Adrian handed me a hot cup of coffee like he had the first time I'd been here. It was black and bitter this time, but I didn't mind enough to comment on it. I just sat where I had appeared, staring at the cross-legged goddess in front of me.

"Is there a convention in town?"

Nephthys smiled. "Not that I am aware of. Adrian's prayers encouraged me to keep looking for a solution to your situation. Like I told you before, I can't undo anything, but there might be a possibility that you can."

I wanted to ask if she was toying with us, but that seemed more Anubis' style.

"What do we do?" I asked instead.

Nephthys leaned forward as if she were sharing some conspiratorial. "It's a ritual, but it's not easy to carry out. It will need to be done at a place of worship."

"Like a church?"

"No. Someplace where Anubis was worshipped. And the things you need for the ritual will be difficult to get your hands on." Her gaze drifted to Adrian. "It will only grow harder as your conditions worsen."

Adrian nodded. "What's the stuff?"

"Two things and one sacrifice. You'll need water from the river of the dead and the ashes of the god that cast it."

"Ashes?" I echoed. "You're saying we need to kill him?"

Nephthys shrugged.

"Okay. What's the sacrifice?"

"A pure soul. Sent to the afterlife at the place of worship for the ritual to be complete."

Adrian's face had gone white. "You want us to kill a god and a person?"

"Any mortal soul. As long as it's pure. I'm afraid I can't help beyond this." She waved a hand toward the ceiling. "It's frowned upon. If anyone finds out I helped you this much... it would be bad."

Thunder cracked outside and she flinched.

I shook my head. "I have questions. How are we supposed to kill him? How are we even suppo-"

Another crack - this one much closer.

Nephythys stood up. "I need to go."

"Wait!"

She was gone.

There was nothing godly or magical about her exit - one second she was there and the next she wasn't, the way that Anubis had appeared so suddenly.

Adrian and I exchanged a look - we might have been offered a possible solution, but things felt just as hopeless as they did before.

⁂

"Water from the River of the Dead." Adrian sighed. "How are we supposed to get to the underworld? Book a ticket?"

Water pelted the windshield of his car as he drove me back home. I kept my eyes fixed on the window, watching the streets whip by.

I wondered about the car we were in. Adrian had never driven anywhere before. Nor was there a car in his driveway when I first came to his house. Maybe he kept it parked in the garage or something.

None of my business.

Adrian turned into my neighborhood.

I tried to think. "We could die again."

"Your brain is waterlogged from the rain," he said. "How would we get back?"

I didn't know. I had no idea. I was hungry, soaked, and too tired to plot ways to kill people and gods. Math class was less of a headache than this. "Let's just talk to Amanda in the morning."

Adrian started to slow the car down. Red and blue light swept into the car, coming off of a crowd of police cars blocking off the street. A chorus of screeching sirens rang through the air, shattering any tranquility from the storm.

I rolled down the window and craned my neck, squinting to see through the chaos.

Sheriff Moore caught sight of us from the front lawn and came walking over. "Go home, Miss Johnson!"

"Your cars are in the way!"

He glanced at the street. "Walk the rest of the way. You're not far."

Adrian leaned over me to look at the sheriff. "MInd asking me what happened, sir?"

"I'll be calling the both of you down to the station tomorrow!" Sheriff Moore shouted over the sirens instead of answering. "Just to talk about what you might have seen the other day!" He set a hand down on the edge of the car. "Go home, both of you! We'll talk in the morning!"

"Night," I said to Adrian before getting out the car, waving as he went back the way we had come. I turned to get home once he was out of sight, but I wasn't gone before the flash of a camera caught my eye.

There was a woman in a windbreaker holding a massive camera on the porch. The lights from the sirens cast a red glow over what she was photographing - a severed head on the porch.

A u t h o r ' s  N o t e

Hi! So I pre-wrote next week's chapter and it's on the longer side. Warning you guys ahead of time because I feel like I might have gotten you guys in the habit of expecting short updates because of the last couple chapters.  I think the book will end up being twenty-five chapters, maybe one or two shorter. We're nearing the end! 

Reminders since there's a chance someone may have forgotten: Sheriff Moore is the cop that was first introduced when Neith came back from the dead. As for the severed heads, they first cropped up in chapter eight, when Neith was with Jake and Adrian.

Remember that updates will be every Sunday or Monday! Enjoy the rest of your week!