more worried. Dr. Hassan’s hat was sacred to him. He would never abuse it. “Unless you need to rest first?” he inquired kindly as he replaced the twisted fedora on his head.
“No. I think I’m okay. Besides, who can sleep after a nighttime visitor like Anubis? That kind of end-of-the-world gloom-and-doom announcement would give me nightmares, I should think.”
“Yes,” he mumbled distractedly, and gave me a weak smile as he began to gather his things.
“There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?” I asked as I began helping him stuff his tools into a bag. “You think I’m going to fail.”
“No. No,” he emphasized unequivocally when I gave him a knowing look. “You will not fail. I simply won’t allow it.”
“But you don’t really know, do you? There aren’t any guarantees.”
“Let’s just worry about one thing at a time, shall we?” When I reluctantly nodded, he blew out a breath and said, “First things first. We need to get to Luxor.”
“Right.” I hoisted one of his bags over my shoulder and waited patiently for him to finish up.
When he finally turned toward me, he did a double take as if he hadn’t really gotten a good look at me earlier. He pushed his hat up higher on his forehead, dropping his bag on his makeshift office table, and stretched out his fingers to touch the winged harness on my shoulder. “What is this that you’re wearing, Lily? I’d assumed it was your nightdress, but obviously I was mistaken.”
I smoothed my hand down the dress and felt the heat rise in my cheeks. “It’s a bit much, I know. Anubis made it for me.”
“It’s lovely,” Dr. Hassan said in a clinical sort of way as he peered more closely at each segment of the band. He walked around me slowly and didn’t stop until he found the scarab at my waist. I got the sense that he knew it was there all along but he’d purposely saved the best, most interesting discovery for last.
Dr. Hassan dug through his bag and brought out a crazy pair of glasses with protruding lenses. Flipping a switch as he adjusted them over his eyes caused a brilliant beam of light to hit my waist. I stood as still as I could manage while he twisted the lenses until he was satisfied and then bit my lip as he mumbled to himself. Finally he stood and pronounced, “It’s authentic.”
“Of course it is,” I said. “What did you expect?”
“I’m not sure. The gem is a genuine emerald of the highest quality as far as I can tell. Did you know that it is a heart scarab?”
“Yes.” He took off the glasses and thumped them in his palm, calculating something. His perceptive and all-too-sharp eyes searched my face. “Before you ask, I’ll tell you. It was Amon’s. Anubis said a piece of Amon’s heart is tied to it. I can actually make out his heartbeat if I listen carefully.”
Dr. Hassan’s jaw actually dropped. “Astounding.” I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice if he was excited or concerned but suddenly astounding seemed like a word I didn’t want to inspire someone like Dr. Hassan to say. Astounding in this case couldn’t be a good thing. In my mind it translated to all the words he didn’t say. Words like perplexing, unheard-of, baffling, shocking, or maybe just what-the-heck-have-you-gotten-yourself-into-Lily.
I tried to squelch my nervous thoughts and launched into an explanation of everything that had happened as best as I could recall it. He listened quietly, asking only brief questions for clarification, and when I was done, he sat heavily on the edge of the table. “I’ve never heard of any of this. The story of Isis and her husband, Osiris, is one of the most well documented of all the various tales of Egypt, and never have I found a hint on any of the engravings that Isis held a piece of his heart. Though now that I think on it…”
Oscar stood up and quickly sketched a very accurate depiction of the heart scarab on some rubbing paper, then carefully folded it and stuffed it into his one of his many vest pockets. “Of all the couples in the Egyptian pantheon, the two of them are the most connected, the most written about.”
He blew out a breath. “Even so, the two of them were immortal. I have no idea how this connection of yours works, but I should think it would pose great danger to a mortal, which is