When Amanda came back around, Anubis offered her a hand. She whacked it away and grabbed onto mine instead, letting me pull her up and into her chair. The stacks of golden bracelets on her wrist clinked as she pressed both index fingers to the sides of her temples, rubbing in circles. She had been glowing when she had first entered the room, but now there was an unusual pallor to her skin.

"Are you alright?" I asked, unsure of what else to do. What was the proper etiquette for when somebody had just come out of a seizure, suddenly remembering past lives? It was a stupid question, but the only one that I knew to ask.

Amanda's nodded, but her lips twisted, gaze flickering to Anubis. She slammed her palm down on the table, making me jump. "You!"

"Nice to see you too, Priestess."

There was something accusatory in her voice. "You don't belong on this plane."

"I don't belong anywhere." Anubis pointed his thumb in my direction. "Her curse it slower than it should be. You're here. Does that mean what I think it means?"

"What's it mean?" I demanded.

Neither of them answered my question. The only sound in the shop was that of the rain that had begun to pour outside. Droplets hit the window and slipped down, down, down, whispering to one another upon their arrival in gentle pitter-patters about their escape from the world above. The glow of the sign in the window illuminated them.

I pressed again. "Well?"

Amanda leaned back in her seat. "You are a descendant of Hatshepsut, Neith. She was special to the god Ra even before her birth. I suppose you could say she was god touched."

"So, what? She had anti-rot superpowers that are genetic?"

Anubis scoffed.

The corners of Amanda's lips twitched. "Not quite. But she was protected from..." She cast Anubis a weary look. "Other deities. Things like curses wouldn't have been able to work on her because of Ra. I guess you could say that her descendants inherited a sort of resistance."

"So the curse won't work on me?"

"It will. That's why you're rotting. It's just slowing things down. You have more time than the others."

"What about you? You're involved somehow, right? It's how he connected the dots."

"He," Anubis said, "has a name."

"He," Amanda replied, "can shut up."

He made a face at her but didn't argue.

"To answer your question, I'm not involved with what Ra did or the curses. But I was a priestess. Hatshepsut was my best friend. I swore to use my gifts to protect her and her family. I kept my promise for as long as I could, but I couldn't protect her from dying of natural causes." Her voice had tightened. She cleared her throat. "I'm reincarnated to do the same for her descendants. One way or another, even without my memories, I seem to find you."

Anubis crossed one leg over the other, his eyes never leaving Amanda. "You have the same face in every lifetime."

"I've noticed."

He smiled. Actually smiled. I didn't think him capable of genuinely smiling.

Ew.

⁂

I bailed pretty quick after that. It seemed odd to stay there with the two of them, like I was intruding.

Thick, gray clouds crowded the sky, flinging rain down in anger.The storm had picked up in intensity, but I didn't mind it. It was pretty to watch even if it soaking through the fabric of my clothes was uncomfortable. I walk around town and tried my best to get a hold of Adrian - I sent one text after the other, spammed him with phone calls, and on the last try when I was finally about to take a hint and give up, he picked up.

"Anubis is here," I said.

There was a pause. "Not the only one."

"What?"

"What's the quickest you can get to my place?"

I sat down on a bench on the side of the street, tilting my head back and shutting my eyes. The rain felt nice against my skin. Cool. "I don't have the car with me."

And then I was falling. It was sudden - like the bench was yanked out from beneath me. My head smacked onto the ground of Adrian's living room and my eyes flew open to the sound of his cackling.

"Ow! What the f-"

A soft voice cut me off. "Hello Neith."

I sat up, twisting to look at the woman seated on the floor.

"Nephthys."

A u t h o r 's N o t e

♫ The gods go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah ♫

I'm officially increasing the frequency in update. There will be a new chapter posted every Sunday or Monday!

Thank you for your patience with this chapter! I was having a little issue with Amanda's backstory she was originally supposed to be a reincarnation if Hui, but that wouldn't quite have fit with Hatshepsut because of the time. I ended up making her a character of her own - somebody who was practically sisters with Hatshepsut, who used to be priestess earlier in her life, which is how the two met.

Hope you guys enjoyed!