Chapter Five

 

As usual, Helter, Anga, and Flixus were right. Getting into Kairo Tower had involved the sword and shield of spellcasting. But leave it to the three of them to slay that beast of a security system. Electronics were nothing when you’d been around thousands of years.

The bullet elevator took me to the top floor in five seconds flat and lucky for me, the corridor it opened into was empty.

There was one door. Just one. That meant I wouldn’t have to search for Ravi. It also meant if he wasn’t in there, our plan was screwed.

I paused at the lockpad, trying to recall the number sequence Helter gave me. My fucked-up memory. Why would it fail me now, when I was so close to my fate.

I tapped at the pad, hoping the numbers my mind conjured were the right ones.

A nerve-grating buzz informed me they weren’t.

“Shit.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to picture Helter’s face as she spoke the words over and over. Twelve. Twelve. One. Five. Eight…. Or was it nine?

Once again, I tapped out the numbers. And once again, the buzz split the air.

My eyes darted, looking for any guard who might have heard. But the hall remained empty.

“Come on, come on….”

I gave the lockpad one more try, and this time, a tinkling chime alerted me to success.

Testing the handle, relief hit me hard as the door came free. I didn’t waste another second. I shoved it open and stepped inside.

As the door clicked closed behind me, I was taken back to ancient times. The room was pristine white with fluorescent lights but it couldn’t have felt more like the tombs if it had been mud painted and filled with treasure. The scent of age-old unfinished death permeated my nostrils and stung my eyes. But the thing that had my mind racing and then pounding in my chest was the sculpted coffin that lay on a waist high stainless steel table.

Was it Ravi?

My feet took me closer, though I don’t know how since I felt numb from the waist down, until I was standing over the painted clay. Painted with Ravi’s face. It wasn’t what he’d actually looked like. He’d had smaller eyes and a wider jaw. But it was him. If his body was inside…

I gasped, trying to take in more air but smelling only the acrid scent of unfinished death. No human could have picked up on it. But to me, it was stronger than my heartbeat used to be.

After so many years searching… so many years without him…

If I could wake him, if this worked…

I could take back my last words. Replace them with something, anything. I’d tell him I was wrong. That I lied. That I did love him.

Do love him.

I’d tell him how sorry I was that he’d suffered in my place.

But when it was all said and done, there would be no changing what had happened between us. I knew that much. My love now, and my apologies wouldn’t mean much as he began his new existence.

I rattled out a shaking sigh.

I’d have to deal with that truth afterward. For now, he needed free.

With more effort than I expected, I managed to remove the headstone. I forced my eyes down until they connected with the body inside.

Ravi. My kha.

It was him.

He wasn’t the Ravi I’d once known. The grinning boy was gone. The bronze skin I’d loved was shriveled. His cheeks hollowed like two little pockets tucked away in a mountainside.

Tracing a finger across his leathery brow and then down his cheek, I landed on his lips. They weren’t plump as they once were. They were puckered, a lock waiting for its key.

I looked down at myself. Death had changed me too. Flixus said breaking the curse would also help me. I really hoped she was right.

Though I was clear-eyed and my skin smooth, I’d become slight. Bones protruded where they shouldn’t and too many places on my body were concave. My hair was a mess I couldn’t hope to fix but I remembered a day when it was silky smooth and straight. When I wore jewels instead of rags.

And why had that life been stolen from me? Not because I’d lived badly, not because I had hurt others, or deserved it.

No.

I’d lost the future I should’ve had with my kha because of the hate of one wicked woman. Because hate had power.

But so did love.

I could feel it now, swarming around me like flies to anointing oil. Or like the hovercars that crowded the skies of New Kairo. It buzzed through me, making me feel more alive than I had in ages. It made me feel stronger. Fiercer.

And yet, more vulnerable than ever.

Pushing back the rest of the stone, I climbed onto the table and began removing some of my wraps. As carefully as I could, I used them to cover Ravi’s body. First his dried limbs, then his torso, praying the old prayers as I went and hoping like hell this resulted in a blessing. He’d been cursed long enough.

It was time for Anubis to let him rise into the afterlife. Time for Ravi to fulfill his quest.

I repeated the prayers for good measure and pulled a swath of linen that contained my most precious emerald, wrapping it around his brittle neck so that is settled into the hollow of his throat.

It was done.

I sat back and took in the sight. After so long, Prince Ravi was wrapped.

Finally, he could journey onward through death. No longer would he go restless. Or… at least he wouldn’t be restless alone. He’d have me and the witches. He’d be waking to a whole new world, but he’d have us.

For a second, I questioned if this was the right thing. Which was worse, the wrapless sleep Ravi had been sentenced to or the living death I was enduring? But at least my spirit was at peace. Or it would be once I woke him and finished my quest.

Ravi’s wasn’t. It couldn’t be. Not until he’d risen.

My key to his lock and the curse would be broken for us both. The Sorceress would be defeated for good.

With a deep breath for courage, I braced my hands on the sides of the coffin, leaned in and pressed my softer lips to his dried ones. I kept our mouths together, my eyes squeezed shut, waiting for magic to happen.

I thought of our childhood, growing up together in the halls of the palace, knowing I was meant for him and he for me, even though we were only the best of friends.

I thought of the years after that, when we both grew bigger and stronger. As we changed from children to adults and feelings melded into something new. Of how he looked at me over our tablets as we learned our daily lessons. Of how those looks made my stomach flutter with emotion. Of how his once innocent touches became heavier with meaning.

I thought of the moment I realized I could never let myself love Ravi. How it hurt my chest to the point of suffocating. How I learned to ignore him to avoid feeling hopeless. How he pushed harder every time I pulled away.

How determined he’d been to save us.

And I cried, our ancient lips fused together for moments untold. Cried dry tears because my undead body had none to give.

But I cried still.

Cried for the short time we’d had together and for the massive time we’d spent apart. Cried for his death and mine. Cried for the hate of the long-gone Sorceress. Cried for the love of the three witches. Cried because my quest was over.

Cried, because I hadn’t since the day he died.

I cried my love into the kiss and prayed Ravi could feel it, that it would be a beacon, that he could find his way back to me like Flixus said he would.

There was a grunt. A shift. His then mine.

My eyes flew open. His fluttered. Locked on mine.

“Cleopatra,” he breathed—his first undead words, “Is it you?”

My heart hurt at his shock. What I must look like to him. So changed he couldn’t even be sure it was me.

“Answer me, Cleo.”

“I-It’s me.”

His eyes squinted so the area around them wrinkled, and for the first time, I noticed the change in his skin. It was softening, loosening. Normaling.

As normal as it could be for a dead. Paler than it was before. Less vibrant.

Like mine.

“It worked,” I said, more to myself than to him. “It really worked.”

I found Ravi’s eyes again, and they were like I’d never seen them before. Full of fear. But not the determined, battle-down-a-dragon edge they’d had when he stalked away that last night of his life.

This was true fear, full of desperation, and dread.

He was afraid of me.

Shit.

I cleared my throat and scrambled down from the table. But my feet hitting the smooth tile of the pristine room felt more like quicksand. My knees wanted to buckle so I gripped the edge of the cold table and tried to look non-threatening.

My hair. Shit, shit.

I patted it flat with one hand, knowing it wouldn’t really help the strands that were as brittle as the end of a broom.

Ravi lifted his hands, turning them left and right to stare at his wrap.

My wrap.

Our wrap?

“What is this?” he whispered. But I sensed he wasn’t talking to me. “I have linen.”

I nodded, but he didn’t see.

Hooking his hands around the edge of the coffin, he came to a sit, his eyes narrowing as he took in the cold room. His shoulders sank and his expression turned dull as his gaze landed back on me.

“A new nightmare,” he concluded, squeezing his eyes shut. “Please, no more.”

I sucked in a breath, trying to squeeze down the pain his reaction brought.

Why did death numb my memories but not my feelings?

“Come on. We have to hurry. It won’t be long before the asshole who owns this place realizes I’ve found you. And when he does, he will hunt us down. He’s not a fan of mine. It’s in his nature. But we need to be gone from New Kairo by then. Got it? I’ll explain the rest along the way.”

Ravi squinted, looking confused.

Understandable.

“Why do you speak so strangely to me, meren?”

I froze, hearing the precious name he used to call me. And again, it was like I was taken back to ancient days. The memory of the first time Ravi called me his beloved looped through my mind on repeat. It was a sweet memory, and I hadn’t thought of it for decades. Maybe longer.

We were in the courtyard, alone. With only the water of the Nile rippling in the background. It was our last lazy day, because we were to become adults in the eyes of the gods the next morning.

Ravi was excited, and I was too, even though I feared my future.

There is nothing to fear, meren, he’d said. You are ready for the next journey.

The word had frozen me then too, and made my heart ache, but I’d brushed it off like every other hint of love tossed my way.

But I will be alone. Who wants to journey alone, Ravi.

You will never be alone, Cleo. I will see to it.

I had laughed at that, and tossed a grape at his shaved head, ending the conversation even though I tucked his promise away like a precious secret.

And little did he know, his promise came true. I had never journeyed alone. My three blessings traveled with me.

“I’ve never heard such language from you,” he continued now. “Your words, I do not understand. This nightmare is an odd one. Why are you not pulling me to our bedroom to make love? Only to leave me again and again. Why are you not doing as you usually do?”

My mouth opened to answer, but I couldn’t find words.

He thought he was dreaming now? And in his dreams, we made love.

Then why did he call it a nightmare?

I swallowed hard, wanting so badly to climb back in his coffin and hold him close. I was weak with wanting to touch him again. I’d only just gotten him back, all these feelings rushing me like a summer storm.

I’d dreamed of this reunion for ages, and never saw it playing out like this. I had planned to tell him everything. Give him everything, anything he wanted. I would give him my cold dead heart for whatever it was still worth, because it had been his the whole time.

But now I had to hold back. Just like when we were younger.

It wasn’t fair.

“We need to go,” I croaked again, my emotions strangling me.

His jaw set at a grim angle. “Very well. Lead the way. Make me forget for a few moments.”

He climbed out of the coffin, frowning at the metallic table it rested on. And then at the shiny door with its lockpad. His bare feet hitting the cool tile made his eyes widen, but he followed me into the hallway and over to the elevator.

“What is this?” he murmured. “The palace has changed much.”

I forced my voice to be steady. “This isn’t the palace.”

“Then what? A tomb?”

Not exactly. “It’s Kairo Tower. The technology center of New Kairo.”

“New Kairo?”

“Kairo. Where we grew up… except new.” I pressed the button to open the elevator and the curved glass door slid free with a snap, revealing the tight cylindric interior. “Get in.”

Ravi glared at the bullet elevator as if it would bite him. “Another coffin? This is unexpected.”

And unwelcome, I could tell. He didn’t love the idea of getting into another small space.

“Not a coffin. It’s a…” How to explain this… “It will take us to the bottom so we can leave.”

“And go where?”

I chewed my lip, trying to think. We had a place to hide outside the city where Ravi and I couldn’t be detected. But the girls couldn’t come with us. They were too noticeable. They would meet us later and we would journey on to somewhere remote where Ravi could figure out his quest.

That was the plan anyway.

“Somewhere safe,” I said, but he still hesitated so I stepped in first. “See? It’s small, but there’s enough room for us both if we squeeze in tight.”

Ravi had been eyeing the contraption, but his gaze jerked to me.

“Come.” I held my hand out, and he ignored it, staring at my eyes.

“You look different.”

“I know.”

“Your eyes are different.”

“Yours are too.”

Seconds ticked away as I waited for him to move. Precious seconds while I prayed the witches were able to keep the guards away.

“I will go with you, meren, into the glass coffin,” he said, stepping tentatively closer. “Because I’m ready to remember the truth.”

I didn’t know what that meant, but I was glad he was cooperating. Because time was not on our side.