overrun by Chaos. Still, if he’d been a little more vigilant regarding his emotions, then she wouldn’t be suffering now. She’d be just another human girl, one of billions in the world. No one of any importance, and certainly no one the gods would be paying any attention to. No one except him.
Amon sighed. The truth was that as long as Lily held his heart, Amon would fight. He was beholden to her; if she wanted him to press on, he would find a way.
“Amon!” I jerked awake, my pulse racing as the nightmare slowly ebbed. I’d taken to keeping a night-light on near my bed ever since the horrors that took over my dreams still haunted my dark room when I woke. Some terrible creature had cornered him. It had screeched in a satisfied way, its putrid breath stinging my nose as its tongue darted out to lick the blood from a gash on Amon’s shoulder. It all felt so real.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my body and slid from the bed as I headed to my favorite spot on the balcony overlooking Central Park. Once there, I rubbed my hand over the head of the falcon statue perched on the railing.
The bird reminded me of Amon’s golden falcon form, and when the sun warmed it, the heat stored in the metal carving seemed to linger, even in the late hours of the evening when I paced my room unable to sleep. It soothed me when I touched it and I could picture Amon as I’d last left him and not as the bruised and pain-filled man he was in my dreams.
He was lost to me. I knew that. I acknowledged that I should try to move on, maybe try to date someone else, but the memory of my Egyptian sun prince come to life was a hard one to beat. Amon wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty darn close. Even now I could easily picture him standing near me—his golden skin warmed by the sun, the glint in his hazel eyes, and that secretive smile hiding behind his defined and very kissable lips.
Sighing, I leaned on the railing and looked out at the park. I was in love with a guy who was centuries old and currently moldering away in an elaborately decorated sarcophagus fashioned by Anubis himself. His spirit half, the half that was supposed to be in paradise while he waited for the next time he was needed, haunted my dreams.
Either he was in grave trouble or something was seriously wrong with me since I’d returned from Egypt. Still, the creatures I saw in my dreams were much more horrifying than any I could have made up. I wasn’t that creative. Even worse than my suspicions that Amon was in danger was the problem that I couldn’t tell anyone about it. Nobody even knew he’d existed.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Dr. Hassan knew, but he lived on the other side of the world. I’d written to him when I got home, and his elated response made me smile even though I’m sure he’d figured it out when he couldn’t find my body on the pyramid after Amon and his brothers had saved the world. I was more than a little proud to be a part of the whole thing, even though fooling Amon into siphoning off my energy had nearly killed me.
It took a month to get a reply from Dr. Hassan, though I’d fanatically checked the PO box I’d leased for our secret correspondence every day. He’d told me not to worry, that Amon had the protection of the gods, that he’d hidden the brothers well, and that I should be proud of the sacrifices I’d made to keep the world safe.
That was pretty much the extent of his letters. They got progressively shorter as time went on. It was as if he, too, wanted me to just forget everything that had happened and move on with my life. But how could I? Amon haunted my dreams. Not that I wasn’t happy to see him. I was. But the horrors he faced were enough to send any girl, even one who had seen the things I’d seen, running for the nearest mental institution.
My parents were worried. My lack of sleep was starting to show, though I tried to act as though my life was simply business as usual. They had no idea that I’d nearly died, fallen in love with a drop-dead (no pun