I wanted. The man I was here to save.
She knew what I needed to hear, but instead said something that made the blood freeze in my veins and my heart sink with sorrow.
Feelings can change.
With that cryptic response, Tia stopped talking. It was the first time I suspected that Tia was hiding something from me. I didn’t like the feeling. Not one bit. Having someone else in your mind was bad enough without suspecting them of sabotaging your thoughts or manipulating your emotions.
Shaking me slightly, Ahmose brought me out of the world inside my head. “What’s wrong, Lily?” he asked.
What isn’t wrong? I thought.
“What isn’t Asten telling me?” I asked. “About the dreams, I mean.”
“Connecting to another’s dreams is a very…intimate experience,” Ahmose said, placing his hand on my back to guide me in the direction of Asten’s tracks. “Your thoughts and desires will become clear to him, and his to you. I would imagine it’s not unlike your relationship with Tia.”
Great. It was bad enough to have a lioness with me. How would it feel trying to separate the thoughts, feelings, and dreams of three different individuals? I realized in that moment how susceptible I was to losing my identity and becoming lost, not only to Tia but also to the persona of the sphinx. If I ever got out of this, I was going to need some serious therapy.
“How would connecting to Asten like that help me, then?”
“Asten’s presence would effectively replace Amon’s. Instead of going to his dream world, you’d be entering Asten’s.”
“I see,” I said, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable with the idea of sharing dreams with Asten.
“Is Asten concerned about sharing my thoughts on such a level?”
His silver eyes met mine. “I’d say he’s more worried about you knowing him,” Ahmose answered softly.
That was something I wasn’t concerned about at all. If I had one talent of my very own, something that was purely Lily and not something I’d acquired in becoming a sphinx, it was that I was an excellent judge of character.
“Ahmose?” I bit my lip.
“Yes?”
“Are you upset with Asten for not telling you who he really was?” I asked.
Shrugging slightly, Ahmose answered, “Asten has always been my brother. The other one, the queen’s birth son, was never a part of my life. The circumstances of Asten’s birth do not matter to me in the slightest.”
“But what about the part where he seduced the girl you liked? What was her name?”
“Tiombe,” Ahmose said with a catch in his voice.
“Yes. You…you’ve forgiven him, haven’t you?”
Ahmose sighed. “In truth, I forgave him decades ago. I never told him as much. I let him suffer, thinking I still resented his involvement, but had I known how much pain he was holding on to…well, let’s just say I regret not offering my forgiveness earlier. I’ve had a long time to think about what happened. If I’d had more time, I would have discovered Tiombe’s true nature eventually on my own. That it was quickly revealed when Asten pursued her made the parting that much easier. At the time, I thought I’d never speak to him again. But even then I could tell that Asten wasn’t doing it to hurt me. He thought he was helping.”
“So you don’t blame him, then? Not for any of the things he confessed?”
“All of us have secrets, Lily. That his were made public doesn’t diminish my opinion of him. I know and love my brother. Also, knowing that Anubis was aware about all of it and still granted him power makes Asten even more exceptional in my eyes. What saddens me is that he didn’t think he could tell us. After our first deaths, our positions as princes were no longer of import.”
“Maybe he didn’t want you to think less of him.”
“We could have shared his burden. Asten has allowed his mistakes to weary his heart, and he fears our affection for him will shift as easily as the sand. Amon and I are made of more solid stuff.”
I nodded, agreeing with him, and then asked, “If you know he’s a good man and I know he’s a good man, then why was his heart banished?”
“That’s a very good question. I suspect it has less to do with Asten’s choices in mortality and more with the need to send us here. It’s a subject I plan to take up with the gods in earnest once we return.”
We navigated around a large hill to a wide plain. Asten stood peering across it. Though he