Every Last Kiss, Final Copy, June 30, 2011 by Courtney Cole Read Free Book Online Page A

line.”
          I nodded, even as I remembered Annen’s words.  He absolutely wanted me to change things.  But not to suit him. The outcome was meaningless to him.  Annen wanted to prove to me that my whole existence had been a lie. 
          “But Hasani…” I whispered painfully. 
          “Hasani died as he was meant to,” Ahmose said firmly.  “His death was not your fault.”
          “But I could save him now,” I replied, sticking my chin out. “I don’t see what saving one Egyptian soldier would hurt.”
          “You can’t,” Ahmose reiterated.  “You must carry out your mission.”
          He stared at me with steely black eyes and I felt like crumpling to the floor in a heap. 
          I knew my place in the world.  I had been a Keeper for centuries.  What I was supposed to do was obvious. I should find Annen, retrieve my bloodstone and leave this place… letting destiny unroll as it was meant. But the attachment I felt to Hasani was absolute.   I couldn’t allow him to suffer a horrific fate. 
          Hasani was the only thing that mattered.
          “Ahmose?” I whispered.  “I don’t think I can.”
          “Of course you can,” he replied firmly.  “You don’t have a choice, Charmian.  Hasani will die no matter what.  Even if you intercede and stop his fate, he will die eventually.  Everyone does.  But if you change the fate that is meant for him, the ripple effects from that action could be devastating.   You cannot.”
          The confusion muddling my thoughts was sickening.  Was he right?  Deep down, I figured he probably was. Fate was what it was.  I didn’t write it- I just carried it out.  But that didn’t make the knowledge that my own actions would lead to Hasani’s death any less crippling.  The very thing that I had been born to protect and uphold was now ripping my heart out . 

 

     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
     

    “ M y lady,” a feminine voice called, a scant moment before my bedchamber doors were pushed open.  I turned to Ahmose in alarm, but he had already disappeared. Not a trace of him remained, but for the sweaty tang of his scent. I sighed.  This type of thing only added to my general distrust of high priests. 
            My personal maid, Neeilah, bustled into my rooms, her young face anxious.   Watching her rush across the room made me feel as though I had fallen into a rabbit hole of insanity, because I literally felt as though I’d never left this ancient place. Her face was as familiar to me as my own.   She stopped in front of me and ducked her head quickly, in deference to my elevated status as Cleopatra’s personal handmaid. 
    “Mistress,” she chirped.  “Her Majesty is summoning you already. You must hurry.  They say she is in quite a mood today.”
            In spite of myself, I had to smile.  My Daedal was always in a ‘mood’.  The question was simply whether it was a bad one or a good one.  Oh, how I had missed her.  Her life as Cleopatra was definitely colorful. 
            “Thank you, Neeilah,” I smiled as I turned quickly.  I couldn’t wait to see her again.
            Pulling my heavy doors open, I flew into the empty hallway, gazing down the long length.  A large black marble statue of Anubis, with his large jackal head and his ivory spear, stood to the right of my rooms in his normal place.  It had been awhile since I had seen him and I shuddered slightly.  Why I had to have the god of the afterlife guarding my rooms, I would never understand.  It was unsettling. 
            His glassy left eye stared sightlessly at me now, his head slightly cocked as though he was beckoning me...to the afterlife.  I shivered again.  I definitely had no wish to meet him anytime soon.  I forced my attention away from his frightening face and hurried quietly down the elaborately decorated hall to the queen’s royal chambers.