Reincarnated

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Day 42.

"Talk? About what?" He asks, eying me carefully.

"About the fact that you're still lying to me." I say. Ahmose abruptly becomes a statue. "And don't you dare try to deny it, because I know you are."

His expression smooths out into complete impassivity so quickly that it startles me. "What causes you to be so sure?"

I look him dead in the eye. "I have Hapi and Horus as my witnesses."

All the blood drains from Ahmose's face. He licks his lips several times. When he finally speaks, his voice is hoarse, like he's gone without water for weeks. "Where did you hear that?"

I tell him. I tell him every single detail from the dream I had, from the moment it started with the life-sized Nafretiri, to the moonlit rendezvous, to the argument with the guard before he woke me up. I tell him everything, and I don't leave a single candid detail out. The entire time I talk, Ahmose's expression doesn't change; there's not a flicker of emotion, not a waver of a reaction to my words. But the moment I mention the ring and the argument with the guard, his expression flickers through such an incredible range of emotions that it almost gives me whiplash. When I finally finish, his expression finally settles on the last emotion I expected: pure and unadulterated guilt.

"So?" I fold my arms over my chest and stare him down. "What is going on Ahmose? I'm not stupid, I know that my dream wasn't just a dream. So what is going on?"

Ahmose doesn't say anything for a very long time. When he finally does, his voice is barely louder than the whispering breeze. "You are right. I have been lying to you."

"Why?"

"To protect you."

The frustration slowly saps from my muscles. I stare at him in confusion. "What?"

Ahmose sighs, his gaze lowering to the ground. "When I first told you about the curse, I was not entirely honest with you."

"In what way?"

"It is not just my curse, Kiara. It is yours."

My heart shudders to a stop. "Wait, what?"

"It is your curse too."

"Yes, I heard you the first time, Ahmose. It wasn't a question for clarification." I retort sharply. I soften my tone when he starts, his eyes widening at me. "What exactly do you mean by that? How is it my curse too?"

"What I told you about the origin of the curse, that was accurate." He explains, running a hand through his hair. "Kasiya's father, the pharoah, did pray to Ma'at to stop us from being together because he did not think I was worthy of being her betrothed or the pharoah. Ma'at did listen to his prayers and answer him by creating this curse, and it did result in the death of both Kasiya and I. But what I did not tell you was that it affected Kasiya a great deal more than it affected me. While I was cursed to endure immortality, she was cursed to endure cycle after cycle of reincarnation."

My breath catches as his words suddenly light up the path of a terrifying possibility. "Cycle after cycle? You mean she was reincarnated more than once?"

"Yes." He replies softly, catching my gaze with his. All of a sudden I feel incredibly exposed, like someone's trapped me stark-naked under a spotlight with a massive bell-jar. "Once every one hundred years, Kasiya would be reincarnated, and it would be my mission to find her in one hundred days and break the curse before she died. If she did, I was re-mummified and the whole cycle would start again."