After a minute, Seth had all the pins picked and turned the plug using the wrench. The lock gave in with a click, letting the door swing wide open. Seth put away his tools and wallet, grabbed his bag, and rushed inside. He turned on the hall light, gazing around the well-organized home. He stepped from room to room, checking for anything he could grab that might be useful.
Pausing in front of an office threshold, Seth stared into a corner room with a raised brow. Unlike the rest of the house, papers were scattered over the desk and bookshelves. A cork board held pages with different chapter headings lined up in a random order. A published book sat cradled in the leather desk chair.
Curious, Seth walked inside and picked up the novel. The cover consisted of a goddess lying on the altar; an adorned dagger running through her breast. Sacrificial Blood was scribed on top with Alexander Stone’s name. Goose bumps ran across Seth’s skin when the goddess’s image morphed into Natti. He tossed the book back on the chair.
Refocusing his attention on his mission, he left the room and slinked up the stairs to the second level. Seth breathed easier when he found the first room he had entered was Natti’s. He charged in, throwing the gym bag on the bed, which nearly landed on top of Natti’s resting cat. It leapt up and hissed. Seth ignored the pesky creature, becoming consumed by his task. He opened the sack, pulled out a travel pack, and started in the bathroom. He scooped up Natti’s tooth brush and paste, hair brush, deodorant, and to be on the safe side, a few pads he found under the sink.
Seth zipped up the travel pack, tossed it onto the bed, and then headed straight for Natti’s closet, yanking open the sliding door. He randomly tore down several Tshirts and denim shorts from their hangers and grabbed a pair of tennis shoes from the floor. Seth shoved them into the gym sack, crumpling the outfits in his rush. He moved on to her dresser drawers, pulling out each one at a time. He grabbed seven pairs of lingerie and a few of her nightshirts.
The cat growled, training its eyes on him while he forced the garments into the bag. Annoyed by the creature’s consistent stare, Seth pushed the cat out of his way. It took a swing at his hand with its claws, drawing blood.
Seth withdrew his hand. “Stupid ass cat!”
He reached for it, making the cat leap in fright. It skittered from the bed cover, charged across the room, jumped onto the desk, and flew up onto a high built-in shelf. In the chaotic movement, a notebook, papers, and a cedar box crashed to the floor.
“Shit!” Seth snarled and approached the mess.
He bent down, hearing the cat growl overhead while he shuffled through the printouts, finding hieroglyphic to English dictionaries. Pausing, he glanced up at the cat with curiosity. The cat swished its tail and let out a long, low rumble in its throat. Seth returned to the papers, pushing them into a pile next to him. He picked up the notebook, flipping to the page it had landed on. Natti’s scribbles of red and black ink mixed with pencil marks covered the pages in puzzling orders he couldn’t understand.
“‘Travel?’ ‘West?’ ‘Fish?’ ‘Protect?’” He turned the page. “‘Mountains?’ ‘Sand?’ ‘Hides?’ ‘Sacred lake?’ ‘Isis’s wings?’” He flipped back to the beginning, catching sight an untouched copy of the original hieroglyphs on the second page. His mind automatically began to translate. “‘Travel through the sacred desert of the far west to find the twin Nile River of a dying land. There, fish swim over dry land, and mountains protect the flowing sand. The key hides by the sacred lake of Faiyum, and Isis’s wings protect the mystery of the moon.’”
Seth’s jaw set firm as he stared at the puzzle. “It’s the location of Ra’s secret name! She was trying to translate it! But where did—?” Flipping to the first page, he froze midsentence. The sketch of the Eye of Horus pendant stared up at him in amazing shades of gray. The image pulled at his memory.
“It was something my grandmother left me. Actually, there is something intriguing about it that I want to show you later on our date. Something you might be interested in.”
Seth shoved his fingers through his hair. “She was actually going to share the secret with me, having no clue that I was . . . That it was . . . Shit! I’m such an asshole!”
Natti’s cat meowed overhead as if in agreement. He shot a cold glare in its direction, daring it to just set one paw closer to him. He closed the notebook and glanced at the box that lay on its side. Recalling the Secret Keeper’s letter, he scooped it up to find a relief of Isis had popped free from the lid. He took the wooden image and brushed his fingers over the mother-of-pearl. On the back, he could feel something carved into the smooth grain and flipped it over to find more hieroglyphs stretching out behind Isis’s wings.
“‘Isis’s wings protect the mystery of the moon.’” However, before he could translate the words, his iPhone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out, seeing the hospital’s number displayed. He answered, his heart skipping a beat. “What happened? Is she okay?”