Raising his arms in the air, Amon began chanting, his skin brightening a little, though it was very clear that his power was sorely diminished and his arms were shaking. The full moon was right above us, and from my perspective it looked like Amon was cupping it with his hands.
The bodies of Asten and Ahmose shone like gleaming bonfires on their respective temples, but Amon’s body remained dim. As the three men chanted, I saw silvery light gather from the moon and shoot down to Ahmose. The twinkling stars loosed some of their light and a beam of it swirled around Asten.
Asten’s and Ahmose’s pyramids shone in the night, glowing white and silver, but the pyramid where I stood with Amon was still dark. Power swirled in the night sky, lighting up the heavens like an aurora borealis. Trickles of the silver and white light shot toward us. Amon’s arms stopped trembling, his body glowing brighter.
The brothers recited their spell and a mist of starlight headed straight for me. To my surprise, it enveloped me, and I gasped as the pinpricks of light tingled over my skin and then sank into me. I felt a pull. I knew then that this was Asten’s way of channeling my energy to Amon. I naturally resisted, but then I saw a golden light encircle Amon and remembered to willingly offer myself, and my energy, for it to work.
Closing my eyes, I imagined that I was offering Amon everything—my heart, my mind, my soul, and my body. The pull became stronger, and I sucked in a breath through my teeth at the pain. I fell back as something broke away inside me, and I drifted—painless, dreamy, and fulfilled in a way I’d never been before.
Lying on my back, I gazed up at the cosmos. Pulses of energy lapped like waves across my body, starting at my head and then moving all the way down to my toes over and over again. A humming filled my mind as golden light erupted all around me.
Sunshine mist angled above me, floating up and away from me, into Amon’s skin. The effect was invigorating him, and his body grew brighter. The thought occurred to me that if I had to die, this was the very best way to go. I couldn’t feel the stones pressing into my back or the emotional loss of leaving life behind. All I could sense was the wonder of the universe and how small a piece of it I was.
Above me the eruption of lights broke apart and became three points. With my eyes, I traced them in the sky—one white, one silver, and one gold. The three had formed a constellation. It was beautiful. But then, something opened in the sky above it—a dark rift—with a terrible evil coming through. It looked like an iridescent storm, but I could tell it was much more than that.
As the sky roiled and churned, fear flooded through me and I whimpered, unable to prevent the sound from coming out. A sinister, malevolent, and ominous face grew, and I knew it was just a matter of time until we were all consumed by it.
Thick hailstones rained down, pummeling my weakened body, but I could barely feel them. When the hailstones came close to Amon’s golden aura, they disintegrated, but I was outside of that circle of protection. An icy ball hit me on my temple and I felt the wetness of blood. It was cold. No. I was cold. Trembling, I tried to move, eager to hide myself from the thing that seemed to be watching me, but I found I could not so much as lift a limb.
Desperate to escape and unable to do so, I felt my eyes fill with tears. Gone was the peace of a few moments ago. I knew then that we were too late. Seth was here and he was coming for us. I wasn’t just going to die; I was going to be unmade, erased. My family wouldn’t even remember I’d existed. What was worse, Amon would forget me entirely. Somehow, that idea seemed the more tragic of the two.