When Seth didn’t immediately respond, she noticed the change in his demeanor. His eyes had gone cold, and his jaw tightened. “What is it?” he finally asked with a sharp edge to his voice.
Natti slowly pulled the letter away from his grasp. He wouldn’t look at her as she did. His eyes remained focused on her trigonometry book clutched in his grip. The visible tension of his muscles concerned her. He looked ready to explode.
“It’s a letter from my late grandmother,” she explained, not sure what to do or even what just occurred. “I thought I lost it weeks ago.” Seth nodded, but his biceps tensed up another notch. She laid a hand on his arm. “Seth, are you okay?”
His eyes shot toward her in a fiery glare. “Yeah, fine. I’ll see you later.”
He shoved the trigonometry book into her hands, got up, and stormed off as he pulled out his cell. All Natti could do was gape.
“Hey, dude, what is up with the nine-one-one?” Ky asked when Seth approached the library table. His chair was pushed back, balanced on its two back legs. The cheesy grin and casual posture irritated Seth’s already worked up nerves.
Trying to keep his temper, Seth pulled out a seat, turned it, and sat with his arms folded over the back. Q studied him for a moment and leaned forward. “So what’s up?” he asked.
Seth eyed his friends and whispered, “Natti is a Daughter of Isis.”
“She’s a what?” Ky dropped in his chair. “You’re shitting me!”
“Are you sure?” Q pulled closer. “How did we miss Isis’s Mark?”
Seth shook his head. “She doesn’t carry the tyet like the others. It was the first thing I checked when she didn’t . . . when she first came to this school.” His muscle wound up like springs at the next bit of news he was about to share. “But there’s more.”
“More?” Q raised his brow.
Seth hesitated before muttering, “She’s the Secret Keeper.”
There was a long pause while Q and Ky stared at him. Seth shrunk into his seat. His fury began to build again.
“How do you know, bro?” Ky asked. “How did you even find out?”
“She might not carry the tyet on her body, but she does possess the winged tyet.”
“The Secret Keeper’s seal! You saw it!” Q’s jaw dropped.
Seth nodded. He thought on all the time he and Natti spent together. How she asked him about his tattoo. Asked him about the sensation caused by his power. “She’s been playing me. All this time, she was just pretending not to know.” He brushed the was scepter tattoo on his neck then slammed his hand on the table. “The bitch led me on in this merry, little game of hers! And I was stupid enough to fall for it!”
Q pushed up his glasses. “How would you have known, Seth? If she doesn’t carry the tyet, none of us would even think twice. Actually quite clever on her behalf.”
Seth shot him a nasty glare.
“Well,” Q continued, “this does explain things.”
“Like what?”
“Like why she collapsed when you tried to Thought Reform her.”
“So.”
Q rolled his eyes and groaned. “So! The Secret Keepers carry a piece of the sacred feather of Ma ‘at, remember? With the gift to see true intentions, she would have been able to fight it.”
“But she didn’t!” She had been difficult at first, he would admit, but the Connection he finally formed with her was real. He felt it every time he used his powers to settle her emotions. Unless she was somehow able to pretend about that as well. The thought constricted his chest.
“You said her heart rate skyrocketed, man.” Q pointed out. “It must have been her heart fighting against your spell, causing her to black out. The bitch probably even knew she would be safe, letting you think she was giving in.”
Seth shifted in his chair. “I should have seen it! Especially when she could call anyone’s lie! I’m so stupid!”
“Okay, so the bitch got past you. My question is what are we going to do about her?” Ky cracked his knuckles.
Q glanced at Seth. “We turn her over to the hem-netjer. He will see to her—”
“No!” Seth snarled. “There will be no need for that.”
“What do you mean—?”
“‘The secret lies with the winged tyet.’ That’s what the one Daughter of Isis revealed when the hemu-netjer captured and tortured her twelve years ago in Luxor.” Natti’s mother, Seth suddenly realized. Why hadn’t he put that together when she told him? Was that why she approached him? Had she been baiting him, looking for intel? He was sick with rage. “We just need to get our hands on that letter. The one that carries the seal.”
Q scowled. “We just can’t let that girl go free, Seth!”
“I’m not an idiot, Q! The bitch will be taken care of.” Seth’s hands balled into fists, the beast inside his heart hungry for blood and revenge. “But we’re going to do it ourselves.”