Chapter Nineteen

Piper

“Finally.” Aaron’s cold voice chilled my skin.

Not the greeting I expected.

Against my judgement, against my heart, I’d brought him the Trumpet of Peace.

“Follow me.” He snatched the trumpet from my hot fingertips. No thank you, or great job, Piper. Not that I expected thanks or praise.

Walking, he ran his greedy fingers over the hieroglyphic etchings confirming I’d given him the real deal.

“How’s Mom?” My footsteps echoed hollowly on the marble floor. Each step counted down the minutes she had left for a chance at life. It was late afternoon, and the time of the Convergence was less than an hour away. “I want to see her.”

“You will.” His relaxed tone conflicted with the news of poor health.

“If she’s sick we should take her to the hospital. Call an ambulance.” Panic rushed my words making my demand. One last plea.

He spared me a disparaging glance. “Your mother is sacred to the Magical Order of Crucis. She will not be defiled by modern medicine.”

He made it sound as if her fate had already been decided. By him. That was the reason he didn’t want to take her to the hospital. Doctors would learn the truth and know she’d been poisoned, all to become Aaron’s stupid vessel.

My own blood simmered and bubbled and brewed. My hands itched and scorched with wanting to rip the trumpet out of his hands and call an ambulance myself. I’d tried in the past only to have the paramedics turned away by the guards in the museum, them telling the paramedics it was a false call. Now, I understood it was too late for modern medicine. The trumpet had powers and I had to believe, because of his need for a vessel, he’d save Mom.

Following behind, I held onto the belief, needing to see Mom first. “What do you need to do with the trumpet now that you have it?”

I wanted to understand the process. Learn how the magical powers of the Trumpet of Peace could heal Mom and bring peace. At least that’s what Aaron had claimed. Math had given a completely different story.

“The trumpet has powers bestowed by the gods of ancient Egypt. It links the vessel and helps on the journey.” Aaron had refused to give me any details when I’d asked before. He must be close to accomplishing his goals for him to be so forthcoming.

“You said the trumpet will heal Mom.” Grim thoughts invaded my mind. I now believed in magic, but not in his control of the process.

“Your mother will never feel pain again.” He’d said that before.

This time I didn’t believe him. He’d already caused her pain by poisoning her. “What journey? Where?” Did Mom have to go somewhere once she was healed?

“Don’t worry about your mom.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. The touch wasn’t comforting, it was confining, pressing me down. “She will be all powerful.”

“And healthy? No mental agony?” This might be good for Mom. She’d stay alive with no pain. No longer tormented.

“Yes.”

My sacrifice of losing Math would be worth giving this gift to Mom. She’d be happy, healthy, and in control. Maybe in control enough to realize the truth about Aaron. Maybe have enough power to wrest control from the man. From all the men of the Order.

He led me into one of the ceremonial chambers I’d always been forbidden to see. The chauvinistic Order was for men and about men. And yet, the vessel needed to be a woman.

I paused at the door. The room was similar to the ceremonial chamber Math and I had snuck into, only smaller. A small raised platform. A speaking podium. Arched niches with statuary of scenes from the Afterlife.

“Where are we going? Mom’s room is the other way.”

“A bedroom is for sleeping.” He spoke as if speaking to a toddler and the tone braided against my skin.

“Someone who is healing needs sleep.” The words screeched up my raw throat. I drew a shaky breath. A slight hope soothed my aching lungs. “Now that you have the trumpet, you can save her.”

That was the only reason I’d stolen the trumpet. I had to believe the betrayal was worth the cost.

“This way.” Aaron punched a code on the wall and a passage opened.

I was beginning to think everyone hid secrets in their basements. And with the way I was raised it shouldn’t surprise me.

“Where are we going?” I stomped my foot giving into fear and anxiety. I’d sacrificed the rest of my life for this. “How are you going to save her?”

He stopped in the marble passageway and pivoted to face me. His scowl resembled a gargoyle or one of the ugliest gods. “Your mother faces death with dignity.” He pushed on my back to make me move forward. “You should face your mother with dignity.”

I tripped and stumbled. Bracing my palms against the smooth, cold walls of the passageway, shock radiated outward numbing my limbs so I couldn’t move. Tears sprang to my eyes. Mom couldn’t die. He’d promised he’d help her. Turning to face him, I swiped at my tears. “You said the trumpet would save Mom.”

“I said she’d feel no more pain and be powerful.” He shoved me forward under a columned arch. “Your mother will become an Akh.”

Stumbling, my heart thudded. Thudded with his words and his misleading statements. Aaron wasn’t going to save Mom from death. He was going to use her, just as he’d used me to get the trumpet.

“And since I know you’re going to ask what an Akh is,” his you’re-so-stupid tone talked down to me, “an Akh is an effective being with powers bonded to the vessel and the sacred leader.”

I knew what an Akh was. Math had told me. Except he’d said an Akh lived a miserable half existence.

My brewing anger exploded. I wheeled around and slammed my hand on Aaron’s chest. My fingertips appeared to spark. “No!”

He flew backward and fell on his butt. His head knocked against the stone wall. His shocked expression would’ve been comical if the situation wasn’t so serious. “You’ve been preparing on your own.”

“Preparing for what?” I stomped toward him, ready to fight to get what I wanted. A healthy mother, freedom from the Order. I’d believed he wanted to save Mom, when all this time he’d been preparing her for death.

He reached his hand up. Instead of rubbing his sore head, he pulled on a lever. A door slid open. “Grab her.”

Cloaked men emerged from behind the door. They wore long gold necklaces and dangly bracelets. The first man clutched a thin hand around my arm. Using a defensive maneuver Math had taught me, I broke his hold and pushed against his chest. The man flew through the open door and slid across the marble floor.

Two more men approached. I dodged, but their beefy fingers gripped my arms and legs, pinching my skin. The hurt was nothing to the terror inside. My muscles tensed, and my jaw locked. Pulsing panic gave in to knee-jerk reaction. I kicked and punched, trying to break free.

“Bring her to her mother.” Standing, Aaron brushed himself off. “She’s got super strength, so several of you need to hold her down.”

Super strength? My struggling stopped. Aaron had been knocked down when I pushed him, and the other man had flown across the room. Math had said I had power. Yet, I struggled trying to break free now.

The cloaked men carried me into the Convergence Ceremonial Room—the same room Math and I had discovered the other night. The room they’d been preparing for a ceremony.

This ceremony.

The first altar room must’ve hidden this other more secretive room. Incense filled the space, creating smoke and an acrid smell. Other members of the Order crowded around the center platform. They wore ceremonial robes in white and maroon. Most of the men wore hoods.

The Magical Convergence Ceremony was about to begin, and Mom was the guest of honor. The vessel being sacrificed to become an Akh.

“No!” I struggled again, kicking and twisting and trying everything to make the men let go.

“Do you want to see your mother?” Aaron stepped in front of the group carrying me. “She understands her time on this earth is a temporary phase of eternal life.”

“Yes, I want to see her.” I needed to talk to her, tell her what she was doing was crazy, make her change her mind, and help us both fight against this madness.

The men chanting in front of the platform parted, resembling a sea of red and white. My gaze zoomed to the center of the raised stage.

Mom lay on the platform wearing a white ceremonial tunic with hieroglyphics sewn into a pattern. Large pillows propped her into a sitting position. Her body convulsed, spasm after spasm. She didn’t appear strong enough to hold herself up, let alone fight.

I choked down a gasp as it went higher, mimicking a scream. The scream echoed and vibrated throughout my entire body, sending rippling quivers of shock and sadness. I froze.

The men set my feet on the ground. I climbed on the altar and crawled next to Mom.

Her face was paler than white. Her lips deep purple. And her eyes had sunken into dark pits of despair. A despair that reverberated inside me. How could I get us both out alive?

My chest ached, holding her clammy, papery-thin hand. “Mom, can you hear me?”

Gazing over the heads of the cloaked men, I searched for a way out.

“Piper.” Mom’s hoarse whisper was difficult to hear.

I bent closer, wanting to send her my love, wishing I could give her my health and strength. “Mom, I’m here.”

My stomach twisted and churned the acid into an assault. I’d only been gone a day and she looked so much worse. The muscular convulsions kept coming and coming like she was epileptic. Instead of being with Math, I should’ve been getting Mom out of the museum. I shouldn’t have waited so long. I shouldn’t have waited until I was sixteen and she was so sick.

I held in a shuttering breath. Mom was dying. I could see it in the dullness of her eyes and the shallowness of her breath. My chest ached. My throat went raw.

“You got the Trumpet of Peace?” She struggled to speak.

I trailed a finger down her dry cheek. “Yes, I got it.”

It wouldn’t do Mom any good. Did she understand she was dying? That she would become an Akh?

“You need—” she coughed “—you need to listen to what Aaron wants.”

I hated that her last thoughts were of that man.

“What do you want, Mom?” Was I asking for her last request? I resented she always put him first.

“I want you to do what Aaron says.”

Be obedient. Do what’s best for the Order. The constant commands dug into my brain, etching my anger. “Why don’t you ever think about what’s best for me, Mom?”

I hated myself for asking the question on her deathbed. It was the only way I’d get an answer. Why did Aaron always come first?

Her eyes glazed with a sheen of wetness. Tears? “I didn’t have a choice.” The agony in her words sliced across my midsection.

I glared at Aaron, who’d put on a maroon robe and held a scroll in one hand and the trumpet in the other.

“You have the trumpet, Aaron. What else do you want?” I knew there was a reason these people were gathered, and it wasn’t to watch Mom die.

“You.”

The one word struck my chest and started the pistons in my brain. Chug, chug, chugging, the pieces fell into place. Mentally, I fell back onto the platform, but I refused to show weakness. When Mom died and became the Akh, she could no longer be a vessel. A vessel was a living, breathing woman. I was the only other female in the room. I’d never be free from Aaron and the Order. I’d be a prisoner and a slave. I’d never be able to apologize to Math and hope for a better future.

I glanced at Mom’s emaciated body. If Aaron needed me and wanted me to cooperate, then maybe he’d give me something in return. I could still save Mom if someone else became the Akh.

“Listen, I’ll do whatever you want.” The pleading note in my voice scratched in my ears. “If you take Mom to a hospital.”

“A deal, Piper?” His brows rose in an exaggerated arch. “I find deals don’t stand up to the scroll paper they’re written on. We had a deal with the Society of Aten. They would get the bronze Trumpet of War and the Order would get the silver Trumpet of Peace. When they lost the war trumpet to the Warriors, they stole the peace trumpet, almost losing that instrument, too. The two thieves paid for their deceit with death.”

“Let one of them become the Akh.” The thieves were already dead.

“You and your mother have the hereditary connections.”

“What hereditary connections?” Blinking at my confusion, I remembered Math and Ash had said something about hereditary powers. I should’ve asked more questions.

“I need both you and your mother to become more powerful than any other magical being.” The maniacal gleam in Aaron’s eyes set off dire warnings in my head.

This wasn’t about peace. This was a plan meant to gain power and control.

The cloaked men chanted in soft voices. The spooky song sent shivers over my skin.

Aaron’s gaze glazed over. His twisted smile appeared sinister. “We only had four days to recover the Trumpet of Peace or the mathematical timing to link the vessel to the Akh would be missed.” He leaned over my mother’s body and I wanted to push him away. “Today is that day. You will play the trumpet and take your mother’s place as the vessel.”

Dropping Mom’s hand, I scrambled back on the platform. “No. I don’t want to be the vessel.”

“The trumpet is in your blood.”

The sound of the trumpet wailed inside me, making my bones waver. I sucked in a sharp breath.

“All you need to do is play the trumpet to make the connection.” Aaron held the trumpet out like an offering.

It wasn’t an offering. It was a curse.

Being under his thumb was a curse. I refused to do as he asked.

I scrambled back further on the platform, my back against the wall. I didn’t want to end up like Mom. A slave to the Order. When she died, I’d finally be able to escape on my own. Blowing the trumpet would seal my fate to the Order’s. “No.”

“It’s your destiny.” He didn’t climb on the platform to chase after me, to force me. He must know more.

My shoulders slumped. I was tired of people knowing more about me than I did. They might know my past and my ancestors, but they didn’t know me. They didn’t control me. Not Mom and not Aaron. Determination stiffened my backbone and hardened everything inside. I pulled back my shoulders.

“I can change my destiny.” I’d seen and heard about other people, good people like Math and the Warriors, change their lives. I could do something, make something of myself.

The members’ chanting grew louder. Their voices barraged me like shots from a gun. I wanted to duck yet knew there was no hiding.

“You can’t change your heritage.” Aaron spared my dying mother a pitiful leer. “With you we won’t need the ugly preparation step. I’m afraid your mother didn’t handle the medication well.”

Glancing at Mom’s prone form, tears stung my eyes. She was listless and unresponsive. I flattened my lips into a grim line. Anger burst out of my mouth. “Not medicine. You poisoned her!”

The accusation rang over the chanting. I wanted everyone to hear, to know Aaron was a horrible leader. To tell them that I knew the truth.

The members ignored my charge. They stepped closer to the platform, filling in the space, blocking any chance of escape. They were a wall. And I was trapped.

My breathing came faster. Sweat slicked my brow. My pulse counted out my demise. I used my feet to scoot back another inch. All the room I had left. This was what a captured animal felt like. Uncertain. Fearful. No options.

“It may have come earlier than expected, but this is your ultimate destiny.” Aaron sung, starting the ceremonial prayer. “Your role has been planned since conception.”

I shook my head, trying to make sense of the claim. “W-w-what role?”

“Your mother played the trumpet when she was pregnant. Your blood is connected to the instrument. Don’t you feel the trumpet’s essence?” He gave me his superior, all-knowing smirk. The same smirk he’d given me when I’d told him I’d fallen asleep when the trumpet played.

He’d known. He’d always known.

“Your mother has always been weak. The drug addiction, the alcohol.” His nose lifted in a disgusted sneer. “After she ran from Egypt, we searched for years. When I finally found you both in that dingy apartment, I knew she wasn’t strong enough to stay on this earth forever and take the role of vessel as planned. She was slotted to be the Akh, even though we told her differently. And you, my dear innocent child, were always going to be the vessel.”

My arms gave way and I fell into a heap. Quivers rocked my body. Math had understood I had a connection to and could find the trumpet. There’d be no doubt who stole the trumpet from him. The hereditary powers were real. And I’d never escape from the Order to say I was sorry.

With weak limbs, I crawled back to Mom’s side. “Did you plan this?”

Holding my breath, I waited for an answer. I prayed she didn’t know or didn’t understand the process. Hoped she wouldn’t curse me to a life indentured to the Order.

Mom’s tongue stumbled over dry lips. “Your father.”

Shock electrified and sizzled across my skin. A painful breath whooshed. My stomach flipped inside out. Two words that had never been spoken willingly. “My f-f-father planned for my slavery?”