Amon folded his arms across his chest and watched me. “You are angry. I feel it,” he said.
“It’s not your concern,” I tossed back. Throwing my stuffed bag over my shoulder, I gave him a strained smile and said, “Shall we go?”
Amon took hold of my arm as I passed. “Lily, I am sorry if I hurt you. But I cannot give you what—”
I held up my hand. “Please don’t finish that sentence. I don’t want to hear any platitudes and I have no interest in listening to your interpretation of what I want. I’m over it. So let’s not talk about it anymore. All right?”
Hazel eyes gauging my reaction, Amon nodded. “If that is your wish.”
“It is. Now can we go?”
Moving to a more open space in the living area I held out my arms so we could disappear in a cloud of sand, but he ignored me, instead walking over to a tray and pulling off a domed lid. Steam poured from the dish. “Will you eat first, Lily?”
“No. I appreciate your asking nicely, though, instead of ordering me.”
“Lily, whether you acknowledge it or not, your body is being taxed by supporting both of us. You are drained.”
“It’s nothing. I just didn’t sleep well.”
“It is more than that.”
Amon came closer. Too close. My breathing hitched and I tried to back away, but he took hold of my upper arms. “Remain still,” he directed in a quiet voice. With both hands, he cupped my cheeks, fingertips grazing the hair at my temples. Heat edged down my neck and trickled over my shoulders, spilling into my limbs, advancing like viscous lava. A hot flush remained as Amon slid his hands down to my neck, and I was fairly certain it was from more than just his magical doctoring.
As he stared into my eyes, tears began to fall from mine. “What have you done to me?” I asked, unsure of the exact nature of my question.
Amon wiped a tear away with his thumb and rubbed his fingers over it. He sighed heavily, and stepped away. “More than I should,” he answered cryptically. He picked up several pieces of fruit and held an apple under my nose. “You will eat this later. Though I will refrain from ‘forcing’ you to eat it, consider my encouragement to do so of a strenuous nature.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I murmured noncommittally as I stuffed the fruit into my already overloaded bag. As I struggled with the zipper, Amon took the bag from me, draping it across his wide chest before he opened his arms. Keeping my head down, I stepped into his embrace. With the whisper of a few words in ancient Egyptian, sand began to twist around our bodies.
Soon sunshine encircled us, shining brightly through my closed eyelids. I waited for the sand to dissipate. It seemed to take longer than normal, but when I cracked open my eyes, I realized it was a natural breeze stirring the sand on the dune where we’d appeared.
“We are here, Young Lily,” Amon announced.
I guess I had been expecting an Indiana Jones–type temple or something, but what we were looking at seemed more like a mine in the dust export business or a quarry of crumbling rocks. My ankle-high boots were already filled with grainy sand.
Amon led me down the hill, my feet sinking into the sand up to my calves in some places, and the valley came into view. Between the small cliffs was a well-cared-for excavation site. Piles of coarse stones and loose gravel had been built up big enough to look like rocky burial mounds.
The day was already stifling, and I pulled my shirt away from my skin, fanning myself with it to circulate some air. Already thirsty, I dug a water bottle from my bag, sucked down about half, and offered the remaining half to Amon. He refused it, saying I needed it more than he did, so I finished off the bottle about the same time we reached the valley floor.