kiara, so don't even think about trying to reassure me. But you still need to try and talk to him and find out what exactly is going on with him. This whole quest to break an ancient Egyptian curse is going to get very old if we spend the entire time in stifling silence."

"He made it incredibly clear that he doesn't want to talk, Hazel."

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" She asks, quirking an eyebrow at me. "You're the one who's been saying since you were six years old that you wanted to be a journalist. So pull your journalist pants on and try to worm the information out of him. He clearly thinks he's doing the right thing by keeping us in the dark; find out why he thinks that is, berate him for thinking it's a good idea, and then verbally whoop his ass so he doesn't do it again."

I can't help but smile a little at her impassioned speech. "What makes you think that he's not in the right?"

"He's a guy, Kiara." She deadpans. "They always think that they're right when they're not, particularly when they think that they're protecting us feeble and squishy girls."

I snort at the mocking emphasis she places on the last few words. "I don't think he thinks I'm feeble and squishy."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes." I assert, meeting her gaze readily. "Ahmose isn't like that."

"Why are you so sure of that?" She challenges. "He literally said last night that he's trying to protect you. He wouldn't feel the need to do that if he thought you couldn't protect yourself."

"Perhaps because he knows more about the supernatural world than we do?" I respond. "We're only eighteen Hazel. We're barely out of high school, and we've embarked on this fantastical quest where we battle forces we had no idea existed a month ago. Maybe he does need to protect us. We have no idea what we're really up against."

"Yes, because he's refusing to tell us." She deadpans. I press my lips together and look away so she doesn't catch the anger that flashes through my expression. Hazel's not blind, though. She stops in front of me and crosses her arms over her chest, eyeballing me. "Why are you always so quick to defend him, Kiara? Every time I point out what he's doing wrong, you're always the first person to jump to his defense, even before he does. What's with that?"

I don't answer.

"Wait..." Hazel's eyes narrow. I can practically see the gears in her mind whirring. A lightbulb flashes into life above her head. "Kiara, do you like him?"

My eyes bulge out of their sockets. I surge forward hastily. "Keep your voice down!"

"Oh my god! You do?!" She exclaims, yelping when I smack her. She lowers her voice. "You do?"

"I don't... I don't know!" I splutter, my tones high-pitched with indignation.

"Oh my god, Kiara!" Hazel whisper-yells. "He's like three thousand years old! And immortal! And a mummy!"

"I never said I liked him!"

"You don't have to! You're redder than a sunburned lobster!" She hisses. "You like Mummy-boy!"

I moan and press my fingers against my flaming cheeks. "No I don't!"

"Yes you do!" She insists. "It all makes complete sense now! When did this happen?"

"I don't know! I don't even know what this is! How am I supposed to know what this is when I don't know anything about this entire situation?" I gripe, burying my face in my hands. When I next peer through my fingers, Hazel's watching me, clearly unamused by my theatrics.

"You didn't deny it."

Groaning, I expel a long breath out through my fingers and brush my hair out of my face. "I don't know how to describe it, Hazel. I just feel... I feel like I know him. Like I've known him my whole life; like he's important to me. I'm constantly drawn to him like a magnet, and I don't know why."

"But...?" She prompts, prodding me when I hesitate.

I pull on the end of the plait my hairs tied back in, mumbling, "But what I do know is that if we manage to succeed in this mission, if we actually manage to break his curse, I don't think I'll be able to continue on with my life like nothing happened. Especially now that I've met him."

"You like him." She states matter-oh-factly.

"How can you be so sure, Hazel? I haven't even know the guy for a month."

"People have been married in less time, Kiara. It happens." She shrugs. "And like you said, this situation isn't exactly normal. But it's blindingly obvious that you have feelings for him, even if you hadn't told me what you just did, and it's even more obvious that he feels the same way. He wouldn't be acting the way that he has been if he didn't."

"Seriously?" I blink, bewildered by her suggestion. The look she gives me is dryer than the Egyptian outback we're tracking through.

"Keeks. Do we really need to circle back to the whole protective-over-squishy-human-girl conversation again?" She asks. I open my mouth, unable to answer her rhetorical question. She rolls her eyes. "Kiara, he would not be having such a man-tantrum right now if he didn't like you. Honestly, you call yourself a reporter. You're horrifically oblivious to the most horrifically obvious things."

I shake my head, my gaze fleeting back to Ahmose for a moment. "It's not as simple as that, Hazel. You and I both know that."

"You're right, it's not. But the only way you can solve that is by talking to him and fixing this little lover's quarrel the two of you are having. Again." She replies with a shrug. I hesitate, unable to formulate a response. Hazel sighs, nudging me forward with her gaze. "Just go talk to him Kiara. You and I both know that we're not going to get very far if you don't."

I chew on my lip as my gaze flickers back to Ahmose again. My resolve softens at the stiff set of his frame; he looks like he's got the weight of the world slowly crushing him down to the ground. "Okay, fine. I'll talk to him."

"Good. Oh, and Kiara?" Hazel stops me as I start forward, her fingers circling my wrist. Her eyes, usually full of sparkling mirth, are dulled with somberness, her expression equally as serious. "You need to ask him about what he meant before."

"I thought that's what I was doing anyway."

"Well, yes." She rolls her eyes at my retort. "I mean about him not wanting to be responsible for your death, again. That didn't sound like a mere slip of the tongue. There's something he's not telling us, something big."

"There's a lot he's not telling us, Hazel." I reply quietly. "That's the whole problem."

She sighs again and nods, letting me go. Tightening my grip on my pack's straps, I press my lips into a thin line and quicken my pace until I've caught up with Ahmose. He glances up briefly at my arrival before his gaze quickly drops down again, fixating on the ground in front of us. Without uttering a single word, I fall into step beside him, matching his pace with only a little difficulty. Several minutes pass in suffocating silence as I try to figure out what to say. Luckily for me, Ahmose saves me from the trouble.

"Hazel sent you up to talk to me." He says it like a statement.

"No." I shrug nonchalantly. "On the contrary; she didn't want me to leave her behind. Said she'd strangle me with her pack straps if I left her for you."

The corners of his mouth twitch involuntarily. "Then why did you?"

"I got sick of her face." I say simply. "And she smells. Not having a shower in four days has really done a number on her."

His lips turn up even more. "What gives you the impression you smell any better?"

"I never smell bad: it's a gift. For some reason, I always smell as refreshing as a spring." I reply pompously. He chuckles, finally meeting my gaze. I grin, nudging him with my elbow. "You disagree?"

"Yes."

"Hey, it's not like you smell any better; you are supposed to be a three-thousand year old corpse, you know. You're living up to that in at least one aspect." I tease, and he laughs again. I smile for a moment before sobering up. "Ahmose, we need to talk about last night."

The smile drops off his face so abruptly you'd think it had been wiped clean off. "About what?"

"About everything. Why you wouldn't tell us what Thoth really meant, why you blew up at me for no reason, what you said about me dying again." I stop in front of him, searching his eyes. "Ahmose, what did you mean by that?"

"I cannot tell you."

"You can't keep using that as an excuse anymore. It's not fair to either of us." I reply. Even though my words are sharp as a knife, my voice is softer than a feather. From the way his head jerks up to stare at me, I know that has a bigger impact on him than it would have had I spoken the other way around. "I'm not blind or stupid, Ahmose. I can tell that whatever it is that you're hiding is affecting you even more than it's affecting me. So can you please just tell me so I can understand? You promised: no more secrets."

"I can't, Kiara." He replies. His face contorts up with remorse at the frown that creases mine. "It is the only way I can protect you."

"It's the twenty-first century, Ahmose. Have you even considered that I might be able to protect myself?" I ask. The look he gives me drips with skepticism. "I am the chosen one of an all-powerful magical goddess after all, and I have Nafretiri constantly looking out for me. I'm pretty sure I can handle myself."

At the mention of her name, Nafretiri's eyes glint, and I feel her cold body shift slightly against my arm, almost like she's conveying her support for my statement.

Ahmose sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Not from this."

It takes every ounce of my strength not to growl with frustration. "What's 'this'?"

He doesn't answer.

His deafening silence finally snaps the remaining resolve I had keeping my frustration at bay. I step back, throwing my arms up. "I can't do this anymore!"

He jumps slightly, startled by my sudden outburst. "Do what?"

"This. Everything. Helping you!" I cry, gesturing at him. "I don't want to do this anymore, especially if it's always going to be like this!"

Ahmose's eyes widen considerably as he realises what I'm saying. "Kiara—"

"No. You are going to shut up, and you are going to listen to me for once." I snap, pointing my finger at him. "I understand that you're trying to protect me, I do, Ahmose. But this isn't ancient Egypt anymore; you don't need to protect me all by yourself! I can protect myself, I've proved that I can, and yet you still don't seem to trust me. I want to help you Ahmose, I really, truly, honestly do, but I can't if you don't trust me enough to tell me what the hell is going on! Too many things have happened now that you can just brush off and pretend like there isn't anything going on beneath the surface when there clearly is. You said so yourself, you've never had to answer two Sphinx riddles, you've never had to go on a side-quest to meet Thoth, and I can almost guarantee that Isis has never been in danger of losing her ba. Something is happening this time that obviously has never happened in the past, and I am not leaving this spot until you tell me."

To emphasise my point, I fold my arms across my chest and make a show of digging my feet into the ground. I cock an eyebrow at him, defiantly challenging him to contest me. But all Ahmose does is stare at me, his mouth slightly ajar and his expression utterly gobsmacked.

"Well? I'm waiting."

"Kiara..." Ahmose opens and closes his mouth several times, at an apparent loss for words. Hazel appears just as shocked by my tirade as he does, gaping at me from her position several meters behind Ahmose. "I can't—"

"I swear to all that is mighty in this world Ahmose, if you're about to say that you can't tell me, I will walk away and I will never come back." I threaten. "At least that way at least I'll be safe from whatever it is that you're trying to protect me from, right?"

Ahmose clenches his jaw so tightly I'm surprised I don't hear it snap.

"Fine. I will tell you. But," He holds up his hand, silencing me before I can say anything. "I will only tell you after we have completed the second task."

"What?" My eyes narrow, and Ahmose quickly speaks up before I can fire off another furious rebuke.

"I am not trying to withhold the information from you, Kiara, this time I swear it. I only ask that you exercise more patience, as I have no doubt that you will raise more questions after the second task is completed. It is just easier if I wait and tell it all to you in one go. Are you satisfied with that?"

"I... guess." I reply stiffly. All the tension disappears from Ahmose's stance with those two words. He lets out a sigh of relief.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." I nod and drop my arms. "I'm sorry for threatening you."

He nods, eying me with a hint of residual wariness. "Why did you?"

I pause, my earlier conversation with Hazel flashing through my mind You like him. "It's a secret."

Ahmose laughs a little, shaking his head. "I guess I deserved that."

"Among other things." I smile weakly, before letting out a long breath and clapping my hands together. I inject merriment into my voice in a pathetic attempt to lighten the mood. "So, what exactly is this second task we have to beat? Is it another mythological monster? A fire-breathing dragon?"

"Of a sort." He replies, glancing over his shoulder at Hazel. She takes that as an obvious cue that our discussion is over and heads over with a small bounce in her step. "We must face a creature called a cockatrice."

"A cocaktrice." I echo, mulling the word over my tongue like a gobstopper. "And where can we find this cockatrice?"

"They are found where humanity and civilisation is all but a forgotten memory, such as caves or abandoned infrastructure." Ahmose explains. "They tend to move around a lot, so there's no concrete place that they are like the Sphinx."

I gape at him in disbelief. "Seriously?"

Ahmose doesn't seem to recognise the sarcasm twisting up my tone, and nods. "I am entirely serious."

"Well, that's just great then. Just grand." Hazel drawls sardonically. "That just narrows it down to all of Egypt!"