Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 615(@200wpm)___ 492(@250wpm)___ 410(@300wpm)
He hesitates, his eyes narrow. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“Your lack of memory,” he whispers. “Anyway, hold out your hand, and before you shriek and ask if it’s a spider or snake or any sort of reptile including a turtle or a salamander, wait they’re amphibians…eh, never mind—it’s none of those things. It truly is a gift.”
I don’t know why I’m nervous at his blank expression, but I hold out my hand palm up.
Slowly, his beautiful fingers drop something into my hand. I gasp. “The Eye of Horus?”
“A gift from the gods.” He grabs it and puts the black and red bracelet around my wrist. “He doesn’t often give out such gifts, it’s said it will protect you from—”
“—Evil,” I finish for him. I flip the rock, the opposite of Ra, in my hand. To anyone it would look like a small simple blue rock with an eye on it, to me, it actually means something. It’s the antithesis to The Eye of Ra. Or at least it feels that way. Horus was the left eye, Ra was the right. “It offers protection.”
He folds his hands in front of him and winks. “I may have added a bit of Zeus’s lightning, Apollo’s sword—don’t tell him, and Mars, well he’s always pissed, so it’s easy to steal a tiny bit of juice. I did, to be fair, cook this up for you, so don’t ingest it, but you can at least accept it.”
“Why?” I ask. “Why would you give me this?”
He sobers. “Everyone needs a shield every once in a while and it pains me,” He chokes and looks down at the ground. “I failed you know.”
“Failed what?”
He sighs. “My purpose, my mission, some might say, the only path I was supposed to walk on became so dark that only humanity lightened it for me, so I failed—on purpose, but with that failure I came to realize that the reason humans are so lost is because nobody is holding out a light, we all need the light, but we need the shield when it gets dark. You’ll see the light, Cleo, you’ll see it often and what it reveals is absolutely terrifying, best you have a shield of protection, The Eye of Horus, so that when things become dark, you can still truly see.”
“That was cryptic.” I’m shaking, the rock feels heavier and heavier in my hand. I almost set it down.
“Let it.” He whispers. “Let it take the baggage. The Eye of Horus sees all, knows all, protects all, and it keeps all, let the collector collect, Cleo.”
Tears well in the back of my eyes, I don’t know why but I suddenly feel lighter. “Thank you, Enki, truly. It’s been a rough night and day.”
“It’s been a rough century.” He winks. “And don’t worry about it, someone has to have your back.” He sighs. “And now it’s my job to let you know that you need to take a break, close the laptop and go upstairs so that Cyrus doesn’t burn the house down with flames from his fingertips.”
Flames? What does Enki know? And why is he suddenly talking about Egyptian gods too? “Why would he do that?”
He leans in and crooks his finger. “Whenever he’s hungry, which is always, he cooks. Plus, he’ll probably want an opinion on what you think would be good for first exhibit during the festival for the eclipse.”
I nod. “Yeah, because the guy who claims to be a god really cares for all of that before he kills me.”
Enki freezes, his eyes avert to the ground, it’s the first time I’ve seen him semi-uncomfortable. “Yeah well, when you’re stuck here you see yourself in the gods the way tourists see themselves in the mountains. You wish for greatness when you lack it.” He completely glazes over the whole Cyrus wants to kill me comment.
“Are you saying Cyrus lacks greatness.” I ask, my voice shaking.
“Don’t we all?” He shrugs, mischievous smile back in full force. “Let’s go.”
I don’t have time to say anything; he’s already grabbing my arm. I hurriedly shut down the laptop then let him pull me out of the room. By the time we’re upstairs, Cyrus is pacing in the kitchen and talking on the phone.
I can’t make out what he’s attempting to say over the snarls and growls emitting from his mouth before he slams the phone onto the counter and looks over at us.
His eyes immediately lock onto my second bracelet and narrow.
“It’s been a pleasure.” Enki salutes me and then gives Cyrus the middle finger before running toward the front door.
“Use the amulet!” Enki laughs, and then he’s gone.
I look down at the rock in my hand. “Yeah, because that’s going to work.”
Cyrus snorts. “You took a gift from him?”
“It’s not food!” I point out, irritated with him yet again. “And it’s pretty.”
“You’re an idiot.” Cyrus sighs. “I have a meeting tonight. Have you finished looking over more of the artifacts? Done a deep dive into mythical unicorns and fairies, had a nice little search on the internet for fun? ”