Disclaimer; I know absolutely no Arabic whatsoever, so if any of the Arabic in my book is wrong or annoys you, please feel free to speak up and tell me so I can change it! x

Chapter Six

Day 2.

The moment my fingers touch his, a fire bursts into flame within me. I gasp, my eyes flying open as my wrists suddenly burns, like someone's pressed a white-hot iron to my skin. But strangely, the burning doesn't hurt. Instead, the sensation dances over my skin like the warmth of the sun, like that burning sensation is something I've been missing all my life. Ahmose releases my hand, and I slowly retract my wrist, turning it in the light to see my birthmark glowing bright as gold. I look up at Ahmose in abject shock, and he smiles, relief lighting up his exquisite features. He pulls the sleeves of his sweater down over his wrists, but not before I see something on his wrist burning with a brilliant white light.

"Thank you, Kiara." He say sincerely. I can't help the way the corners of my lips quirk up in response.

"Don't thank me yet. You may have convinced me, but we still have to convince my parents." I reply wryly.

"I may be able to help with that." Hazel pops her head round the corner, like an ill-timed jack-in-the-box. She rolls her eyes at the look I give her. "Oh, don't even pretend that you're surprised that I was listening in, Keeks. You know I have an insatiable curiosity."

I sigh and fold my arms tightly over my chest. "How can you help, then?"

"I'm still working on it. It's like, a fabric of an idea. I'm pulling the threads together as we speak." She waves her hand around in the air.

"We do not have time for uncertainty." Ahmose says seriously.

I cast him a peripheral glance before I look at Hazel. "He's right, Hayz. What's your idea?"

She wrinkles up her nose in consternation, pushing her round glasses further up her nose. "Ever since they sealed the deal on their latest restaurant, my parents have been subtly suggesting that I go on an overseas trip somewhere as a sort of 'last hurrah' before university. They love you, so it wouldn't be that much of a push to suggest that you and I go on an overseas trip.... say, to Egypt?"

"Your parents would do that?" I ask skeptically. "Just like that? It's a lot of money, Hazel."

"They own a line of insanely successful restaurant chains throughout America, Kiara. Money doesn't really bother them." She replies bemusedly. "They'll see this as their graduation present to us. It'll be your parents that'll need the convincing. But I think I know how we can work around that, too."

"How?"

"I call your father pretending to be my parents and convince him that you should go."

I burst out laughing. "That is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard."

"Have you got a better idea?" She shoots back defensively. "One that'll get us over to Egypt as soon as Mummy-boy wants us?"

"Stop calling me that." Ahmose mutters, leaning against the wall behind me.

"Well, no." I chuckle. "But there's no way it's going to work."

"Oh really?" She raises an eyebrow challengingly. "Why don't we find out right now then? Call your Dad. Pitch the idea to him."

"Alright then. I'll do it, if only to wipe that smug look off your face." I can't help but rise to the challenge and narrow my eyes, grabbing my phone off the counter and dialing my father's number. Ahmose leans forward, his eyes lighting up in interest. The phone rings for a few seconds before there's a click, and my father's voice appears on the other end of the line.

"Alright. What have you two done this time? Do I need to pacify the police again?"

"Dad. That was one time." I laugh. "And no, you don't. I just have a question for you."

"Alright." He replies slowly, caution erring around the corners of his tone. "What's your question?"

"Welll..." I pause. I catch the way Hazel watches me expectantly, and swivel around, running a hand through my shoulder length curls. My question comes out in a big jumble of words. "Hazel's parents kind of shouted the two of us a trip to Egypt and I was hoping I could go?"

"Hold on." I can practically hear the frown in his voice. "They what?"

"They shouted us a trip to Egypt. As a sort of graduation present." I lie, ignoring the loud snickers coming from Hazel's direction. I pick up the tissue box and throw it at her. "It's an incredible opportunity Dad, it's the adventure I've been waiting for."

"I don't know Kiara. Egypt's incredibly far away for your first time leaving the country without your mother or I, even if you are with Hazel." He replies. I barely manage to stifle the groan that rises up within me. "I'm not saying no, but I need time to think about this and discuss it with your mother—"

"No!" I yell hastily, my hand clenching into a fist in the air in front of my face. Ahmose and Hazel jump, startled by my sudden tone. "You know what she'll say if you suggest that, Dad. Hell, she'll probably say you're being an 'incapable parent' again and drag me away like last time."

"Kiara..." He sighs, uncertainty tinting his tone. I plow on before he has the chance to deny me again.

"I really want this Dad. It's important to me." I plead. I don't miss the way Ahmose stands up a little straighter at that. "But we don't have much time, so can you just... call Hazel's parents, and talk to them?"

"Why is there suddenly a time penalty on this too?"

I freeze, meeting Hazel's gaze. She mimes something out, gesturing a sequence of undecipherable movements that end in what looks like an explosion. I stare at her blankly, shaking my head with my hands up in the air. She rolls her eyes, mouthing, 'plane tickets'. My eyes widen. "Because the cheap plane tickets are going to run out soon."

Hazel smacks her forehead, like that's nowhere near what she was meaning. My father sighs again. "Alright, fine. What's her parent's number?"

I grin, and rattle off Hazel's number. "Thank you Dad!"

"Don't thank me yet, Kiara. I haven't said yes yet." He warns. "I will talk to them and then make my decision, alright?"

My grin grows even wider. "Okay."

"When do these tickets expire?"

"When do they expire?" I echo, looking to Hazel again. She holds up three fingers. "Three hours?"

She nods, clapping mockingly. I take off my sock and throw that at her too, my glare deadly. My father curses in the background.

"Geez Kiara, way to give me warning about this." He replies sharply. I wince. "I'll call you back once I've talked to them."

I nod, and hang up after saying goodbye to him. My gaze flickers between the two people standing before me, both of whom have exceedingly different expressions on their faces.

"You're absolutely useless." Hazel informs me bluntly. My glare intensifies, and I purposely ignore her by fixating my gaze on Ahmose. He shifts, his whole stance screaming of discomfort.

"This is wasting too much time, Kiara. It is not of any importance at all; we must head off now if we have any hopes of—"

"No." I stop him before he can finish his sentence. "My father is important to me. I don't want to just up and leave without at least acknowledging that. We wait for his opinion."

"And if he says no?"

This time it's me shifting uncomfortably. "Then I'm going to be grounded until my bones turn into dust."

He grunts in dissatisfaction, but luckily doesn't challenge me any further. The shrill ringing of Hazel's phone tears through the air before either of us can say anything else. She practically dives to answer it.

"Hello." She says, deepening her voice as much as she can. I just about knock myself out, I face-palm so hard. "Yes. This is he. How can I help you, Mr Collins?"

I turn back to Ahmose as she continues to yammer away, unable to listen to the conversation. It's like watching paint dry. He watches me impassively, the muscles in his arms bulging as he crosses them over his chest. "What did you mean earlier, Ahmose?"

"When?"

"When you were standing out on my balcony earlier, and you asked me where 'it' was." I clarify. Understanding lights up his eyes. "What were you looking for?"

"My halqa." He replies. "It has aided me in defeating the trials in the past. It is always discovered with my sarcophagus, but when I awoke last night it was not there."

"What's a halqa?"

"It decorates your finger. Like this." He demonstrates, holding his thumb and forefinger around the thumb of his other hand.

"Oh! You mean a ring?" I ask. 

e nods. "Does it have a blue scarab beetle on it?"

He nods a second time. "Do you know where it is? I cannot solve the trials without it."

"I don't know." I frown, my mind searching through the film of memories of last night. "My father had a picture of it with his research, so it must have been found with you. It was supposed to be in one of the wooden boxes in the exhibit."

"It was not." He replies, rubbing his nose as his eyes flash angrily. My frown deepens. I open my mouth to respond, but Hazel's raised voice interrupts me, her tone losing it's deep pitch as she continues to argue.

"Mr Collins, I can assure you that Kiara will be as safe as if she were—" She stops short, her pale face losing any remaining colour. Her voice deepens again. "What? No, this isn't Hazel. This is her father—"

Ahmose clicks his tongue in impatience and pushes himself off the wall. "This is taking too much time."

He strides over to Hazel and snatches the phone out of her hand before she can say another word, ignoring her outraged cry. He holds the phone loosely in his hand, staring at it in bewilderment for several seconds, before hesitantly holding it up to his ear and speaking.

"Good afternoon, Mr Collins. This is Hazel's father. I apologise for any confusion. She is very passionate about this trip..."

Hazel sidles up to me as Ahmose continues to talk, her lips pressed together into a thin line.

"I can't believe he did that." She mutters. "I was doing perfectly fine."

"You were drowning in the pool of your failed lies." I reply bemusedly, and she scoffs.

"And what, he thinks he can do any better? He has an accent, for the love of God; he sounds more Egyptian than Chinese. Your Dad will never buy it."

"Wow, he sounds Egyptian? I never would have realised."

She scowls, narrowing her eyes at me. "I really don't deserve your sass Collins, considering I'm basically saving this curse-breaking quest for Mummy-boy."

"You're saving the quest?" I raise an eyebrow at her, making a show of glancing at Ahmose and back at her again. "I can see that you're doing a mighty fine job of it."

This time she actually punches me. I yelp, darting away with a wounded look.

"You need to visit your happy place."

"You need to quit trying to be sassy and be the cheerful shiny one in our friendship again." She fires back. "It makes me physically uncomfortable."

I stick my tongue out in childish contempt.

A sharp sound behind us throws the brakes on our insult train, and we both swivel around to face Ahmose. He holds Hazel's phone up in the air, his fingers holding it loosely like it's an object of alien origins. Hazel and I stare at him with the exact same expression on our faces.

"Well?" Hazel demands. He doesn't reply to her, slapping the phone down in her hand.

"It is done." He replies simply. My eyes practically bug out of their sockets.

"He said yes?!"

"Yes." Ahmose replies stoically. "We must leave. We do not have much time."

"Well, I—" I gape at him, words failing me. "Now?"

"After you have packed the sufficient supplies, yes." He nods. "We must reach Egypt as soon as possible. We don't—"

"Yes, yes, we get it Mummy-boy. Time is of the essence." Hazel rolls her eyes. "But we don't really have the 'sufficient supplies' you expect."

"Why not?"

"Because funnily enough, we spend most of our spare time stalking the lives of the Kardashians through a box, not solving ancient curses." She retorts.

"What is a Kardashian?" He frowns. "And why do you stalk them through a box? What is the point of that?"

Hazel stares at him for a moment, before turning to me with a hopeless expression. "He's never going to make it to Egypt."

I shake my head at her dramatics and address Ahmose. "What Hazel's trying to say is, my father has a few things we might be able to use, but we'll need to grab a few supplies before we fly out."

"Very well." He nods. "Let us go grab these supplies then—"

Suddenly, he pauses, his entire body stilling like somebody's pressed pause. He tilts his head to the side, cocking his ear in the direction of the front door. I eye him, confusion lacing through me.

"What are you doing?"

Ahmose's eyes abruptly widen. He lunges forward, pushing Hazel and I to the bathroom.

"Go!"

Ignoring our protests of bewilderment, he pushes us into the bathroom and shuts the door, leaving it open a crack so he can peer out of it.

"Turn the shower on!" He hisses, pointing at the shower.

My jaw hits the floor. "Excuse me?"

He meets my gaze, his eyes sincere. An unfamiliar feeling flashes through me, like that one austere look connects our very souls. "Please, Kiara. Do it now."

I swallow and nod, darting over to the shower. Even though he doesn't tell me to, I turn it on as hot as it can go, pumping up the strength until the stream is as heavy as a torrential downpour.

But for some reason, I know that's exactly what he wants me to do.

I join Ahmose at the door again, and he holds up a finger to his lips, pointing at the door. I nod and cover my mouth with my hand, creeping over until I'm standing directly behind him and squinting through the thin crack he's got his eyes glued to. For several seconds, all that fills the air is the heavy drumming of the shower. But then I hear a large crash that sounds scarily similar to the sound of a door being forced open. Seconds later, a shadow flits past the door, and if I hadn't been focusing on keeping my breathing as quiet as possible, I probably would have screamed. Ahmose stiffens so much that one would mistake him for a statue. His grip on the door tightens so much that his knuckles turn white.

"What is it?" Hazel hisses. I just about smack her in my attempt to hastily cover her mouth with my hand.

Another shape passes the door, and this time I'm able to get a better look. Icy fear tingles down my spine. It looks almost exactly like the dog-headed statue from my father's exhibit, only this time, the creature is much smaller and much more real. It has what looks like the human body of a young fit male and the head of a black jackal, with devilish red eyes that glow intelligently as it searches the room.

The creature barks out something in a gnarled tongue, and two more suddenly appear, both as monstrous as the first. They all share a look before fanning out, not bothering to treat my father's apartment with care as they obviously look for something. My heart seizes in my chest, my palms growing sweatier the closer one of the dog-headed humans draws to our hiding spot.

What is that thing? And what is it looking for? It's next meal?

The creature suddenly stops short less than a meter away from us, it's nose twitching madly in the air. I'm standing so close to Ahmose that I feel the moment he stops breathing. As slowly and silently as he can, he closes the door and snibs the lock. We wait with bated breath. The seconds drag by like they're stuck in honey, all three of us waiting for the creature to catch our scent and burst through the door with a deadly snarl.

But it doesn't.

So we keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting. There's another loud crash, and several more barks. Then there's nothing. For what feels like forever we keep waiting, biding our time in the bathroom, the fear of opening the door and revealing our hiding spot to the creatures paralyzing us to the spot.

Finally, Ahmose creaks open the door a crack and peers through cautiously. After a few moments he throws open the door, revealing my father's apartment: empty, but completely upside-down. He turns to me, his eyes flashing.

"Do you get it now?" He asks heatedly, staring a terrified Hazel and I down. "They will not be deceived a second time. We must leave."

I nod, still staring at the front door with eyes the size of saucers. "I second that opinion. Let's leave now."