18

WHERE I MAKE A DATE FOR LATER

I felt like I was descending to hell. I counted to fifty before the elevator stopped. And then, when the iron grate slid open, I was dumped into total darkness. I let the smallest bit of light slip from my scarab heart. I’d ended up in some kind of tunnel with cobwebs hanging everywhere, like a haunted house. Paintings covered the walls, but they were so chipped and faded that I couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to be. This must not be the main entrance. Hopefully I could keep the fact that I was now officially in the den of the enemy a secret.

I tried to text Henry to let him know where I was, but I had zero bars of coverage. The bright side of this was that Gil wouldn’t be able to track my phone to know where I was, either.

The tunnel ended at a giant chasm. Around the side curved a wooden staircase that had more steps missing than denture wearers had holes in their gums. I moved from step to step, hopping over the missing ones … until I jumped, and a step shattered underneath me. I managed to catch myself on another step, but it shattered, too, and I fell all the way to the bottom. I landed in a puddle of greasy water that stank of dead fish, just like the Potomac. But it wasn’t very deep, so I managed to wade out.

A river ran through the room and I followed it to where it dumped out into some kind of underground grotto. The river stretched from end to end of the giant cavern. Columns reached to the ceiling, painted in vivid blues and reds, and torches lined the walls, lighting the whole place up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Murals decorated the cavern walls, and unlike the ones back in the tunnel, these looked freshly painted. Most of them showed Set in all his hideous godliness holding a giant eyeball in his right hand and a scepter in his left.

Horus was never going to believe this. I’d found the home base of the Cult of Set.

The sound of voices floated my way. I barely had time to duck behind one of the humongous columns before three people sauntered into the cavern: Seti 142-B, Seth Cooper … and Tia.

Tia! What was she doing here?

“You lost track of him?” she said, slapping Seth on the arm. “You were supposed to be watching him.”

Great Osiris, she had to be talking about me.

“You should have tried to get him in your van,” she said.

Our pizza delivery guy, Seti 142-B, brushed invisible dust off his shirt, like the mere act of talking to Tia disgusted him. “Yeah, sorry we aren’t equipped with your girly charms.”

“You’re not equipped with a brain,” Tia said. “You realize our brother’s going to be furious.”

Our brother? Wait, Tia couldn’t possibly be related to these two. Could she? She looked nothing like them. They were slimy like weasels, and Tia was adorable. Yes, I realized thinking about Tia’s cute factor wasn’t the main issue here. The bigger issue was that Tia was involved with the Cult of Set. After seeing her at Isis’s, I’d thought maybe she worked for Isis. But Set? It was wrong on so many levels.

“I have an idea,” Seth said.

“Your first one,” Tia said. “We should have a party to celebrate.”

He scowled at her. “Maybe if you manage to lure Tut here, Horemheb won’t mummify you.”

Mummify! Was he serious? Okay, so even though the facts pointed to Tia being part of the Cult of Set, that didn’t mean I wanted to see her get mummified. I didn’t want to see anyone get mummified … except Horemheb. But I stayed quiet and kept hidden behind the column.

“If anyone needs to be mummified, it’s you,” Tia said. “I can’t believe we’re related.”

I couldn’t, either. I wasn’t sure what shocked me more: the threat of Tia’s mummification or the fact that Tia actually shared DNA with these two.

“Would you two just stop bickering and get on with it,” B said. “Check the river level and let’s get back to his town house.”

“What if he won’t come with us?” Seth said.

“Then Horemheb will cut your heart out instead,” B said.

Wonderful. At least I knew their plans for me. One thing was for sure: I couldn’t let them know I was already here. Maybe my strolling right into their lair wasn’t such a great idea.

Seth stuck a measuring tape into the water. It disappeared beneath the dark surface.

“Maybe one more day,” he said.

One more day for what?

“Which means no more delaying. We need to get Tut today,” B said.

Um, no. Not if I had anything to say about it.

I shifted the tiniest bit and my foot accidentally scraped against the sandy ground. It had to be almost inaudible, but Tia’s eyes flicked in my direction.

I held my breath and tried to make myself invisible. No, I didn’t have powers of invisibility, but it couldn’t hurt to wish for it.

“You guys better get going,” she said to her brothers. Which meant either I’d been wrong and she hadn’t heard me, or she wasn’t going to turn me in. At least not yet.

“You’re not coming?” B asked.

She shook her head. “I’m going to check the sarcophagus.”

Wait, sarcophagus? Nothing about a sarcophagus made me happy.

“Whatever,” Seth said. “Enjoy your last days on Earth, Little Sis.”

Okay, so my older brother and I had argued, but I now realized it could have been way worse. I watched the Seti brothers leave through the tunnel they’d come out of, and then Tia spun in my direction and stomped with her combat boots over to the column I hid behind.

“What are you doing here?” she said. “Are you a total moron?”

I stepped out from behind the painted column. “It’s great to see you again, too.”

Tia hit me on the shoulder, which actually kind of hurt. “Seriously. You need to leave.”

I was attempting not to get distracted by her, but she looked really nice. I figured it wasn’t the time or place to tell her, though.

“No. I need to get the knife. I’m assuming you know about it, just like you seem to know about everything. I get it now. The whole reason you knew the answer to that trivia question about Seti the First being buried around D.C.? It’s because you’re a member of the Cult of Set.”

Tia didn’t deny a thing. I’d been totally duped.

“Tut, I’m not kidding. You are in huge danger here. Don’t you get that?”

I tried to pretend she actually cared, because she was kind of acting like she did. But I couldn’t get past her part in all this.

“Great Osiris, I can’t believe you’re really related to them,” I said.

“Please don’t remind me.” She scuffed the ground with the toe of her boot. “And watch that name around here. It’s grounds for execution.”

“What? Osiris?”

“Shhh…,” Tia said, glancing around like someone might be listening. But the cavern was empty. We were alone.

“Osiris. Osiris. Osiris,” I said. “Look, I said it three times and I’m still alive.”

Tia looked at me like I was acting like a five-year-old. Maybe I was.

“It’s your life,” she said.

“You forget I’m not a fan of Set. Unlike you. You’re seriously one of them?”

“Things aren’t exactly how they look,” she said.

Her phone buzzed. How did she get cell coverage when my phone wasn’t good for anything except playing solitaire? I checked it again, but still had no signal.

“What’s it say?” I said as she read the screen.

Tia stuffed her phone in a pocket of her cargo pants. “I need to get back. And you need to leave. Now.” She pointed in the direction I’d come from.

I had no intention of leaving.

“Wait,” I said. “Do you know where the knife is?”

“No.”

She’d answered way too quickly.

“You’re lying.”

“Look,” Tia said. “I need to finish up here and get back, or Horemheb will come check on me himself.”

Just his name made me almost choke on my own bile.

“Tell me, please,” I said. I wasn’t beneath begging. This was an immortal lifetime of revenge we were talking about.

“No.”

Tia hurried over to the other side of the cavern and ended up in front of a giant sarcophagus. It stood on a platform twelve steps off the ground and was carved of solid granite. The lid lay to the side. Tia climbed the steps and dipped some sort of test tube into the coffin. And she pulled out what could only be natron. I forced myself not to breathe.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Tia said.

Her brothers had mentioned mummification. Was Tia really going to get mummified? Maybe this was her sarcophagus.

I climbed halfway up the steps to join her. “If you help me get the knife, I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ll help you get out of here, if you’re trying to escape. I can hide you.”

Tia fixed her eyes on me. “Hide me? Are you kidding? I can leave anytime I want.”

“But I heard them. They’re going to mummify you.”

Tia scowled. “No, they aren’t. But come to think of it, there is something you can help me with.”

“What?” I said.

She put a lid on the test tube full of natron. I held my breath.

“How about this?” Tia said. “Stay here, right by the river. I’ll be back in an hour. You help me with one small little thing, and then I’ll show you where the knife is.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” I said.

Tia crossed her arms, making all her bracelets jingle. “Because I’m irresistible?”

“And I thought I was the humble one.”

“Right,” Tia said. “I’m sure humility is the first thing you learn as pharaoh.”

Her statement, though sarcastic, was dead-on. Learning that my place in life was above the common person was part of pharaoh training. I’d always tried to be humble, but when you’re the most important person in an entire country, it’s difficult.

The thing was that I did want to trust Tia. I wanted to believe she was different from her brothers. Because something about her told me this was the case. She hadn’t turned me in. And even though she was clearly part of the Cult of Set, she had been talking to Isis. There was something more about her. Something she kept secret. Like she had a greater purpose in life that had yet to be revealed.

“Fine,” I said. I’d waited three thousand years. I could wait another hour.

Tia smiled, and it spread into her eyes and lit up her face. “Perfect. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Her combat boots echoed as she marched away, through an archway and down a long tunnel. I watched until I couldn’t see her anymore.

And then I waited.

An hour went by.

No Tia.

I gave her five more minutes, then five more. And then I decided she wasn’t coming back.

So I snuck off down the same tunnel where she’d gone.