Reawakened (The Reawakened Series) (40 page)

The triangle connecting the three of us allowed me to sense the innermost desires of both Asten and Ahmose. Asten longed to explore everything he had missed out on while he lingered for centuries in the afterlife. Ahmose wanted to work with his hands and secretly wished for a family. Then I sensed another presence in our circle—one I immediately recognized—Amon.

I felt him acknowledge his brothers and rejoice at having them near him, but then he noticed I was there.
Lily?
I heard him speak in my mind.
No! Lily! Why is she here? She cannot do this! This will cement the bond!

Ahmose answered his brother.
The bond is essential, Brother.

No! I will not allow it.

Amon struggled with Asten and Ahmose, not wanting their help but desperately needing it. His anger and hopelessness made me shrink away. I felt like an intruder. It was very clear that Amon had no desire to be with me, even if it meant his survival.

Distantly, I heard Ahmose’s spoken words, “He is rejecting the transfer.”

“He will not have the strength to complete the ceremony,” Asten warned.

My ethereal self was forcibly pushed back into my body and I blinked my eyes open. The fog connecting me, Asten, and Ahmose dissipated, and both men jerked back before righting themselves.

“What was that? What happened?” I demanded.

“He will not allow me to channel your energy.”

“Why?” Tears filled my eyes. I knew I was drained and overemotional once more, but I was too tired to control myself. I hollered, “Why is he being so stubborn? Does he despise me so much that he will risk allowing darkness to fill the world?”

“He does not…despise you, Lily,” Asten said.

“Look,” I said as I angrily wiped my tears away, “you don’t have to defend him. He’s a big-boy-slash-Egyptian-god who makes his own choices.”

I attempted to get to my feet only to find that my legs wouldn’t move.

“You are weakened from the energy transfer,” Ahmose explained.

“But I thought—”

“I was still able to channel some of your energy, but I do not know if that will be enough. In the meantime”—Ahmose stood up and scooped me easily into his arms—“you need to sleep.”

Hurt by Amon’s rejection, I didn’t protest, saying nothing when Ahmose tucked me into the bed in the next room. When he closed the door, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to rest, but sleep found me immediately. I didn’t stir for sixteen hours. When I woke, two things instantly made me alert. First, the light of a nearly full moon spilled over the bed, meaning we had less than twenty-four hours to save the world. Second, there was someone watching me. Seated in a chair in the corner of the room, wearing fresh clothes and a pair of sunglasses, his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, was Amon.

“Amon?” I whispered in the moonlit room. “How are you feeling?”

“Not bad, all things considered,” he replied.

“Your brothers—”

“Are resting. As is Dr. Hassan.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to say. The trauma of what we’d been through and the thought of what we still needed to overcome was too much, the sting of uncertainty too real for me to feel completely comfortable with him.

Lamely, I asked, “How are your eyes?”

He half smirked, half grimaced. “I wouldn’t know, as they are not with me at present.”

“Sorry,” I murmured. “That was an insensitive question.”

“Do not feel sorry. I am the one who needs to apologize. My brothers have expressed their concern over you.”

“They have?”

“Yes. There seems to be some confusion regarding our bond.”

I wet my lips and felt my heart thudding against my chest. What he said next would either break my heart or heal it. “What did you tell them?”

“The truth. That I have no desire to seal this bond with you and that I will take no more of your life essence. In fact, I would like to express my regret for what has been done to you thus far.”

“I see.”

“My brothers are of the opinion that I will not be able to complete the ceremony without you.”

“Are they right?”

Amon worked the muscles in his jaw before answering. “No. Dr. Hassan has an idea that should keep Sebak at bay long enough for the three of us to complete the ceremony. My brothers have agreed to this plan believing that you will remain at my side until I return to the afterlife.”

“I can do that.”

Amon sat forward, pressing his hands together. “Young Lily.” He sighed. “It is
my
wish that you go home. Now.
Before
all of this happens.”

“But your brothers seem to think you’ll need me.”

After a brief dark laugh, Amon said, “Not in the way they think.” He paused and rubbed his hand over his jaw. “I believe I still have sufficient energy to do what I was called to do.”

“And if you don’t?”

“Then so be it.”

Amon sat back in the chair as if utterly exhausted by our conversation. The wounded young man in my room was a shadow of the man I’d come to know. He didn’t speak of love, or say that he would miss me, or even that he appreciated the time, let alone the energy, that I’d given to him. What was even more disturbing was that he seemed to now lack faith in his purpose.

The god of the sun was damaged. Betrayed by his body. An eternal being without hope. The despair and the loss he radiated was evident, even with him blocking our connection. Gone were his sunshine smile, his delight at discovering the world around him, and his belief that he could overcome any odds by fulfilling his duty. He was definitely not the person I’d come to know and had fallen in love with.

“Amon? There’s still a way out of this. There has to be.”

“No, Lily. There is not.”

“Tell me. It’s more than just your eyes, I can feel it. You don’t have to hold back. I can help.”

Amon let out a long, slow breath. Then he lifted his head, his expression unreadable. “You are weak, Lilliana. Mortal. I could crush you into powder with just my mind if I wanted to. There is no place for you at my side. It is time you came to terms with that.”

I momentarily lost my breath. What he’d said hurt, though I acknowledged the truth of his words. I
was
weak and mortal. And, like Asten said, a poor excuse for a devotee. The worst thing wasn’t the mention of my weakness or that he didn’t want me with him—I might be able to get over that. I harbored no illusions about my strengths and weaknesses.

No, the hardest thing to hear was my full name—Lilliana—cross his lips. He’d never called me that before, and the formal way he said it reminded me of just who I really was. Lilliana. The name my father used in his tolerant-yet-stern voice. It was what my mother called me when she wanted to make sure I heard her instructions or when she introduced me at parties.

Until now, it wasn’t a name that Amon had ever called me.

Lily was the name of a girl who headed off on fantastic adventures. But at my core, I was the prim and proper, going-places-whether-I-wanted-to-or-not Lilliana. I felt as if Amon himself had slammed the door on the golden birdcage I had dared to look out of.

With Amon I’d thrown caution to the wind. I should have known better.
Lilliana
should have known better.

Stiffly, I jerked the blanket back, not caring that Amon was there. I’d stripped down to my underwear sometime in the night, draping my new clothing over the nightstand. It wasn’t like Amon could see me anyway, which was good considering the hot, angry tears that had begun rolling down my face.

I was jerking the tunic over my head when Amon cleared his throat. “You should be aware that I can see you.”

“What?” I said, spinning, the slacks clutched in front of me. “How is that possible?”

“Hassan returned the Eye of Horus.”

“But I thought that was a mind-reading kind of thing—a way to see pathways.”

“The Eye is many things, and it would seem it can do even more than we supposed.”

“Well, turn it off so I can finish getting dressed.”

“The image is gone. You may clothe yourself now.”

Though he assured me he wasn’t peeking, the corners of his mouth were turned up in a small smile. Deciding that modesty was the least of my worries, I quickly slipped my pants on and rummaged under the bed for my sandals.

“How did you configure it to see, anyway?”

“You misunderstand. I cannot see. The Eye merely showed me an image like the one you demonstrated to me on your…phone.”

“Well, congratulations on your little going-away peepshow. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if there’s any food left.”

“Lily.”
The way he said my name stopped me in my tracks. Amon rose, reaching out his hand until he touched the wall. Then, feeling along it, he made his way to my side. His nostrils flared when he was within a foot of me, and he paused.

Tentatively, he reached his fingers out until they made contact with my hair. “I did not intend to embarrass you or cause you discomfort,” he murmured. “The Eye responds to the wishes of the person in possession of it. This is why Dr. Hassan suddenly knew the answers to the many questions he had in his mind.”

“So you were wishing—”

Amon ran his fingers down my hair, golden light spreading across the strands, adding more highlights to my dark brown tresses.

Stepping back, Amon let out a sigh. “To see you again before I departed this world.”

I waited a heartbeat or two, giving him time to add to that comment, but he didn’t. Lily and Lilliana fought a war inside my mind. In the end I didn’t know who won. Was it the weak side of me that wanted to repair and forgive, or the strong side? Did Lily have unresolved business with Amon, or was Lilliana desperately clinging to the hope that she could be something more, mean something more to someone like him?

Either way, I decided to let him off the hook. He
was
saving the world, after all. The least I could do was not obsess over him like a typical teenager.

“Can I see? Your eyes, I mean?”

He considered for a moment and then shook his head. “It is not the image of me I’d like you to remember.”

“You don’t think I can handle it?”

“You balked at Asten’s raising.”

“Well, yeah. It was my first mummy revivification, you know. You should have seen me at Ahmose’s. I handled it much better.”

Amon smiled, and I sensed that he, too, did not wish to part on a bad note. “Perhaps you should tell me about it.”

“Have you eaten?”

“I was hoping to feast with you a final time,” he said.

“I suppose that’s the least I can do. We’ll call room service and order up a farewell feast. I wonder if they serve breakfast at this time of day.”

“Do you think they will have some of those circular breads filled with sugared fruits?”

“Danishes? I’ll check.”

We fell back into our familiar companionship, yet there was an unspoken tension that lingered between us. I overanalyzed every word for hidden double meaning. Each touch burned my skin as if I had pressed a hot poker to it. My emotions were all there just beneath the surface, bared, raw, and prickly.

Once our food arrived, Amon’s spirits seemed to lift. We ate together, him pushing plate after plate toward me, often cocking his head to listen for the sounds of me eating, while I told him about the quicksand and finding Ahmose’s sarcophagus. When I couldn’t eat another bite, I moved my plate away and sipped a glass of sparkling water.

I groaned. “I feel like I ate a rhinoceros.”

“Impossible,” Amon said as he took the last date-filled Danish and cut it in half, offering a piece to me. “If you had, there would be a horn protruding from your body.”

Laughing less easily than I once had now that I knew our separation was imminent, I said, “How do you know there isn’t one?” I immediately felt sorry that I’d said something like that to a person who’d just lost his eyes.

Amon took my comment in good stride. “I may not know, but I know a way to find out.”

“Oh, really. How?” I eyed him suspiciously.

Reaching out, Amon took hold of my arm, pulling me to my feet, and ran his hand slowly up my arm. Pausing at my elbow, he rubbed it with his fingers. “Hmm, this piece feels as scaly as a rhinoceros, but a horn would be much sharper.”

I smiled, making a mental note to pack a bottle of very expensive lotion the next time I went on an Egyptian holiday. Amon ran his hands over my shoulders and up my neck. He spent a moment prodding at my cheeks and tweaking my nose, and we both laughed. Sobering, he swept his warm hands down my back.

When he got to my waist, his fingers found the side slit on my tunic and caressed my bare skin. His thumbs drew little circles before his fingertips trailed over my quivering stomach to my belly button.

Tiny warm pulses shot into my belly and I sucked in a breath.

“So soft,” Amon whispered, his hands moving to my back again as he drew me closer. My hands slid up his chest and my arms wrapped around his neck.

I relished the feel of his arms and looked up at his face. It was startling to see the dark sunglasses, with my own reflection staring back at me, rather than his lovely hazel eyes. Though I lifted my head, waiting, hoping for the kiss I’d long imagined, he pressed his lips against my forehead instead.

“I will miss you, Lily.”

Something broke inside me. His soft words carried more power than all of the amazing things I’d seen him do. The gracious gift of those six syllables was a kindness I’d sorely needed. But until that moment, I didn’t know how much.

“I’ll miss you, too,” I said, my eyes filling with tears. I had been more inclined to weep this past week than in my entire life. No wonder there were so many songs about love. What I’d been through with Amon would make an epic one.

He must’ve heard me sniffle, because he cupped my cheeks, wiping the tears away with his thumbs and replacing the wet trails with his golden warmth.

“Lily?”

“Yes?” I answered, blinking to clear my vision.

“I am reluctant to inform you that there is absolutely no evidence that you have consumed a rhinoceros.”

I laughed and then cried harder. Amon smiled. “It is time to wake my brothers. Dr. Hassan will take you to the airport and then meet us at the pyramids after securing our transportation. I am sorry I cannot send you back via sandstorm as I promised. If I had more power at my disposal, I would draw the weeks together so your parents would not know you were missing.”

Nodding, I answered, “It’s okay. I understand.”

“Dr. Hassan said you would need paperwork?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call my parents. They’ll take care of everything.”

“Will they be angry with you?”

“Let’s just say this situation is pretty much as epic a rebellion as any teen could accomplish.” When he tilted his head in confusion, I added, “Yes. But I’ll survive.”

“Good. It will ease my mind to know that you are safe. I am sorry, for everything, Young Lily. I did not mean to draw you into our cause so completely.”