Amon gave me an astounded look. “Why would you believe this?”
“I don’t know. You keep pushing me away. What else am I supposed to think?”
Amon’s other hand moved up my arm to cup my uninjured shoulder. “Lily, I can honestly tell you that I have never in my long life come across a creature as beguiling as you. You are as fresh and as lovely as a budding flower kissed by the dew of a golden morning. I breathe you in and am filled with the taste of sunshine, life, and hope. You are much more than beautiful. You are…temptation personified.”
An expression of shock instantly crossed his face as he muttered, “That is not what I meant to say. Please forget those words.”
“Um, unlikely. Unless they were false.”
Amon pursed his perfect lips and groaned. “The gifts I have received have made deception very…difficult for me. It was the truth.”
“Then I really don’t understand. If you like me that much, why won’t you kiss me?”
Amon sighed, removing his hands when I indicated with a nod that my shoulder felt better, and turned away, placing his palms against the stone I’d moved. He let out a sad, sardonic laugh. “This is why,” he said, nodding at the stone.
Taking a step closer, I peered at the offending rock. “What does it say?” I asked softly.
Ignoring my question, he moved around it carefully and held out his arm, beckoning me to hold on to him. When I’d crossed safely, he kept my hand in his, and after checking the hieroglyph map I’d found, continued down the passageway, leading me along. As we turned a corner, he said, without looking back, “Death. The symbols on the stone mean death.”
“If someone really wanted to kill you, why would they advertise it?”
“The carving on the wall showing the sun, moon, and stars is very old, but the etching on the stone and the rock in the carving was recently created.”
“So someone was watching for you.”
“Someone was warning us of a trap. And someone else created it. I cannot discern how long ago that image was added. It could have been fairly recently, or it could have been created a hundred years ago.”
Pondering his words, I followed him silently as we further explored the mysterious Egyptian tomb. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully process what was going on between Amon and me because we soon came upon a new section of the underground labyrinth that needed to be solved.
I asked Amon if we were likely to come across any more booby traps, and after I explained what they were, he told me that Egyptian tombs usually came with curses, not snares for the unsuspecting. Still, he seemed very uncomfortable with the idea of moving ahead, though he believed that the path we were peering down was indeed the correct one.
Tentatively, he led me forward, insisting on going first, but then suddenly, he froze. “Do not move, Lily,” he whispered.
“What is it?” I asked quietly.
Reaching forward, Amon touched his finger to the air right in front of him and blood immediately pooled at his fingertip. “It is a deadly wire, created to sever the neck of the hapless person wandering the tombs. And this time, there was no warning.”
We backed up slowly while Amon whispered some words. Sand rose from the tomb floor and swirled around his hands. The grains coalesced and solidified, forming a deadly-looking weapon—a knife. The blade burned with Amon’s white light.
“Stand back,” Amon warned.
Using the glowing knife, he slashed the wire. As he did so, it recoiled violently, like a whip, delivering a stinging slash to his cheek.
Amon cut another wire and another, his mood darkening with each discovery. After we finally made it to the end of the tunnel, consulted some hieroglyphs, and turned down another corridor, Amon finally began to relax.
Because he let his guard down, I did, too, and it came as quite a shock to both of us when I tripped over a slightly elevated stone and the walls began to shake.