“Lily.” Amon ran a hand over my shoulder and cupped my neck. “It is not for the reason you are thinking. Open your mind to me and understand.”
Blinking rapidly, I sniffed and tried to do what he said, but I was too wrapped up in the idea that he was once again rejecting me. Amon gripped my shoulder and shook it slightly. “Close your eyes and try to feel what I feel.”
I closed my eyes and focused on Amon. I felt the thrum of his pulse, heard the softness of his breathing. The thump of his heart distracted me for a moment, and then I saw through his eyes. Not his real eyes, but I was able to see what he had seen. I was swept up in a vision through what I now realized was the Eye of Horus.
All at once, I understood…everything.
“Amon?” I cupped his cheek. “I didn’t realize how you felt. I thought you didn’t want to be with me.”
“I could not allow myself to even consider it. But I wanted it. More than I ever wanted anything.”
Anubis cleared his throat and Amon let me go and turned toward him, his back stiff. “Perhaps I am becoming soft in my old age,” the god said, “but I will give the two of you a few moments. Oh, and Amon? You owe me one.”
The handsome god gave me a final wink before whirling both of his hands in the air. With a thrust of his fingertips, the gray clouds of smoke gathering around them were pushed toward Amon’s head, obscuring his expression. Amon screamed and shoved his palms into his eye sockets.
The smoke sizzled and then danced away, forming new fingers on his damaged hand, healing the bites, cuts, and bruises on his skin and his leg. When the smoke disappeared, he lowered his hands and blinked. Amon’s eyes were back. With a grunt of satisfaction and a quiet woof from his dog, Anubis disappeared in a flash of light.
Immediately Amon’s hazel eyes brimmed with tears and he reached out to touch my face. His sunlight warmth trailed down my jaw.
“Can you…see me?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Does it hurt?”
He smiled softly. “Almost more than I can bear.”
I took his hand in mine. “You’re still planning to leave me, aren’t you?” I asked quietly, not really wanting an answer.
“I do not have a choice.”
“Are you sure?”
“Lily, if there were a way for us to be together, I would do anything to make it happen. Do you not know this?”
“I do now.” I ran my hand up his face and through his hair. He closed his eyes and I could actually feel how much he longed to be close to me. “How much time do we have?” I whispered.
“Anubis will give us only a few moments,” said Amon, reluctantly leaving me to pace toward the end of the chamber. I followed him but stopped when I noticed an open shaft.
“Will I have to climb out through there?” I asked.
“No. The heat channeled through the pyramids during the ceremony has melted the rock along the shaft. You would suffer terribly if you tried to enter it.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to do or say. I’d never lost anyone before. Not even a pet. I could sense his determination to do the right thing and yet the right thing felt wrong.
Amon ran a hand through his hair and seemed to come to a decision. Circling the altar, he approached me. “You do not need to worry about going home now. I have enough power to bend time and return you to the moment you left in New York City.”
“So…it will be as if all this had never happened?” I said weakly.
Amon took a step closer and cupped my neck, my back now pressed against the pyramid wall. “You will forget all about me, in time,” he said, looking deeply into my eyes.
“No.” I shook my head. “I could never forget you.”
“Perhaps not.” Amon smiled forlornly, playing with the loose hair on my shoulder. “You know, Anubis was right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Pressing his hands against the stone wall on either side of my head, he murmured, “Eternity is a long time to exist without something to remember.”