gossiping busybodies with a billion eyes who wagged their silver tongues, whispering riddles to anyone who would listen. All my life they’d been looking over my shoulder. The feeling was unsettling. “Okay, then you’re saying that I’m somehow destined to do this, assuming that you all are right.”
“A rudimentary, yet not inaccurate declaration.”
“Fantastic. Well, then let’s shuffle off this mortal coil and do what needs to be done. There’s no point in bemoaning my poor little woebegone human end. Apparently, a destiny has been written in the stars for millennia. Let’s just hope it’s mine. Otherwise, we’re all in for a world of hurt. Me especially.” I was babbling to cover my fear and, when I was done, ended up wandering the room in a trancelike state, running my hands over the statues as if they were bald-headed Buddhas I was rubbing for luck, while Isis taught Dr. Hassan the spell and gave him instructions.
All too quickly she seemed to wrap everything up. My thoughts were a jumbled mess and seemed as audible to me as a buzz saw on wood. I bit my lip as Isis turned her stormy eyes on me, afraid she could read the trepidation in my heart. If she did, she said nothing but held out her arms as her wings stretched to their full length.
Dr. Hassan had been stuffing various things into his bag, the most prominent of which was an oiled black bow that protruded from the opening. It was obvious that there were many other heavy items now contained in it than there had once been. He could barely get it over his shoulder. Dr. Hassan stepped into the circle of her arms and the two of them reached out, pulling me in with them.
“It might help if you closed your eyes,” Isis advised as her heavy wings began to beat. With that understated warning, my stomach lurched as we rose into the air and shot toward the ceiling. I screamed as we slammed into the rock, but we passed through it as if it were merely a dark cloud and rose into the sky. I continued to look until the sting of the wind and the brightness of her form became unbearable.
Isis was an angel. A terrifying, brilliant streak of lightning that crossed the sky with a crack of thunder so loud, the heavens quaked. Like a fleeting ghostly comet, fiery, dazzling, and evanescent, we passed cities and farms, deserts and mountains. It was all I could do to hold on to her tightly and wonder what was to become of me.
My stomach lurched again as we dropped down, down, down, and my breath was knocked out of me when she shifted me like a rag doll in her arms as she positioned us to set foot upon the ground. With a few more heavy beats of her wings, our toes made little furrows in the dirt until our shoes found purchase on a grassy knoll. Sand stirred around us, peppering our skin with little stinging prickles, until Isis finally tucked her shimmering wings behind her.
“We are here,” she pronounced.
“Here, where?” I asked as I brushed dust from my arms and shook out my dress. When I slid my hands into my hair, I grimaced. It was wild, tangled, and needed a serious shampoo and conditioning or, at the very least, a hairbrush. I threw the mess over my shoulder and looked around. There was nothing but sparse trees, circling birds, and the sounds of insects for miles.
“In the mortal world, this is a part of what you would call Africa, though you would never be able to find this exact location again should you seek it. We are on the sacred grounds of the sphinx. The place where you will find your heart.”
“Don’t I already have one?”
“You need a second heart. Remember, a sphinx is dual-hearted.”
“Okay, so I need to find a heart, then?”
“Oh, you do not find it. She finds you.”
“Right. She finds me.” Nervously, I shuffled my sandaled foot in a patch of grass. “So, who is looking for me, exactly?”
“No one yet. First, the vizier must speak the words of the spell. As its power settles over you, she will scent your intention and come for you.”
“Scent me?” The whole conversation just took an uncomfortable turn. “If the flight hadn’t already made me feel anxious, then your cryptic explanation surely did.”
“You needn’t feel distressed. If she deems you worthy, she will gift you her heart.”