Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at https://archiveofourown.org/works/11498997.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Category: F/F
Fandom: The Mummy (2017)
Relationship: Dr. Jennifer Halsey/Princess Ahmanet
Character: Dr. Jennifer Halsey, Nick Morton, Chris Vail, Dr. Henry Jekyll,
Princess Ahmanet, probably some random other people
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, the movie was kind of awful, so I fixed it, Blood,
Gore, Death, Mummies, Zombies, Ahmanet is my favourite of the
whole film, follows canon up to a certain point, with some key
divergences, what i did like about the movie, is that I now apparently
know Ancient Egyptian, one word of it, anyway, Curses, f/f
relationship, Murder, Slow Burn, Like, Ridiculously Slow Burn, I love
Ahmanet, Poor Jenny, she's been through a lot, im sad for her, canon
went out of the window a while ago
Stats: Published: 2017-07-14 Updated: 2018-04-28 Chapters: 43/? Words:
167229

Setepa-i
by ErzaWritesThings

Summary

In Ahmanet's tomb/prison, it's not Nick who breaks the chain - it's Jenny, and suddenly the
future is not quite what it was.

Warning: this work deals with all kinds of creepy shit, including cursed people, angry dead
people and angry undead people. Also, people get murdered, so if that triggers you, this is
not something you should read.

Notes

‘’We need to go,’’ Nick said, ‘’the Colonel said we’ve got a sandstorm incoming.’’
Jenny was all business. ‘’We have to take the sarcophagus.’’
Nick looked aghast. ‘’It’s huge, Jenny. It’ll take too much time!’’
‘’Then you can explain to Greenway why you left without me.’’
 Chapter 1

Dr. Jennifer Halsey had, since she was a child, been a staunch believer of myths. Any kind - gods,
monsters, all of it.

The ones that had always captured her attention most, though, were the Egyptian myths. She
loved everything about them. The majesty of their gods, the sheer ingenuity and intellect of the
people, the advanced science and art they were capable of even so early in the history of
humanity. Egypt, as a whole, was what Jenny loved most.

So, when she grew up, having devoured everything even vaguely Egyptian she could get her
hands on, Jenny became an archaeologist and Egyptologist, dedicating her life to what she loved
most.

She was, upon being awarded her doctorate, almost immediately snatched up by Dr. Henry Jekyll
- which brought her to where she was now.

Iraq was, quite honestly, not exactly where Jenny had expected to find an Egyptian tomb. Then
again, this was not a regular tomb. Jenny should know, she’d been searching for it since she’d
been twenty-two.

A princess, deliberately erased from history, and nobody had any idea why, or even when it had
happened. Hell, only very few people were even aware the princess had existed in the first place.
Jenny was one of those people.

When Henry had approached her with the barest shreds of evidence of the princess’ existence,
Jenny had thrown herself into research. She probably knew more about it than anyone else alive -
which, honestly, didn’t say much, because it had taken her years to find enough information to fill
maybe twenty pages.

This princess was Jenny’s life’s work, and she’d been ecstatic when a tomb filled with crusaders
had been found under London - not so much because of said crusaders, but because the tomb had
contained a map. The map had led her to Iraq, and Jenny had never been closer to finding the
princess she’d been hunting.

Needless to say, when she woke up in her hotel room in Baghdad after a rather short and
disappointing night with Nick Morton to find her map gone, she was livid. She had the map
memorized, of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to rely only on a piece of paper, but still - Jenny
was very aware of the fact Nick sold antiquities on the black market. This was her life’s work, and
she’d die before she’d see it sold off to some ignorant ass who had no idea of the importance of
this princess.

The first thing Jenny did after her map was stolen was get in touch with the army commander in
charge of the soldiers in this region of Iraq. Henry had arranged her cover with the military of an
archaeologist who tagged along to keep antiquities safe so the insurgents couldn’t sell them off for
funding, so Colonel Greenway was already familiar with her. She’d met him once or twice before,
when doing some exploration in the field to see if she could find any signs of Haram, in case the
map wasn’t as accurate as she hoped. He was a reasonable man, a competent leader, and prepared
to listen to her as long as she argued her point and didn’t put any of his men in danger.

And when Jenny heard about an airstrike in the exact region the tomb was supposed to be in, she
immediately called Colonel Greenway and arranged to be taken along to the site. The strike
should’ve scared away the insurgents there, so it should be relatively safe. As safe as an active
warzone got, anyway.

Slapping Nick Morton in the face was very, very satisfying. The red mark that bloomed on his
cheek, painful and raw, was even better.

Jenny shook her hand to soothe the ache left in her fingers and then completely ignored the thief in
favour of the hole that had opened up as a result of the airstrike. It seemed deep, and when Jenny
shuffled as close to the edge as she dared, she came face-to-face to a huge, carved out statue of a
woman’s face, clearly Egyptian in nature.

The mouth was wide open as if mid-scream, the surrounding rock rough. Either left that way
when the tomb was built, or part of the statue had been destroyed due to the bomb that been
dropped on top of it. Jenny was willing to bet the latter was the case, and it made her want to turn
around and knock Nick on his ass for a second time in as many minutes.

Instead, she turns to Colonel Greenway. ‘’I need you to have your men secure the village. I need
time to get down there,’’ she pointed at the exposed cave-in, ‘’and secure what’s inside.’’

The Colonel gave her an incredulous look. ‘’We’re in the middle of hostile territory.’’

‘’Colonel,’’ Jenny struggled to sound calm, ‘’my job is to secure everything that might be of
value. We have no idea what’s in there, but it might be a royal tomb. The contents of
Tutankhamun's tomb when it was discovered were estimated at 650 million Pounds sterling. Do
you really want that kind of money in the hands of the insurgents?’’

That gave the Colonel pause. He thought for a few seconds, and then nodded sharply. ‘’You have
two hours. And those two,’’ he pointed at Nick and Vail, ‘’are going in with you.’’

Jenny opened her mouth to argue, and then thought better of it. She could use Nick and Vail to
carry her stuff, if nothing else. ‘’Fine.’’ She turned to the two men, who didn’t look very
enthusiastic to go in. ‘’I need my bags.’’

The actual cavern turned out to be much deeper than Jenny had initially expected, a hundred feet
at the very least. She counted herself lucky she’d thought ahead and brought an abundance of
rope, because she’d expected to have to do some abseiling. The inside was dark, and she could
faintly hear something dripping. Water, probably, because the air started to feel moist the deeper
they went, and by the time Jenny had both feet on the ground again, she could touch her fingers to
the ground and feel a light sheen of liquid on the stone.

Wiping her hands on her pants, Jenny unhooked herself from her climbing harness and took her
flashlight and voice recorded from her belt. ‘’This is Dr. Jennifer Halsey,’’ she started after she’d
clicked her voice recorder on, narrating the exploration, ‘’I believe I have found the tomb I’ve
been looking for. With me are Nick Morton and Chris Vail. We have entered what seems to be an
antechamber. There are large stone statues of what appears to be the Egyptian god Set. At the
entrance of the antechamber, there is a large statue of a female face, who appears to be
screaming.’’ Jenny moved her flashlight, frowning when she was distracted by Nick.

‘’Is that mercury?’’

‘’Yeah, I think it is,’’ Vail replied, staring at something in Nick’s hand.

Curiosity peaked, Jenny moved over, squinting at the pulsing silver drop in the palm of Nick’s
glove. ‘’That’s definitely mercury. The Egyptians believed it weakened evil spirits.’’
Nick snorted. ‘’Now we know it kills you.’’

‘’After it makes you go crazy,’’ Vail added.

Jenny ignored him, aiming her flashlight at the ceiling as she spoke clearly into her voice recorder.
‘’Mercury is dripping down from the ceiling,’’ she glanced at the ground, ‘’into man-made
receptacles in the floor. They appear to be draining into a larger reservoir.’’ Following the small
receptacles, she came to an entrance into an adjoining cave. ‘’There is writing around this
entrance, New Kingdom hieroglyphs if I’m not mistaken. I’m guessing they are around five-
thousand years old by their style. They are in remarkably good condition, considering their age.’’
She shone her flashlight into the new cave, and frowned when it didn’t really help her see. ‘’Nick,
Vail, set up the big lights!’’

The big lights were called that because they give a huge amount of light, and it was exactly what
Jenny needed to be able to see the interior of the cave. There was enough light to make the cavern
seem like it was naturally lighted, certainly plenty to be able to survey everything and get a good
read on whatever was inside. Switching her flashlight off and and clipping it back to her belt,
Jenny carefully entered.

There was a small flight of stairs down, deeper into the cavern. What was inside surpassed her
wildest expectations. ‘’I can see a large pool of mercury, maybe twenty feet across in all
directions. There are six statues around the pool, facing inward. Three chains come down from the
ceiling, and they go into the pool of mercury,’’ Jenny narrated into her voice recorder, ‘’I can see
the remains of several people, including a high priest, but I see no provisions whatsoever for
passage into the afterlife.’’ She glanced around, feeling like something was off, but she couldn’t
quite put her finger on what it was that made this place feel so… not right. ‘’From my
observations, I think I can confidently state this is not meant to be a tomb. Those chains are not for
removing something from the pool of mercury, they are for keeping it down. I think this was
meant as a prison.’’

Trying to ignore Nick and Vail shuffling around in the background, Jenny continued looking
around. Not entirely sure why, the glanced up. Chains ran across the ceiling. She followed them
with her eyes, tracing them from the pool of mercury to the decorative chain that surrounded the
pool and it’s guardian statues. Carefully, she reached out and ran her fingers across the metal. It
was dusty, but hardly felt rusted or otherwise tainted.

Remarkably well preserved.

All of it was remarkably well preserved, actually. Far more than she had expected. If she was right
and all of this was nearly five millennia old, then it shouldn’t be nearly as well preserved as it
seemed to be.

Strange.

Jenny shut down her voice recorder and clipped it to her belt next to her flashlight, wandering
back over to where Nick was crouched next to one of the skeletons. He was studying a scarab
ring very intently. Ruby and gold. Probably worth a small fortune - exactly what the jerk was
after, Jenny thought snidely as she gave him a death glare. Nick gave her an innocent look,
holding his hands up in defeat, standing and turning away from the ring.

Jenny’s eye fell on the gun holstered on Nick’s hip. She didn’t know why she did it, but she
grabbed it, pulling it from the holster.

Nick gave her a confused-wary-frowning look. ‘’Jenny?’’

‘’Is it loaded?’’

Nick blinked at her. ‘’What for?’’

She ignored his question and repeated hers. ‘’Is it loaded?’’

‘’Well, yeah,’’ Nick’s frown intensified.

‘’Good.’’ Aiming carefully with both hands, Jenny pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed around
the chamber, followed by the harsh, metallic snap of the chain breaking.

It sounded strangely final.

The pulleys in the ceiling began to groan, five millennia of grit and dust raining down as the
ancient mechanisms began to uncoil.

Nick stared at her, and Vail was gaping at her gracelessly. They looked as shocked as Jenny felt.
She didn’t even know why she’d shot the chain. She’d just felt that she had to.

The mercury in the pool began to churn as the chains were pulled up. A rounded shape broke the
surface, hoisted higher and higher until it dangled over the silvery pool. Mercury dripped off it, a
liquid sheen of silver sliding down the stone surface.

Jenny felt her jaw drop as she stared at the newly revealed sarcophagus. It was the same
screaming face at the entrance of the antechamber, frightening and with a faint air of malevolence
about it. The figure was depicted wearing a stylized nemes, though with strange spikes running
across it originating from the face - a clear indication of a royal figure. Stone ropes wrapped
around the sarcophagus, overlapping some of the hieroglyphs engraved into the stone.

Jenny felt strangely drawn to it. She squinted a little bit, staring into the empty eyes of the
sarcophagus. There was a strange sensation of hot desert wind and scorching sun. For a moment,
she was sure she could see red sand - and then, far closer and far more real, the sudden skittering
sounds of hundreds of tiny little feet.

She glanced around, a little alarmed, and saw hundreds of spiders beginning to swarm from the
walls, crawling out of all kinds of little nooks and crannies. Camel spiders. Some were as big as
her hand. Jenny wouldn’t exactly call herself afraid of spiders, but, well, when they were as big as
these and with as many… she made an exception for that.

She yelped quietly, stomping her feet to get the spiders off her legs and brushing at her arms and
torso got sweep off the ones that had somehow managed to get past her stomping feet and climb
up. She could hear Nick cursing and Vail yelping in pain. Vail’s yelp was cut off, and then
replaced with the sound of gunfire. Jenny cursed, ducking in an attempt to avoid the ricocheting
bullets.

‘’Vail!’’ Nick was almost flat on the ground, spiders swarming over his back. ‘’Vail! Stop
shooting! Stop it, dammit!’’

‘’It bit me!’’ Vail lowered his gun, instead nearly jumping in anger and fright. ‘’It fucking bit me,
Nick!’’

‘’They’re not poisonous! They’re just camel spiders!’’

‘’I don’t care! That thing fucking bit me on the goddamn neck!’’

Jenny glowered at the scratched and dented bullet at her feet. It had missed her by inches. And to
think that the spiders had already started leaving when Vail had started waving his gun around like
a maniac. Nearly killed her and Nick in the process too. The last of the spiders disappeared back
into the nooks and crannies in the walls.

Jenny finally felt safe enough to get up from her crouch, and quickly checked herself over. She
was a bit ruffled and dusty, but she didn’t feel any bites or other wounds. Ignoring Nick and Vail
arguing, she straightened out her shirt. As she glanced up, she met the eyes of the sarcophagus for
a second time.

A hint of desert wind caressed her face.

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was not in the cave; she was in the desert,
surrounded by endless dunes of fine red sand, the sun beating down on her shoulders, the hot
wind biting at her skin, and yet it all felt strangely safe and comfortable, like being wrapped in a
soft blanket in bed, listening to the thunder outside and knowing it couldn’t reach her.

A figure walked barefoot across the scorching sand. A woman. A beautiful woman. She was
wearing a thin white dress, the fabric billowing and snapping in the breeze, her hair long and dark
and loose, her skin a glowing bronze and dark eyes accented with bright blue and black in the
traditional Egyptian way. She had tattoos, running in thin lines down her throat and chest, into the
elaborate gold-and-gemstone necklace she wore, as well as coiled at the hairline just in front of her
ears. Her fingertips and toes were dipped in blue paint, the same shade as under her eyes,
elaborate gold rings twisting around her knuckles.

Jenny tried to swallow when the woman came close enough to touch, and then closer, but found
her throat was as dry as the desert surrounding her. The woman cupped Jenny’s face in her hands,
coming closer still.

‘’You freed me,’’ she whispered, and Jenny felt too captivated to startle at the sound of fluently
spoken Ancient Egyptian, ‘’Setepa-i,’’ and then a whisper of soft lips against Jenny’s, the tiniest
bit of pressure, soft and warm and inviting, and then, suddenly -

‘’Jenny!’’

Blinking rapidly, Jenny found herself staring at Nick instead of the… Egyptian princess? She’d
sure looked like one - the jewellery had certainly indicated someone of high standing, at least.
Weird. Probably just a delusion, though. Jenny shook her head, deciding that she’d probably
breathed in too much mercury or something. She didn’t really have any other explanation for what
had just happened. It made her feel a little off-kilter.

‘’Are you okay?’’ Nick’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

‘’I’m fine,’’ Jenny responded.

‘’We need to go,’’ Nick said, ‘’the Colonel said we’ve got a sandstorm incoming.’’

Jenny was all business. ‘’We have to take the sarcophagus.’’

Nick looked aghast. ‘’It’s huge, Jenny. It’ll take too much time!’’

‘’Then you can explain to Greenway why you left without me.’’ Jenny wasn’t leaving without her
prize. She’d searched for this since she’d been twenty-two, she wasn’t about to let thirteen years
of work go down the drain.

‘’... Fine.’’ Nick looked less than pleased as he grabbed his walkie talkie and moved a few steps
away, starting to talk into it.
The moment he wasn’t demanding her attention anymore, Jenny’s eyes slid back to the
sarcophagus.

It felt like it was staring back at her.

 Chapter 2
Chapter Summary

‘’Don’t shoot!’’ Jenny ordered, hating how her voice shook. ‘’This is a pressurised
aircraft. You breach it, we die.’’
‘’I won’t shoot if they don’t shoot!’’

Chapter Notes

Two chapters in one day (though this one's a little shorter than chapter one) - I'm
inspired. And having fun. Enjoy, people, because I certainly had a good time writing
this.

Getting the sarcophagus out of the tomb was a nerve wracking operation involving a heli and one
hand’s worth of chewed-up fingernails - Jenny felt irrationally worried, and she showed it by
nervously chewing on her cuticles. It took a few minutes, and by the time the sarcophagus was
safely out of the confined space of the cave and dangling under the heli at the end of a very sturdy
rope-and-chain, two of Jenny’s fingers were bleeding sluggishly.

She settled in one of the heli’s that wasn’t transporting the sarcophagus, and didn’t take her eyes
off the stone relic the entire trip to the cargo plane.

Soldiers were waiting for them to arrive, and five of them concerned themselves with the
sarcophagus.

‘’Be careful!’’ Jenny fretted worriedly, ‘’That’s five-thousand years old!’’

One of the soldiers grunted at her, but that was all the reaction she got. They shoved the
sarcophagus into the plane, and Jenny wanted to cry at how carelessly they let the ancient stone
scrape across the metal floor. She didn’t even want to think of the damage done to the
undoubtedly priceless relic.

When the sarcophagus was properly secured (Jenny personally tightened the straps, she didn’t
trust those soldiers not to do further damage with the metal clasps), she slumped down into one of
the seats available, simple benches against the walls of the plane.

It was, unfortunately, next to Nick.

The plane trembled when the engines started up, and then when the wind hit and the sandstorm
enveloped them. Jenny grabbed onto the edge of her seat and waited for the plane to steady,
which it did after a minute or two.

For a few minutes, it was silent. Then Nick opened his mouth.

‘’You’re welcome, by the way.’’

Jenny turned to stare at him. ‘’Excuse me?’’

‘’You know,’’ he waved his hand in the direction of the sarcophagus, ‘’for saving whatever that
is.’’

Jenny took a few moments to respond, suddenly angry. ‘’That was safely hidden for five thousand
years until you dropped a hellfire missile on it.’’

‘’And you might never have found it otherwise, so, again, you’re welcome.’’ Nick smirked at her,
and Jenny wanted to slap that smirk off his face.

She stood up, clambering on her seat to retrieve her backpack from the overhead storage. Once
she had it, she sat back down, backpack in her lap, and glared at Nick angrily. ‘’Do you have any
idea how significant this is? The importance? An Egyptian tomb, in Mesopotamia, thousands of
miles from Egypt?’’

Nick stared at her. It was obvious he did, in fact, not know. He probably had no idea just how
important the find he had been planning to steal was.

Jenny gritted her teeth. ‘’This means something, Nick. Something bigger than you. My life’s
work.’’ She sneered at him. ‘’And you were going to steal it. How much do you figure that’s
worth on the black market?’’

When he didn’t respond to that, Jenny huffed and searched through her backpack for a notebook,
a pen and her dictator. She made her way over to the sarcophagus, trailing her fingers across the
stone. It felt smooth and oddly warm. Jenny chalked it up to the stone having absorbed warmth
from the sun during the trip from the tomb to the cargo plane.

She switched her voice recorder on and bent over the sarcophagus. ‘’This is Dr. Jennifer Halsey,
conducting a preliminary analysis of an Egyptian sarcophagus, recovered from the Nineve
province in northern Iraq. As I speculated in the tomb itself, the hieroglyphs are New Kingdom.’’
She glanced at a few rows of them, grateful she’d taken the time to study Ancient Egyptian until
she was as close to fluent as one could be in a dead language. ‘’From what I can see, it appears
that the wife of King Menephtre died in childbirth. She left behind a single heir to the throne. A
girl, called Ahmanet.’’ The name, even as she spoke it, sent a shudder through her.

For a moment, Jenny could feel the sun burning on her back, the smell of the desert in her nostrils.
Faintly, she could hear footsteps crunching in fine sand, and maybe, if she listened very carefully,
the sound of quarterstaffs connecting. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she swore she saw red sand.

Jenny shook herself, stepping away from the sarcophagus. She glanced around. Vail was curled
up on one of the benches, apparently asleep. Colonel Greenway and Nick also seemed to be
dozing, though the two other soldiers present were awake. Jenny yawned, feeling exhaustion
creep up on her also - it’d been a long day, and the excitement of her find had worn her out. Some
sleep wouldn’t be amiss.

She switched off her recorder and shuffled back to her seat, slumping into it. Tucking her
possessions back into her backpack, Jenny stole one last look at the sarcophagus, and then tugged
some headphones over her ears. She put on some soothing, rhythmic instrumental piece she didn’t
actually know the title or artist of, closed her eyes, and tried to get some sleep.

A few hours later, she was woken up by the sound of shouting. It was loud enough to pierce
through the wall of music she’d fallen asleep to, which was still playing.

Jenny took a moment to be impressed by the battery life of her iPod, and then shrugged off her
headphones and looked around to take stock of the situation. She barely got a second to take in the
view of Vail, who was looking rather worse for the wear, pale and sweaty and greyish, before
Nick pulled her out of her seat roughly, shoving her behind him. Jenny peeked over his shoulder,
and gasped when she saw what Vail was doing.

He had a knife in his hand, and said knife was buried in Colonel Greenway’s chest.

Now, Jenny was pretty used to dead people. She’d worked with mummies for years, and Henry
was prone to having dissected body parts and stuff lying around, so Jenny knew what death
looked like. What she wasn’t used to, however, was people who were still in the process of dying.
It was terrifying.

Vail’s knife slid from Greenway’s chest, and Jenny was sure she could hear the wet suction sound
of it all the way where she was stuck between the wall and Nick’s back. A moment later, it was
buried again, this time a few inches lower. Greenway dropped like a puppet with it’s strings cut,
the thump of his body hitting the floor overly loud. A puddle of blood rapidly started to pool on
the metal floor.

Slowly, Vail turned into the direction of Jenny and Nick.

One of his eyes was milky and blind, and black veins spiderwebbed from the camel spider bite on
his neck. His feet dragged when he started walking in their direction, and Jenny felt her heart
pound harshly in her throat with terror.

‘’Vail, stop it!’’ Nick tried to talk to him. ‘’Come on, Chris. It’s not funny.’’

There was no response. Vail didn’t seem to hear Nick, or the two soldiers. Jenny, squashed
between the two soldiers with Nick in front of her, was pretty sure Vail wasn’t reacting because
he was dead - no human could ever look like that and have a pulse.

Then Vail raised his knife again, this time aimed squarely at them - as one, the two soldiers on
either side of Jenny pulled their guns, aiming steadily.

‘’Whoa! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’’ Nick, in an attempt to prove he was an idiot, decided to jump
between the loaded guns and the dead guy with the knife. Jenny stared at him, momentarily
overcoming the terror bubbling in her chest to marvel at Nick’s sheer intent to either get shot or
shanked.

One of the soldiers took a step forward, but before he could do more than aim properly at Vail,
who had started swinging the knife around mindlessly, Nick lunged at him, wrestling the gun from
his hands. Why he needed to do that when he had a gun of his own holstered at his hip was a
mystery. Jenny backed away despite herself - not because she thought Nick would shoot her,
because he might be a thief but he wasn’t a murderer, but because he was aiming at the soldier
who was standing maybe half a foot to her left.

‘’Don’t shoot!’’ Jenny ordered, hating how her voice shook. ‘’This is a pressurised aircraft. You
breach it, we die.’’

‘’I won’t shoot if they don’t shoot!’’ Nick retorted, briefly glancing behind him. His eyes widened
and he jumped to dodge a swipe of Vail’s knife. ‘’What the hell, Chris?!’’

Vail seemed to focus on Nick at that, the next swing of his knife a little more intent. Nick
stumbled backwards, one arm in front of Jenny to push her back too, until she was pressed against
the wall, Nick in front of her and a soldier on either side.

‘’Back off, Vail!’’ Nick, looking like the motion hurt, aimed at his friend. His hand shook. Chris
continued to advance, arm outstretched, approaching steadily, the knife bloody. His dead eyes
were fixed squarely on Jenny. He took another swing at Nick.

BANG - the gun in Nick’s hand went off like a clap of thunder.

Vail staggered, stumbling back at the impact, and then righted himself. Blood seeped from a
wound in his left shoulder, which he ignored completely. The wound didn’t seem to hurt him.

Jenny could feel her face twist in horror, the same expression she could see on the faces around
her.

Nick pulled the trigger a second time, hitting Vail square in the heart region and knocking him flat
on his back. He didn’t move. Blood, darker than it should be, seeped into his shirt, spreading until
it met the stain from the first bullet wound, and then spreading further.

Jenny sagged a little in relief, and then jumped again when the gun in Nick’s hand went off for a
third time, the bullet punching into Vail’s side. Grimacing awkwardly, Nick handed the gun back
to it’s owner. ‘’Sorry.’’

‘’No problem,’’ the soldier replied numbly.

‘’Why don’t we go take a seat,’’ Jenny suggested, a little shakily.

‘’Yeah,’’ the soldier on her right agreed. He didn’t seem much better off than her. Jenny could
sympathize - the last five minutes had probably been some of the worst of her life. And the
strangest. Jenny worked for Prodigium, she’d seen a lot of weird shit in between searching for her
lost princess - Ahmanet (just thinking the name sent a faint shiver down her spine) - but zombies
(she was pretty sure she could accurately describe what was left of Vail as a zombie) were new,
and freaky, even for her. And that was saying something, considering her boss literally had a
homicidal evil alter.

She shuffled around Vail’s body in as wide an arch as the plane would allow. She didn’t want to
get too close, not if she could help it. The only dead things she could deal with were mummies.
Everything else was just too… fresh. With blood and stuff. Mummies were very old, too old to
still have messy liquids like blood. A lot cleaner than fresh corpses.

‘’Are you okay?’’ Nick looked worried, eyes flashing back to Vail’s body every few seconds.

‘’Fine,’’ Jenny responded. She was a little shaken up, but mostly okay. She just wanted to sit
down and have a few minutes to herself.

‘’Alright,’’ Nick nodded. He didn’t press any further, which Jenny was grateful for. Besides, he
was probably pretty torn up about Chris. He’d been Nick’s best friend, after all.

Jenny wandered towards the tail-end of the plane, fully intending to go sit on one of the benches.
Instead, she found herself standing next to the sarcophagus. It was strangely soothing to be close
to it, and without thinking about it, Jenny sat down on the floor and leaned her back against the
smooth, strangely warm stone. She didn’t consider she might accidentally damage her find, her
mind occupied with what’d just happened and the faint sense of comfort being close to the
sarcophagus gave her. She leaned her head back against the relic, staring at the ceiling of the
plane, and tried to not think about the dead body of Chris Vail lying not too far away.

It was a few hours still, maybe two, until they reached England. Jenny couldn’t wait to get off the
plane and find a pub - a pint or two, or a glass of wine, sounded really good right about now.
Yeah, wine sounded fantastic. If she’d been ten years younger, she’d have contemplated tequila
shots, but she was in her thirties, and if she touched tequila, she’d probably really regret it when
morning came. She liked wine better anyway.

Jenny closed her eyes, and tried not to think for a while.

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, one of the plane’s engines went up in a ball of flames.
 Chapter 3
Chapter Summary

The plane crash - and a little bit after.

Chapter Notes

Just a quick one for now - more coming soon.

Jenny jerked awake for the second time in as many hours at the sound of an explosion and the
sensation of the entire plane jerking and shuddering violently. She scrambled up, trying not to fall
over. It took a few seconds to find her footing properly.

Momentarily, she was grateful the sarcophagus was strapped down securely, because Jenny didn’t
even want to think of it sliding around, smashing into the walls and getting damaged beyond
repair.

‘’What the hell’s going on?!’’

One of the soldiers, the one that’d gotten his gun stolen by Nick, held on tightly to one of the
benches lining the walls. ‘’The engine blew! A bird flew into it.’’

Jenny felt her eyes widen with fear. ‘’We’re crashing?!’’

‘’Don’t worry! We have really good pilots, they’ll figure something out,’’ the soldier tried to
assure her. It didn’t work very well. They were thousands of feet in the air, in a broken airplane,
her life’s work in danger of being destroyed and lost forever - Jenny couldn’t really think of a
situation much worse than that.

The soldier struggled closer, his hand closing around the strap of a backpack. ‘’Here, wear this.
It’s a ‘chute.’’

Jenny shrugged it on quickly, tightening the strap across her sternum and quickly buckling the
straps that looped around her thighs. ‘’I’ve never used one of these before.’’

‘’Let’s hope you don’t need it,’’ the soldier said, ‘’but if you do, just pull this string. Wait a couple
of seconds until you’re away from the plane, and you should be fine.’’

Nodding in understanding, Jenny glanced at the string. It was bright red, almost neon in colour.
Not easy to miss. She could do that.

The plane gave another shudder.

Jenny shuffled closer to the sarcophagus. She didn’t want to leave it behind. If this plane crashed,
she was sure the only thing she’d see of her find afterwards were fist-sized chunks and dust - if
she was lucky. With how high up in the air they were, the sarcophagus would probably be
smashed into gravel when it hit the ground.

‘’Jenny!’’ Nick appeared from the small hallway that led to the cockpit, looking panicked. Before
he could get another word out, there were screams from behind him, the sound of glass shattering,
the cawing noises of… crows? The plane lurched hard enough for Jenny to lose her footing.
Through the metal of the plane came another muffled blast.

For a second, Jenny swore time stopped.

The nose of the plane tipped downwards.

Then it dropped like a stone.

Jenny couldn’t quite stop the shriek that escaped her when gravity was suddenly cancelled. She hit
the ceiling of the plane with a thud and a groan of pain as her arm smacked into the metal harshly.
Jenny tried and failed to find something to hold on to, the soldier who’d been standing next to her
not much better off. He’d dropped the second chute, which he had been about to shrug on,
somewhere along the way.

The next few minutes were kind of a blur. Jenny spent most of it being tossed around the plane
like a ragdoll. Nick had somehow managed to make his way over to her and had grabbed one of
her arms, using his free hand to search for something to anchor them to. He was failing miserably,
but Jenny was just glad he was even trying.

Nick was an asshole the vast majority of the time, but from what she’d seen so far, when it was
needed, he could buckle up, shove back his douchebaggery, and get things done.

Jenny hissed as she smacked into the wall next to one of the small windows. She got a glimpse
outside. The wing of the plane on this side was missing. They were still high up, but Jenny could
see how fast they were going, and she was sure it wouldn’t be long before this death trap hit the
ground and smashed them all into fine paste.

She was jerked away from the window again, thrown straight across the corkscrewing plane until
she hit another piece of metal. There was no window, and she was too dizzy and in too much pain
to figure out whether it was the ceiling or the floor. Blood drizzled down from her hairline - she
must’ve hit her head somewhere along the way, but she couldn’t quite remember when.

The sound of metal screeching and tearing, followed by her ears popping and just about
everything that wasn’t nailed down being sucked out of the plane - one of the soldiers included,
Jenny noticed faintly - announced that the plane had torn wide open. A gaping hole in the side,
nearly half the length of the plane, from floor to ceiling.

Jenny screamed when she was sucked towards it by the howling wind, fingers scrabbling. She
reached out to the overhead luggage racks, and missed, and dropped a few feet to the floor. Her
hand hit the floor wrong, and she could feel her fingers bend and snap under her weight - she
yelped in pain, nearly biting through her tongue at the pain. On instinct, she yanked her hand
towards her chest in a protective motion, and lost all purchase she may have had.

She started to slide backwards, towards the gaping hole of open air.

Reaching out with her good hand, Jenny scrabbled for something, anything - and at the last
moment, just when it looked like she was going to miss, it was like her hand moved on it’s own,
something that wasn’t her nudging it just that extra inch to the right, and she finally found
purchase at one of the legs of a bench, nailed to the wall and sturdy enough to hang on to. She did
so with all her might, her muscles struggling under the strain.
Nick thumped into the wall besides her. ‘’You wearing a chute?!’’ He yelled, barely audible over
the roar of the wind.

‘’Yeah!’’ Jenny managed to yell back. She noticed the straps of a similar pack as her own across
Nick’s shoulders - he, too, had found a parachute.

‘’Then I’ll see you on the ground!’’ Nick yelled, and before she could react, he reached over and
yanked at the red string on Jenny’s chute.

‘’You ass!’’ Jenny managed to scream at him as the chute unfolded. She was yanked back, her
breath punched out of her lungs by the sudden pressure on the sternum strap, and she was too
breathless to properly vocalise she sheer terror she felt in that moment. She caught a glimpse of the
ground, thousands of feet below, of the plane, on fire and missing a wing and with a huge hole in
the side and spiralling down at breakneck speed.

Then the chute fully unfolded and caught air, and the sudden jerk punched out what little air she
had left and everything went black.

Her last thought was a mental note to herself to punch Nick once she had both feet on the ground
and her nerves back under control. She was gonna lay that bastard out cold for scaring her like
this.

She woke up to the stale smell of medicine, illness and bleach, which was all Jenny needed to
come to the conclusion she was in a hospital.

Which meant she’d survived.

She opened her eyes, letting out a sigh of relief. For a few moments back there, she’d been
convinced she was going to die in that plane, and she was beyond glad she hadn’t.

Jenny glanced around. She had a clip on her finger that led to a machine that measured her
heartbeat, and there was a cannula in the back of her hand, but she was otherwise free of any
hospital equipment. She didn’t even have any plaster on her hand.

Jenny stared at her right hand in confusion - she’d broken the fingers, she knew she had. She’d
felt them break, had heard them snap under her weight and had nearly cried with the pain. There
was no way she had imagined that. And yet, here she was, with a whole and unbroken hand.

The rest of her felt remarkably not-injured as well. She reached up and touched her hairline, where
she was sure she’d had a cut, and met unmarred skin instead. It was like there’d never been a cut
in the first place. Jenny slowly sat up, noting that it didn’t hurt, which was wrong, because she
was well-aware of the fact that she’d been tossed around like a rag doll. There should’ve been
bruising at the very least, maybe split skin and bone fractures too. But there was nothing at all, not
even a scratch or the greenish-yellow of a nearly-healed bruise.

It made absolutely no sense, and Jenny had a hard time wrapping her head around it.

Something very, very strange was going on here, and she wasn’t sure she liked it.

Deciding to put the matter out of her mind for now, Jenny glanced around and quickly found the
button that would summon a nurse. She pressed it, and then laid back into her pillow to stare at the
ceiling. The room was more silent than she would prefer, the only noise being the soft buzz of the
machine next to her bed and the soft murmurs of other people coming from the hallway.
There was a small knock on the door, which then opened to allow a woman in a nurse’s uniform
in. ‘’Good afternoon, Dr. Halsey.’’

‘’Afternoon,’’ Jenny returned politely, sitting up again.

‘’It’s good to see you awake, you’ve been out for a few hours.’’ The nurse said, moving over to
the side of the bed. ‘’How are you feeling?’’

‘’Pretty good,’’ Jenny said.

‘’Well, that’s expected. You were found passed out, but otherwise unharmed. You might develop
a bit of a headache later on, but apart from that, you’re basically free to go.’’ The nurse smiled at
her.

Jenny hummed, and then remembered Nick had also been in the plane crash. ‘’Hey, do you know
if a guy called Nick Morton was brought in?’’

‘’Yes, he was released maybe half an hour ago. He’s left a message for you at reception.’’

‘’Alright,’’ Jenny watched as the nurse completely removed the cannula from her hand, taping a
small cotton pad over the tiny puncture to catch any residual bleeding, before removing the clip
from Jenny’s finger. She glanced down at the hospital gown she was wearing. ‘’Have you seen
my clothes?’’

‘’They were disposed of, I’m afraid. They were pretty torn, and covered in mud. But,’’ the nurse
added, ‘’some new clothes were delivered on the name of one Henry Jekyll, they’re right over
there.’’

Jenny looked at the chair the nurse was pointing at, and indeed saw a small bundle of fresh
clothes.

‘’I’ll let you dress, and then I’ll bring you the papers you need to sign for your release.’’

Nodding, jenny waited for the nurse to leave the room, and then quickly dressed. She was grateful
her boss had been thoughtful enough to provide her with new clothes, even though it had
probably been thought of and done by one of his assistants. They were simple clothes, just some
jeans, a white blouse and a jacket, but they fit and they came complete with clean underwear,
socks and shoes (Jenny tried not to think of her boss knowing her sizes, but working for
Prodigium didn’t allow for a lot of privacy), so Jenny was happy with them.

Her personal items, like her wallet, keys and phone, were also present, though the screen of her
phone had a spiderweb of cracks running across it. It, unlike her, had not come out unscathed.
Somehow, oddly, it made Jenny feel better.

Once she was dressed, she called the nurse back in, and within a couple of moments her discharge
papers were signed and she could leave. She only stopped briefly at reception on the way out,
where the woman behind the desk handed her a small paper. It was written in Nick’s hand, and
contained the name of a pub, as well as a hotel and room number. The pub looked like a good
place to start. Jenny could definitely use a drink, even if she couldn’t find Nick there.

Half an hour later, Jenny had found a table and was nursing a glass of wine. She had a feeling that
it would not stop at one glass tonight.
Across from her was Nick, who was accompanied by two pints of beer, and eight shots of tequila.
He was a little worse for the wear, compared to Jenny, a large bruise above one eye, a split lip,
and his hand bandaged - not broken, but definitely sprained. He was downing one shot after the
other.

Jenny stared at her unbroken-but-should-be-broken fingers and thought. Things were off. She
knew something was not quite right.

And it’d all started back in Iraq.

The sandstorm, of course, was not that strange, there were plenty of those in that part of the world,
and they could pick up quickly. But those strange visions she’d had when in contact with the
sarcophagus, the crows that had crashed the plane, the fact that she’d been injured and had woken
up without a scratch mere hours later… Jenny was sure something was going on.

And she was sure it had something to do with Ahmanet.

 Chapter 4
Chapter Summary

The rest of the bar scene, as well as most of the church scene.

Chapter Notes

Slightly late with updating, but I've been a little busy the last few days. Either way,
the new chapter's here. Enjoy.

Nick downed the last of his shots, following it up with a long pull of beer. He gave Jenny an
intense, searching look. ‘’So…’’

‘’What?’’ Jenny took a nervous sip of her wine. The urge to just down the whole glass and go for
a second one was strong.

‘’The coffin.’’

‘’Sarcophagus,’’ Jenny corrected automatically, and tried not to think of her life’s work smashed
into bits and spread across the English countryside.

‘’The coffin,’’ Nick emphasized, ‘’mind explaining what the deal is with that? Cause you know
just as well as I do that what happened, with the plane crash and you not being injured, isn’t
natural.’’

Jenny sighed. ‘’Right. The man I work for, Henry Jekyll, he’s interested in antiquities, like me. He
came across a reference to an Egyptian princess. She was deliberately erased from history. So he
hired me, to find that princess. And I think we did. And I think we angered the gods in the
process.’’ She took a deep breath. ‘’I don’t think we were actually supposed to find her. She was
too well-hidden. It took me thirteen years to even find any information. And I only started making
real progress when that crusader tomb was discovered.’’

Nick frowned. ‘’The one on the news?’’

‘’Yeah. We found a map in there, engraved on the wall, that led us to Iraq. And one of the knights
was buried with a gem. We think it belongs to a dagger. According to the records we found,
written by one of the knights, the dagger is cursed with dark magic. It was given to Ahmanet by
Set, the Egyptian god of death and evil. She was meant to use it to bring Set into this world, but
she was captured and mummified alive before she could. The dagger was separated from the
stone, and both pieces were later stolen and hidden by crusader knights.’’

Nick stared. He looked like he believed her, but desperately didn’t want to. ‘’That sandstorm… it
picked up literally a few seconds after you pulled that coffin out of the mercury.’’

‘’Yeah.’’
‘’And aren’t crows a sign of death?’’

‘’They are.’’ Jenny agreed.

Nick thought that over for a moment. ‘’She’s alive, ain’t she?’’

‘’I think so, yes.’’ She emptied her glass of wine and glanced at the bar, lifting her hand to get the
bartender to bring her another. She faltered halfway through the motion.

The corpse of Chris Vail was staring at her.

Then, silently, he gestured her to follow. Jenny glanced at Nick, then back at Vail, and stood up
from her seat. ‘’I’ll be back in a few. Bathroom.’’

‘’Alright.’’ Nick went back to his beer, looking deep in thought. Jenny left him to it, hurrying over
to the ladies’ room and closing the door behind her.

Vail was nowhere to be seen.

She checked a couple of the stalls, and when she turned around, she caught sight of him in the
mirror. Jenny leaned her hands on the sink, staring at the… ghost? Apparition? of Vail. ‘’You’re
dead.’’ She stated, somewhat redundantly.

‘’You’re gonna wish you were in not too long,’’ he responded. He sounded just like he did when
he was alive. It didn’t match his appearance. He looked even worse off than in the plane; still
greyish and half blind and spiderwebbed with black veins, but now it looked like parts of him
were already starting to decompose. Slowly eating away at what was left of Chris Vail, until
nothing of him remained.

Jenny’s mind worked fast. ‘’Her name is Ahmanet, isn’t it?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Vail agreed.

‘’And she’s not as dead as the sarcophagus would have us believe. And I have a feeling the plane
crash didn’t even really slow her down, let alone harm her.’’

‘’You’re right.’’ Vail stared at her intently. ‘’You’re cursed, Jenny. I’m cursed and you’re cursed.
And unless you give her what she wants, it’s only gonna get worse for you.’’

‘’And what, exactly, does she want, Chris?’’ Jenny asked, though deep down she already knew
the answer to that question.

‘’Setepa-i, Jenny. You know what that means.’’

Jenny gave a bitter sort of smile. Setepa-i. She knew exactly what that meant. And she had a
feeling she also knew why. ‘’I freed her.’’

‘’You’re her new chosen.’’ Vail looked at her with pity. He, too, knew what that meant. ‘’She
wants you. And she’s gonna get you.’’

Jenny chewed on her lip, glancing down at the sink and then back up at Vail. ‘’Does she have the
dagger already?’’

‘’Not yet. She’s still regenerating. But it won’t be long, Jenny,’’ Chris warned, ‘’and then she’ll be
after you.’’

‘’Well,’’ Jenny said, and was proud when her voice didn’t tremble or otherwise betray the
‘’Well,’’ Jenny said, and was proud when her voice didn’t tremble or otherwise betray the
nervousness and the first hints of fear starting to stir in her chest, ‘’I’d better start figuring out a
way to stop her, right?’’

Vail shook his head. ‘’There’s no stopping her, Jenny. Your life is hers now. If I were you, I’d
give in to her now, because if you don’t, she’ll make you regret it.’’

Jenny felt a little bubble of defiance well up. She was a strong, independent woman, and she did
not belong to anyone. ‘’I don’t bow, Chris. If she wants me so badly, she can damn well come
and get me, because I won’t be going willingly.’’

Vail looked uncomfortable. ‘’You’re gonna piss her off talking like that.’’

‘’She’s gonna be even more pissed when she gets a mercury bullet to the face,’’ Jenny responded
sharply. Turning sharply, she didn’t spare Chris another look as she stormed out of the bathroom,
pushing through a small group of drunk uni students.

Vail yelled after her. ‘’You can’t run, Jenny! You can’t hide! There’s no escape!’’

Jenny ignored him, but as soon as she left the bathroom, the defiance she’d felt deflated, leaving
her just tired and afraid. She slumped back into her seat across from Nick, who looked as
despondent as she felt. There was a fresh glass of wine on the table, and she took it gratefully,
downing half in one gulp.

She felt conflicted.

On one hand, she knew exactly what Ahmanet had been planning to do before she’d been
sentenced to that prison; Henry had told her of the bargain she’d struck with Set, the purpose of
the dagger and what she’d tried to do to her first chosen. Jenny was her new chosen, and that
meant Ahmanet was going to be after her.

On the other hand, the sarcophagus had seeped a faint sense of comfort whenever Jenny had been
near it. And now that she knew Ahmanet was, in fact, very much alive, she was willing to bet
everything she owned that it had been her who’d moved Jenny’s hand in the plane, and that it had
been her who’d healed Jenny’s injuries. That didn’t seem like the actions of someone who wanted
to stab her to death. Especially because she’d been wearing a chute and likely would have
survived even if she had been sucked out of the plane, so there had really been no reason to help
her. And an injured victim was easier to capture than a whole, healthy one.

So it didn’t make sense. There was no reason for Ahmanet to have helped her find a grip and heal
her, and yet she had.

Jenny couldn’t figure out the motivation behind it, and she didn’t like it.

‘’So,’’ Nick slurred a little, obviously less than sober. ‘’What’re you gonna do now, with some
undead chick running around?’’

Jenny sighed, and finished off her glass of wine. ‘’I’m gonna have another few drinks, and then
I’m going to try and figure out how to fix all of this.’’

‘’Smart girl,’’ Nick said, waving at the bartender for another round.

‘’Fuck you, Nick,’’ Jenny responded, and stole his beer.

And hour and a half later, she and Nick stumbled into the streets of Oxford. It was chilly.

Jenny was a little tipsy, but a plate of hot, greasy fish and chips at the pub and the cold air got rid
of most of her buzz. She was certainly sober enough to be able to think mostly clearly.

Nick had, somehow, managed to regain a semblance of sobriety, even with several shots of tequila
and three pints of beer in him. Jenny didn’t know how he did it, but she was impressed. She was
pretty sure she wouldn’t be as solid on her feet if she’d drank that much. It did say something
about Nick’s drinking habits, though, which made Jenny grateful she’d restricted her relationship
with Nick to a one-night stand and nothing more.

‘’You know what we should do?’’ Nick said, sounding remarkably sober.

Jenny raised an eyebrow. ‘’What?’’

‘’We should go see the crash site.’’

‘’What? No! That’s a terrible idea!’’ Jenny absolutely did not want to go see the crash site. Partly
because she feared Ahmanet was still hanging around there, and also because she didn’t want to
see the sarcophagus, her life’s work, smashed into bits and scattered across the ground.

‘’It’s a great idea,’’ Nick said. ‘’We can check out the coffin. There was writing on it, right?’’

‘’Hieroglyphs, yes,’’ Jenny nodded.

‘’And you can read them.’’

‘’Yes, I can.’’

‘’Then maybe they can tell us how to take down that undead chick.’’ Nick grinned at her
roguishly. ‘’C’mon, smart girl, where’s your sense of adventure?’’

‘’It got knocked out of me in that plane crash,’’ Jenny muttered softly, and then said more loudly;
‘’fine, but the moment we see anyone at all, we get the hell out of dodge.’’

Nick’s grin widened, and Jenny had the feeling she’d just made the worst decision ever. Possibly
even worse than freeing Ahmanet in the first place. Jenny watched as Nick hailed a cab, and
already wished she’d just gone to find a hotel for the night.

Despite all that, she stepped into the cab anyway.

Nick, who had apparently paid attention to the news, gave an address to the driver. ‘’It’s a small
church maybe half a mile from the main crash site,’’ he explained as she leaned into his seat, ‘’I
figured it’d be best if we walk the last bit. The whole place’s still under police custody, so
showing up in a cab might be a bit too conspicuous.’’

Jenny groaned quietly. ‘’Please tell me we’re not going to break the law.’’

‘’Maybe. Only a little, though.’’ Nick looked pleased with that. Jenny wanted to hit him.

The drive was maybe half an hour, and Jenny spent it coming up with all the different reasons this
was a bad idea. There were many. Most of them boiled down to the undead princess who was
after her, and going to the place she had most likely been last sounded like a terrible, terrible idea
that would get Jenny killed sooner rather than later.

She got out of the cab anyway, once they reached their destination.

‘’The crash site is that way,’’ Nick pointed out the direction, but Jenny wasn’t listening. Her eyes
were fixed on the small church. She knew, instinctively and deep in her bones, that what she was
looking for was in there.

There was an intense urge, the deep want to go inside and find Ahmanet. She felt drawn towards
the church. It was like nothing else Jenny had ever felt before, and it immediately had her on edge.

‘’Jenny?’’ Nick was frowning, standing a few feet away.

‘’She’s not at the crash site.’’ Jenny said, blankly.

‘’What?’’ He took a few steps closer. ‘’We were looking for the coffin, right?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny said, but her body was already moving without her permission. She trundled
towards the church, simultaneously wanting to run away and speed up, and heard Nick mutter
something about going to find the sarcophagus behind her. She ignored him. The draw in her
chest, like a rubber band stretched too far and about to snap back, was too sharp and acute to pay
attention to much of anything else at all.

The courtyard was empty, and eerily quiet. Jenny was barely breathing from both fear and
anticipation as she scanned her surroundings carefully. She finished her circle and turned back into
the direction of the doors, still a hundred feet or so away.

They were open.

Jenny would’ve sworn they were closed just a few seconds ago.

Light poured out, illuminating the silhouette of a woman, standing with her hand outstretched,
beckoning.

The want clogging Jenny’s throat was so strong she nearly stumbled forward, her feet trying to
move against her will and her common sense rebelling against it. There was a whisper of warm
desert wind against her face, and despite herself, Jenny closed her eyes to relish the brief warmth
against her skin. It was more soothing than she would ever admit to.

When she opened her eyes, after what felt like barely a second, though it just as easily could have
been a minute, she was inside the church.

And she definitely didn’t remember walking in.

The woman, whom Jenny instinctively knew to be Ahmanet, was nowhere to be seen. She took a
few slow, hesitant steps deeper into the church, until she was standing with the pews on either side
of her. At the front, a few feet from the foremost pews, was an altar, with a reliquary on the left of
it, shaped like an angel.

Jenny was getting a really, really bad feeling.

She took a few steps back again, and then turned to leave as quickly as possible. She stepped into
the hallway - and was promptly tackled. The body wrapped around her twisted so she landed on
top of it when they hit the ground, holding on to her firmly, but without hurting her. Jenny
struggled, and managed to nearly free herself when two more sets of hands grabbed an arm each
and pulled her up. As she was put on her feet, she caught a glimpse from the person who’d
tackled her.

Jenny screamed.

She couldn’t help it; staring back at her was the withered, emaciated face of a rescue worker, very
obviously dead and somehow zombified. His eyes were sunken and blind, lips pulled back from
his teeth, his skin leathery and dry and peeling away. Jenny dared to glance down at her arms.
Brittle, bony fingers curled around her biceps, cracked nails digging into the fabric of her jacket.
Their hold was firm, but not painful.

Instinctively, Jenny tried to struggle free. The zombies were stronger than their brittle appearance
suggested, and when another showed up, it was four against one - odds that were not in Jenny’s
favour. They began to drag her back into the main room of the church, past the pews, and when
they reached the altar, the other two zombies grabbed Jenny’s legs and helped the first two swing
her up.

Jenny tried her best to kick them off her, which didn’t work very well. Fighting was not her
specialty. She was so absorbed in trying to get their hands off her so she could get the hell out of
here that she didn’t notice the fifth body slinking around in the shadows until it straddled her.

Jenny froze the moment she felt thighs settle on either side of her hips, the sudden weight on her
upper thighs and pelvis firmly pinning her to the altar. A cool hand, colder than was regular but
not freezing cold, gripped her chin, moving her head until Jenny had no other choice than to look
Ahmanet in the face.

She was almost whole. A part of her nose and her jaw was still missing, and she looked a bit
dusty, but the rest of her was mostly intact. Tattoos ran down her face, lines of scripture on her
forehead, cheeks and chin, and running down her shoulders and chest into the tattered remains of
the cloth bandages Egyptian mummies were traditionally wrapped in during the mummification
process.

Ahmanet was more beautiful than Jenny had expected, even when not fully regenerated and sickly
pale (presumably from, you know, spending 5000 years in a sarcophagus, and probably also from
striking a deal involving dark magic with Set) and very, very dusty.

Jenny stared at her, wide-eyed and stiff with terror, as Ahmanet seemed to inspect her. She turned
Jenny’s face a couple of times, staring into her eyes and even checking her teeth, fingers worming
their way into Jenny’s mouth (Jenny tried not to gag at the taste of dust and death on her tongue),
before turning her attention a bit lower. She pulled up Jenny’s shirt, dragging her hands over
Jenny’s breasts and stomach, lingering over the waistband of her jeans.

Then, apparently satisfied with what she’d seen, Ahmanet abruptly turned her attention to the
reliquary just past Jenny’s head. The top half of it was smashed into dust a few seconds later, little
bits of grit peppering Jenny’s face and tangling in her hair, and it was all Jenny could do not to cry
in fear when she saw Ahmanet take a dagger out of the hollow inside of the ruined statue. She
knew, deep in her bones, what that dagger was, and she didn’t want it anywhere near her.

Ahmanet reached out with her free hand, fingers brushing soothingly over Jenny’s cheek, and
then over her lower lip. She spoke in Ancient Egyptian, as if she knew Jenny could understand it.
‘’This will hurt, my chosen, for a little while, but you will thank me after.’’

Jenny felt the first tears pool in her eyes and drip down, running over her temples and into her
hair. ‘’I don’t want to die. I don’t want to become Set.’’

‘’And you will not be Set.’’ Ahmanet smiled, seemingly in an attempt to reassure her. It failed
miserably. ‘’Set wants a male body. You are not male. The pact was altered.’’

She tried not to look at the dagger, resting so casually in Ahmanet’s hand. ‘’You’re just going to
kill me then.’’

‘’No. You will be my queen,’’ Ahmanet raised the dagger with both hands, and Jenny started
squirming, trying to get away and not making any progress at all, ‘’you will bring me ultimate
power. And when it is time, you will birth Set into this world and complete the pact.’’

The dagger came down with terrifying speed, hardly giving Jenny the time to panic about the
whole ‘birthing Set’ part - and faltered just before it could break skin.

Jenny could feel the very tip of it, scratching against her stomach, and tried to suck in her belly as
much as possible so it would stop touching her. She chanced a glance at Ahmanet. The princess
was staring at the hilt of the dagger - it was missing the gem. Despite herself, Jenny quailed at the
rage that overtook Ahmanet’s expression, even as she heaved a sigh of utter, complete relief. That
was close. Too close.

‘’Hey, Jenny, are you in he- what the hell?!’’

Jenny snapped her head towards the entrance of the church so fast she nearly gave herself a
whiplash.

Nick stood just inside the room, staring at them in complete shock, his cellphone in his hand with
the flashlight function on.

Ahmanet was staring at him like he was prey. Jenny could feel her thighs tensing around her hips,
was close enough to Ahmanet to sense the instant tension in all her muscles. The princess shifted
ever so slightly on top of her, and Jenny knew immediately what she was planning to do next.

‘’Nick!’’

Nick was still staring dumbly. ‘’Yeah?’’

‘’Run!’’

Nick ran.

He didn’t get far.

 Chapter 5
Chapter Summary

The rest of the church scene, as well as the forest scene.

Chapter Notes

A late update, I know, I've been a little busy lately. (Read: I've spent a ridiculous
amount of time at the cinema.)

Anyway, for this chapter, credit also goes to the wonderful SnowQueen, who also
writes for The Mummy, and who allowed me to use the 'pupula duplex' concept. I
came across it in her fics, Princess Ahmanet and Dear Jenny, and thought it was a
good explanation for Ahmanet's eyes. I asked her if I could use said explanation, and
she graciously allowed it, so credit where credit is due. Go check out her works, by
the way, they're good. I certainly enjoyed reading them.

Ahmanet moved faster than Jenny had ever seen anyone move, jumping off the altar and crossing
the distance towards Nick in barely a second. He was slammed into a pillar, Ahmanet’s hand on
his throat, and Jenny took the princess’ distraction as the chance it was. Nick could handle
himself, she had to concentrate on getting free.

The zombies’ grips on her had loosened at the arrival of Ahmanet, and Jenny took advantage of it,
kicking out violently and managing to shake one of them off.

The zombies, in the end, turned out to be as brittle as they looked. Their grip was strong, but when
Jenny kicked at one of them, her foot went straight through the former rescue worker’s ribcage. It
didn’t put him down, but it did let Jenny know they weren’t as strong as they seemed, nor as
durable as she’d feared.

She wrenched her foot loose, sending the zombie reeling, and managed to free herself from the
other three. She rolled off the altar, hitting the ground with a thump, and crawled away as fast as
she could to reach the candlestick she’d spotted. She’d seen Nick use one of those on Ahmanet
from the corner of her eyes, and though it hadn’t seemed to phase the princess (she’d literally
picked Nick up and smashed him into the pews less than a second later, not hurt at all), Jenny
liked the idea of having something properly hard and heavy to hit the zombies with.

She managed to grab a candleholder just as a hand closed around her ankle and started to drag her
back towards the altar, and Jenny spun onto her back and started beating at the decrepit arm
holding on to her. It crumbled at the first hit, allowing Jenny to scramble to her feet and really start
swinging.

She’d played softball as a teen, she knew how to get some real power behind this candlestick.

The zombies didn’t stand a chance.

The first one, who’d already lost an arm to Jenny, found himself losing his head, and when that
didn’t put him down, his legs as well. With only one arm left to move around with, he was no
longer a threat. Jenny took the opportunity to stomp on him anyway, if only out of spite, and
moved on to the second zombie. This was the one who she’d put her foot through, an action she
repeated with about ten pounds of solid, gold-plated metal.

Jenny was in the process of reducing zombie no. 2 to dust when arms closed around her waist.
She shrieked in a mixture of surprise and dismay, wrestling to get loose and very nearly dropping
her candlestick in the process. The fourth zombie, having slowly scrambled to his feet, hulked
closer and grabbed at her legs, nails digging into Jenny’s jeans.

There was a groan from Nick’s direction, and then a body came hurtling into Jenny’s direction,
smashing into the zombie clamped to her legs. Nick’s fall was cushioned by the dead man, who
crumbled into bits when Nick fell on top of him, groaning as he let his head thump to the floor
softly.

Jenny stared at him, shocked into silence, and then glanced at where Ahmanet was standing. Her
eyes, a bright, burning amber in colour, and with two irises and pupils in each eye, were fixed on
Jenny. Apparently, screaming had been enough to catch Ahmanet’s attention.

Nick let out another groan, slowly rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself to his knees.

In his hand was the Dagger of Set.

He glanced up at Jenny, giving her a roguish grin, and then winked, mouthing something along
the lines of ‘trust me‘. Jenny did not, in fact, trust Nick, but she figured that, at this point, she had
little choice but to go along with whatever hairbrained scheme he’d cooked up.

Best to get free first, though.

She drove her elbow back, feeling it punch into the zombie holding her with a satisfying cracking
noise, and struggled out of the arms holding her, whirling around and beating the dead guy into
chunks with her candlestick. She was seriously contemplating keeping this thing, for
sentimentality’s sake.

Jenny finished bashing down the zombie and turned back to Nick - only to pause halfway through
the motion. Ahmanet was looking at her with considerable interest, quite a few feet closer than
she’d been a few seconds ago. Close enough for Jenny to reach out and touch, if she’d wanted to.

Which she absolutely didn’t.

That odd pulling under her ribs was heartburn, from that plate of fish and chips, not longing.
Obviously.

Nick had dropped onto his hands and knees and was slowly shuffling backwards, behind
Ahmanet. He gestured, with one hand, at Jenny, who took it to mean that she was supposed to
distract Ahmanet. There wasn’t a lot of distracting to do. Ahmanet was still scrutinizing her, those
strange eyes (pupula duplex, it was called, Jenny's mind dredged up) flicking to Jenny’s face,
down to the candlestick, and back up.

Jenny swallowed, suddenly feeling apprehensive, and wondered if she should maybe drop her
weapon. She was sure she didn’t want to know how Ahmanet would react if she thought Jenny
was going to attack her.

Nick slowly got to his feet behind Ahmanet. In his hand was the Dagger of Set. Jenny realized
what he was planning, and felt her eyes widen despite herself.
It was enough to tip Ahmanet off.

Eyes flashing dangerously, she whirled around, hand raised to lash out - just in time for the
Dagger of Set to be plunged into her chest. Ahmanet fell with a cry of shock and pain, eyes wide
with surprise and the first flickerings of a burning hatred for Nick.

‘’Sorry, not sorry,’’ Nick grinned, grabbed Jenny’s hand, and started running. Jenny stumbled
after him, dropping her candlestick. She glanced over her shoulder, watching as Ahmanet slowly
started to pull the dagger from her chest. Those amber eyes met Jenny’s, and the combination of
anger and betrayal in them made Jenny’s lungs ache with unexpected hurt.

Then Nick pulled her around a corner and their eye-contact was broken, and Jenny instead put all
her effort into running away as fast as possible.

An ambulance was parked just outside of the church’s courtyard. It’s bright yellow colour was
easy to spot, and Jenny, who had been running in the other direction, quickly changed course and
sprinted over to the vehicle instead. Wheels were faster than feet, and speed was definitely
necessary right now.

Jenny quickly climbed into the driver’s seat, grateful to see the keys had been left in the contact.
She tried not to think of the fact that the driver had most likely been one of the zombies she’d
bashed into gritty chunks a few minutes earlier.

Nick scrambled into the passenger’s seat just as the engine roared to life, and Jenny didn’t bother
waiting until he was sitting properly, instead stepping on the gas. A glance in the rear view mirror
was enough for Jenny to push the ambulance as fast as it would go - the glimpse she’d gotten of
Ahmanet exiting the church was enough to make her want to leave now.

Nick slumped in his seat, panting, part of his face swelling with bruises. ‘’Do you know where
we’re going?’’

‘’There’s a road in this direction, I’m pretty sure,’’ Jenny responded. She chewed on her lip
nervously. ‘’This was a really bad idea.’’

‘’I’m starting to see that,’’ Nick agreed, a touch shakily.

Jenny jerked at the steering wheel, sending the ambulance bouncing down a less tree-infested
piece of ground. Part of her desperately wanted to go back to the church, and she tried to fight it to
the best of her ability. ‘’We have to get to London.’’

Nick ignored her. ‘’Why’d you go into the church anyway? We were going to the crash site, not
to find Ahmanet,’’ he demanded to know instead.

‘’I was curious,’’ Jenny deflected, not interested in letting Nick know she’d almost felt compelled
to go find Ahmanet.

‘’Bullshit,’’ Nick accused. ‘’You looked like you were concussed, all glassy-eyed and stuff. It was
creepy.’’

Jenny gave another jerk to the steering wheel and didn’t answer. She didn’t want to, nor did she
get the chance - only a few seconds after Nick had finished his sentence, the glass at the
passenger’s side of the car was smashed in. Jenny screamed, involuntarily pulling at the steering
wheel, and Nick cursed violently as he struggled with the zombie that’d jumped through the
window. It’s hands were stretched towards Jenny, the wild swerving of the ambulance not doing
much to deter it or throw it out.

‘’Get it out!’’ Jenny yelled at Nick, swerving hard to avoid a tree.

‘’I’m working on it!’’ Nick was punching at the zombie’s head and torso, denting the skull and
ribs with each blow, trying to shove it back out of the window, with little success. Jenny spotted a
tree coming up ahead, and, hoping to God she wasn’t going to kill both her and Nick, adjusted
course a little. They missed the tree by inches, but it did hit the zombie, literally tearing it in half.
After that, it was easy for Nick to throw it out.

He brushed some glass off his lap and turned back to Jenny. ‘’As I was saying, I don’t think you
entered that church out of curiosity, Jenny. You acted like you were possessed. That isn’t
normal.’’

‘’Nothing about this situation is normal, Nick!’’

‘’Yes, well, you’re acting strange, eve-’’ the windshield shattered inwards. Shards of glass
peppered Jenny’s cheeks as another zombie crawled in from the roof. Decaying hands went
straight for her, grabbing her shoulders and trying to drag her forward. Nick yelled inarticulately,
kicking at the zombie with all his might.

‘’Hey!’’ Jenny struggled to keep the ambulance straight, ‘’stop kicking at my face!’’

‘’Not aiming at you,’’ Nick grunted as he continued to kick at Jenny’s face. He was probably
gunning for the zombie, but he was doing a really piss-poor job of it. Her face was probably going
to bruise as badly as his if he kept missing the zombie. Jenny took one hand of the steering wheel,
pushing Nick’s feet away from her face and towards the zombie.

After a few long, terror-filled moments where Jenny truly struggled not to accidentally wrap the
ambulance around a tree, Nick managed to kick the zombie away from her. One of it’s hands
broke off at the wrist, and Jenny took a few seconds to pry the fingers off her shoulder and toss
the hand out of the shattered windscreen.

Nick made double sure the zombie wasn’t somehow clinging to the car, and then resumed
accusing Jenny. ‘’That woman’s in your head, Jenny,’’ he told her, somewhat harshly, keeping an
eye on the trees around them.

‘’She’s not in my head,’’ Jenny denied. ‘’I’m perfectly fine.’’

‘’No, you’re not!’’

Jenny gritted her teeth in annoyance, taking her eyes off the road (not that it could really be called
a road, it was more of a bit of forest with less trees than the rest of it) so she could properly glare at
Nick. ‘’I’m telling you, Nick, I’m fine!’’

‘’Right,’’ he scoffed, blatantly unbelieving.

Jenny scowled at him some more, too distracted by her annoyance to really pay attention to where
she was driving the ambulance beyond making sure they didn’t crash and die in a fiery explosion.
Probably a better way to go than with the Dagger of Set sticking out of her chest, though.

Nick stared back at her stubbornly, and after a few minutes, Jenny rolled her eyes and turned her
full attention back to driving - just in time to step on the brakes.
Less than twenty feet away was Ahmanet. Behind her, the church.

For a few seconds, Jenny was too stunned to react, just staring, slack-jawed. Ahmanet was
smirking at her, and was a more charming (and attractive) look on her than Jenny would honestly
admit to. Especially now, because this was definitely not the time to be distracted by a pretty (if
undead and not entirely regenerated) girl.

‘’You drove us right back to her!’’ Nick looked ready to hit someone.

‘’She’s in my head,’’ Jenny threw his own words back at him as an excuse, putting the ambulance
in reverse and stepping back on the gas. The tyres screeched as they shot back, and Jenny didn’t
let up until the back of the vehicle crashed into a low stone wall. Jenny hastily put the vehicle back
in drive, and wasted no time getting her and Nick the hell away as fast as the ambulance would
go.

‘’You,’’ Nick said after a few minutes, ‘’are an idiot.’’

‘’Excuse me?!’’ Jenny said indignantly. ‘’This was your idea!’’

‘’I wanted to see the crash site! You’re the one who had to go into that church!’’

‘’I couldn’t help it!’’

‘’Bullshit!’’

‘’Fuck you, Nick! You don’t know anything.’’

‘’I was there when you dug that chick up!’’

Jenny breathed in sharply through her nose. ‘’Nick, between us, who’s the one that dedicated their
life to Ahmanet and works for a society dealing in paranormal antiquities?’’

Nick didn’t answer, but he really didn’t have to. He just glared at her instead.

‘’Exactly, so don’t try to pretend you know what’s going on, because you don’t,’’ Jenny told him
harshly, ‘’I, on the other hand, do. So shut up and let me drive!’’

Nick shut up. Jenny was grateful he did. He was really getting on her nerves. She already knew
it’d been a mistake to enter that church, she didn’t need Nick effing Morton to yell at her for it.
And as long as he was quiet, she didn’t care if he was sulking.

Another few minutes passed in silence. Jenny was still glaring out of the shattered windscreen
when she began to feel an odd pull on the steering wheel. It started out small, but after a few
seconds, the pull was steadily starting to gain in strength, and before long Jenny had to really work
to keep the vehicle straight.

‘’What’s going on?’’

Jenny really, really wanted to hit Nick. Or maybe throw him out of the vehicle. Whichever
worked better at shutting him up. Instead, she grunted with effort, now literally leaning over the
steering wheel and using her whole body and all of her weight to keep it from turning and
derailing the ambulance, and managed to grunt to Nick, ‘’something’s wrong.’’

Nick grabbed the part of the steering wheel closest to him, feeling the tension in it and starting to
help Jenny pull at it in the other direction. ‘’This isn’t normal. Even in vehicles with a broken
system, it’s not this bad.’’
‘’It’s her. I can feel it,’’ Jenny could feel it, a restless sort of energy, making the air buzz around
her and her heart race (un)pleasantly in her chest. It was almost hot against her, enough to have
Jenny breaking out in a light sweat. She wasn’t sure whether she was frightened or just tense with
anticipation. Either way, she didn’t like it.

Despite Jenny and Nick’s combined best efforts, the steering wheel slowly started to turn. Jenny
anxiously glanced out of the driver’s seat window, and blanched at the sight of a downward slope
less than twenty feet from the ambulance. It was not much of a mental exercise to figure out that
that was what Ahmanet was aiming for. Jenny redoubled her efforts to keep the ambulance
driving in a straight line.

A few way too long, very anxious moments later, the pressure on the steering wheel began to
lessen. Within twenty seconds, Jenny and Nick no longer needed to yank at it to keep the
ambulance from derailing.

‘’I think it’s over,’’ Nick said, letting go of his part of the wheel and slumping back into his seat.

‘’I dunno, Nick,’’ Jenny was still holding on tightly. She didn’t trust the sudden slack - Ahmanet
didn’t seem like the type to give up that easily. Especially when the ambulance was still on course
and racing along the dirt road at breakneck speed, getting farther and farther away from Ahmanet
with every second.

She was right.

It took nearly half a minute, at which time Jenny had cautiously started to relax a tiny bit, when
suddenly the wheel jerked so hard her hands bounced off the pleather grip and the ambulance
jerked sharply to the right.

Jenny smacked against the door, not wearing her seatbelt, cursing when her head hit the glass
sharply - not hard enough to break the glass, but definitely hard enough to blur her vision for a
split-second. It was enough to temporarily knock her limp, which was probably what saved her
from further injury.

The right front wheel of the ambulance hit the slope, and within seconds, the ambulance was
rolling down the hill. Jenny found herself tossed around for a bit, painfully, and was unpleasantly
reminded of the plane crash. The driver’s seat door hit the ground, was lifted back off as the
vehicle made another bouncing roll, and sprang open.

Jenny could feel it, even clearer and stronger than in the plane, some strange force moving her
body without her consent, lifting her through the door opening and letting her drop to the mulch of
the forest floor. Jenny shrieked, bouncing a couple of times and then just rolling, until she came to
a slow, sliding stop several dozen feet lower, at the foot of the hill.

She groaned, expecting a whole lot of pain, yet not as surprised as she should be when the pain
didn’t come.

Jenny didn’t move for a few long, slow seconds, cheek pressed into the mulch and breathing in
the earthy smell. The ambulance was only a few feet away, and she could hear Nick moaning
inside, apparently in some pain.

Slowly getting to her feet, Jenny took a few moments to look down at herself. Her clothes were
covered in dirt and mulch, and there was a tear in the sleeve of her jacket, but there wasn’t a
scratch on her. She was willing to bet everything Ahmanet had healed her, again.

It was also obvious she hadn’t done Nick the same courtesy, if his grunts were anything to go by.
Jenny, quite honestly, and though she would never admit it, didn’t blame her.

Nevertheless, Jenny went to check on him. He was her only ally for now, at least until she got to
London. When she got to London, she could dump him in a bar, wait for him to get wasted, and
then leave, but until then - Jenny wasn’t the best fighter, and Nick knew how to throw a decent
punch. Best to keep him around for now.

‘’You okay?’’ Jenny crouched at the shattered windshield, ducking down to look into the cab of
the ambulance. It had landed on it’s roof, and Nick was slumped on what had been the ceiling,
blood leaking from his mouth. It didn’t look serious, though, maybe some loose teeth of a cut on
the inside on his cheek. Certainly nothing life threatening.

‘’I’m fine,’’ Nick wheezed, ‘’just got the wind knocked out of me.’’

‘’Alright.’’ Jenny took his word for it, sitting back on her heels. She fished her cell phone from her
pocket, but she didn’t have any signal. Exhaling in frustration, she looked around, hoping for
some kind of landmark to ascertain their location.

Jenny felt her before she saw her.

She stood up abruptly, automatically turning into the direction she just knew Ahmanet was
coming from. Jenny didn’t know how Ahmanet had managed to keep pace with a racing car
enough to find them this quickly, and she didn’t want to know either.

It was foggy, which was odd because the air had been clear a few moments earlier, and after a few
seconds, Jenny could just make out a shadowy figure, approaching steadily.

‘’Nick!’’ Her voice was urgent enough for Nick to pull himself together. He scrambled out of the
totaled ambulance and came to stand next to Jenny.

‘’What?’’

‘’She’s here.’’

Nick squinted, scanning their surroundings. ‘’No, she’s not.’’

‘’Yes, she is. Over there.’’ Jenny pointed straight ahead, at a small path clear of trees and shrubs.
Nick squinted a little more, and then spotted her. His whole frame stiffened, a hard, angry look
overtaking his face.

‘’You know, I’m getting really sick of that woman. Stay here.’’

Jenny frowned. ‘’What are you going to do?’’

Nick didn’t answer. He glanced around for a second, and then took a few steps to pick up a large,
thick branch, about the size of a baseball bat. Jenny, instantly knowing what he was planning to
do, wondered if she should try to stop him. She glanced past him as he stalked in the direction of
Ahmanet, and a set of pupula duplex eyes met her own.

Jenny abruptly shut her mouth, jaw locking without her consent, and when she tried, she found
she couldn’t open her mouth, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth.

Nick had reached Ahmanet, and Jenny watched mutely as he hefted the tree branch and tried to hit
Ahmanet with it. The princess flicked the branch aside without even trying, breaking it upon
contact, the pieces smashed aside. Then, in the same, fluid movement, she gave Nick an uppercut.
It looked effortless, like she wasn’t even trying or putting any strength into it, but it sent Nick off
his feet and flying for a good twenty feet.

He smashed into the ground only a few feet away from Jenny, and didn’t move.

Jenny’s jaw dislodged, but she was too busy scrambling back to notice.

Ahmanet seemed amused at her pathetic attempts to get away from her, that devilish smirk back
on her lips and a definite gleam of humor in those strange amber eyes. She glanced down at Nick
as she arrived at his still body, and, apparently on a whim, crouched down and grabbed him by the
throat. She lifted him up effortlessly, a strange combination of anger and revulsion on her face,
and it looked a lot like she was about to kiss him.

Jenny felt a momentary flare of utterly erratic, illogical jealousy, before she realized that Ahmanet
was intending to suck the life out of Nick, not kiss him.

She moved to protest - she disliked Nick, that didn’t mean she wanted him dead - and then
Ahmanet glanced up at her and her jaw locked tight again without warning.

Ahmanet’s lips were maybe an inch away from Nick’s when her eyes suddenly went wide, and
instead of sucking the life out of Nick, she let out a choked cry of pain and pitched forward.

Sticking from her back, just under her shoulder blade, was the shaft of a small harpoon, attached
to a strong wire.

It was quickly joined by a second harpoon.

Ahmanet wasn’t the only one screaming this time - Jenny was too, searing pain blooming under
her left shoulder blade and on the right side of her spine.
 Chapter 6
Chapter Summary

Jenny wakes up at Prodigium, and finds out that Nick has been lying while she was
unconscious. She gets the chance to have an actual conversation with Ahmanet, and
in the process, she gets to ask some very urgent questions. She might not like the
answers she gets, though.

Chapter Notes

Welp, chapter six is up!

This one has a large amount of interaction between Ahmanet and Jenny, as I thought
I should add a little depth to their relationship. It's mostly dialogue, as Ahmanet is a
little tied up at the moment, but it does give Jenny a little more insight into the woman
who's life is now linked to hers. And for once, their interaction doesn't consist of
Jenny running away while Ahmanet tries to hunt her down to murder her. Progress!

Anyways, enjoy!

Jenny woke up in what she recognized as the infirmary at Prodigium.

She’d been in here before, once or twice, though not usually because she’d collapsed after being
overwhelmed by the feedback of pain hitting her through her link to Ahmanet.

Jenny hadn’t even known her link to Ahmanet meant she’d feel the princess’ pain like it was her
own. She wondered if it worked both ways. It was not something she was itching to go try out,
though, so Jenny supposed it was something she wouldn’t find out anytime soon (she hoped).

Slowly, she sat up. There was a faint twinge over her liver, where the third harpoon had hit
Ahmanet and had gone right through her, just a second before Jenny had blacked out from the
pain, but otherwise, she felt fine. Must be Ahmanet’s healing magic at work, again.

Jenny really should thank her for that - it would be the polite thing to do, even if Jenny just really
wanted to forget about this whole mess.

The infirmary was empty apart from her, which Jenny was fine with. Some privacy was nice,
because whoever had treated her had left her in simply her underwear, and she only had the
covers of the hospital-issue bed to cover her.

She’d apparently been out long enough for her clothes to be washed, because a very familiar pair
of jeans and blouse were neatly folded at the foot end of her bed, clean and ready to be worn
again. Her jacket was missing, though, probably because the sleeve had been torn, but there was a
new one folded under the jeans, identical to her torn jacket.

Sliding out of bed, Jenny took a moment to stretch, and the spot over her liver gave another tiny
twinge. It faded quickly, though, so she ignored it and got to dressing herself. The clothes were
still a little warm from the dryer, telling Jenny they’d been placed on the foot of her bed only a
little while ago. It was nice to have a toasty warm pair of jeans, though, because for some reason,
the air at Prodigium was always a little on the chilly side.

Jenny spent quite a lot of time at Prodigium, and Henry had always refused to turn up the heating -
something about the slight chill helping people stay awake and alert. Jenny just wished she
wouldn’t have to wear a jacket or sweater every time she came into work.

She laced up her shoes, and, upon finding a hair tie in the pocket of her jacket, quickly did up her
hair in a simple ponytail so it was out of her face and wouldn’t start annoying her later on.

Jenny took a moment to straighten out the covers of the hospital bed and then made her way out of
the infirmary, in search of Henry. He was probably in his office, so that was where she headed
first.

Prodigium was quite a large complex, located underneath the Natural History Museum.

Jenny knew that it was this big due to funds provided by both independent investors, as well as
some parts of the government that were aware of the existence of the paranormal. Under Henry’s
leadership, Prodigium was a benign though conspiratory organization meant to protect humanity
from supernatural threats normal people could not (and should not) fight.

Much as Jenny didn’t like to admit it, Ahmanet was at the top of the list of supernatural threats,
and with her link to the princess, Jenny probably was as well.

That thought in mind, Jenny was a little confused why she was left to walk around uninhibited. If
she was counted as a threat, like she feared, protocol was to lock her up until she was either freed
from the evil influencing her, or until it was confirmed she could not be freed and was eliminated
as a result. She’d seen it happen before, when she’d been at Prodigium to research Ahmanet and
the whispers of myth surrounding her.

She knew that no one who worked from Prodigium would shy away from doing what was
necessary.

Which brought her back to the question of why she was allowed to walk around freely. Like so
many things in her life lately, this just didn’t make sense.

Jenny made the conscious decision to put it out of her mind for now - she could ask someone later
on, if she decided really wanted to know - and continued in search of her boss.

He was, as she expected, to be found in his office. Along with Nick, much to Jenny’s dismay,
who appeared to be perfectly fine even after being smacked around by Ahmanet. His face was still
slightly swollen and bruised, and he moved a bit gingerly, but he didn’t seem that much worse for
the wear.

Jenny knocked on the doorframe as she entered, causing both Henry and Nick to look up. They’d
been having a drink, apparently, if the glasses of scotch were anything to go by. Knowing
Henry’s taste in alcohol, it was probably ridiculously expensive and sharp enough to give you
heartburn after a single sip.

‘’Jennifer,’’ Henry put down his glass and stood up, looking pleased, ‘’it’s good to see you up and
about. How do you feel? You were unconscious for quite a while.’’
‘’Fine,’’ Jenny replied, taking a few cautious steps deeper into the office. ‘’What’s going on
here?’’

‘’Mr. Norton, here, was just telling me everything that happened since the tomb was opened,’’
Henry gestured to Nick, who was looking vaguely guilty.

Jenny’s feeling of unease increased, ‘’Is that so?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Nick said, ‘’I figured Mr. Jekyll should probably know what’s been going on, y’know.’’

‘’Right,’’ Jenny agreed slowly. Something was going on here. She couldn’t quite put her finger on
what it was, though, and she did not like it. At all. She should know what was going on, she
decided, because she was the one in the middle of it all, and leaving one of the subjects of
whatever was going on out of the loop sounded like bad management to her.

‘’It’s been quite the interesting tale,’’ Henry said as he pulled up a third chair for Jenny to sit in.
She did so, glancing at Nick and then back at Henry when he handed her a drink. It wasn’t the
scotch Henry preferred, which always gave Jenny a stomach ache, but a mellower glass of wine.
One of the few bottles he kept on hand just for her, because Jenny was one of the few employees
Henry actually sat down and had drinks with on occasion.

Jenny sipped it, brightening a little when it proved to be good wine. ‘’What did I miss so far?’’

‘’I was just telling Mr. Jekyll what it’s like to be Ahmanet’s chosen,’’ Nick said, and Jenny nearly
choked on her wine.

‘’It seems to have quite an impact on Mr. Norton,’’ Henry agreed as he poured Nick some more
scotch and topped up his own glass immediately after.

Jenny stared at Nick incredulously, wondering what the hell he was thinking. What the hell was
wrong with him?! He wasn’t Ahmanet’s chosen, he was just some random guy who happened to
be there when Jenny had made the simultaneously best and worst decision of her life. Why the
fuck was Nick going around telling people he was the princess’ chosen when he damn well knew
that he wasn’t?

Jenny, too taken off-guard, and, quite frankly, confused, wondered if she should be angry about
this. On one hand, she did not like the fact that Nick was basically making a second attempt at
stealing her life’s work. On the other hand, it did explain why she wasn’t chained up in a cell
somewhere, and she should probably be glad Nick was taking the fall for her.

‘’Right,’’ Jenny slowly agreed with Henry, after a few long seconds. ‘’From what I saw, she has
quite a lot of influence on Nick,’’ she told Henry a little vindictively. This was the perfect way to
get back at Nick. ‘’I think she’s in his head.’’

Nick gave her an absolutely poisonous look, and Jenny hid her sharp little smile behind her glass
of wine. That served him right for the shit he’d given her in the ambulance.

Henry frowned, and Jenny gave him her most angelic smile.

‘’Mr. Morton did mention something about an unnatural need to find Ahmanet.’’ Henry mused as
he sipped his scotch. He looked very thoughtful, and then shook his head. ‘’Nevertheless,
Ahmanet is restrained and no longer dangerous, so I suppose it’s no harm if Mr. Morton wishes to
see her, as long as he stays at a safe distance.’’ The last was added with a very stern look in Nick’s
direction.
Nick quailed a little - Henry could be really intimidating when he wanted to be.

‘’Can I see her?’’ Jenny asked, trying to ignore the little surge of want when Henry said it was
possible to see Ahmanet. ‘’I want to ask her some questions.’’

‘’Do you mind asking her some on our behalf also?’’ Henry looked interested. ‘’Our only other
employee who spoke Ancient Egyptian was in a car accident last week, he’s still in a coma, so we
can only communicate with Ahmanet through you.’’

‘’Sure,’’ Jenny agreed easily. She had no problems with that. It was actually quite a boon for her,
to know that she was the only one who spoke Ancient Egyptian around here. It meant she could
talk to Ahmanet without people being able to understand what they were saying, and that, in turn,
meant Jenny would be just a little safer.

Nick looked uncomfortable. ‘’Are you sure that’s a good idea?’’

‘’Don’t worry, Mr. Morton, Ahmanet can’t harm anyone right now. And besides, she’ll be more
interested in you than in Jennifer, since you’re her new chosen.’’

‘’Alright,’’ Nick said, his expression enough to tell he already dearly regretted his lie.

Jenny, on the other hand, felt almost giddy. She was getting the chance to study her life’s work
and ask questions, in a secure setting, without people trying to lock her up for being Ahmanet’s
chosen - it was as close to perfect as this scenario could get. She’d be able to ask Ahmanet about
the changes that had apparently been made to the pact she’d made with Set, and, more
importantly, what the hell she had meant when she’d said Jenny would ‘birth Set into this world’.
Jenny just hoped to God that Ahmanet hadn’t meant that literally.

‘’Can I go see her now?’’ Jenny asked, putting her half-finished wine aside, ‘’best to get this over
with, before I lose my nerve,’’ she added, and she didn’t even have to act nervous, because she
kind of was, and it showed.

‘’Of course, let me bring you to her,’’ Henry threw back the last of his scotch and stood up from
his chair, ‘’will you be joining us, Mr. Morton?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Nick hastily drained his glass, almost scrambling to get up, ‘’I think I will.’’

‘’Excellent,’’ Henry looked cheerful as he led them out of his office. ‘’The containment area is this
way,’’ he added, probably for Nick’s benefit.

Jenny was familiar with the various containment areas spread around Prodigium. She also knew
that most of them, if not all, could be considered inhumane by most modern standards. It didn’t
make her feel very confident on what conditions Ahmanet was kept in. They were probably
something along the lines that would have the UN or NATO yelling about human rights
violations.

She was right.

The containment area was a large circular room. Part of it was occupied by Prodigium technicians,
most of them occupied with their computers, some observing the figure crouched in the middle of
the room with fancy tablets in their hands. Near the technicians, and surrounding the center of the
room, stood half a dozen containment officers, all carrying assault rifles. Jenny was willing to bet
they were loaded with mercury-laced ammunition.
Ahmanet was held over a large steel grate in the floor, forced to kneel with her arms shackled
behind her back in a way that did not look comfortable at all, a thick collar around her neck.
Tubes came from the collar, see-through plastic, about half an inch wide, attached to large
machines across the room. Also attached to the collar was a chain, which ran back to the cuffs at
Ahmanet’s wrists, and then up to a large ring bolted to the steel walkway twenty feet higher,
hardly allowing Ahmanet any movement or chance at comfort.

The princess was glaring at whoever was closest when Jenny followed Henry and Nick into the
containment room, but the moment Jenny had passed the threshold, Ahmanet’s eyes focused on
her instead, glare immediately fading. She shifted slightly in her chains, immediately causing the
containment officers to stiffen and slightly raise their rifles, and Jenny knew the horror she felt was
clear on her face.

Jesus fuck, she’d known the circumstances would’ve been less than ideal, but this was beyond the
pale. Wild animals were treated more humanely than this.

‘’Henry, is this really necessary?’’

Nick gave her the most utterly incredulous look ever, as if he couldn’t believe she was even
asking that question.

Jenny scowled at him. She agreed that Ahmanet needed to be contained and, if possible, freed
from her pact with Set, but that didn’t mean she had to suffer and basically be tortured in the
process of it.

Henry, however, nodded solemnly. ‘’I’m afraid it is, Jennifer. Ahmanet is very dangerous, we
can’t afford to take any risks.’’

‘’I know, but…’’ Jenny gestured helplessly at the room as she struggled for words. ‘’It’s so… It’s
just… Isn’t there any way to make this more humane?’’

‘’There isn’t,’’ Henry said firmly, ‘’I’m sorry Jenny, but this is the only way we can restrain her
and ensure no one gets hurt.’’ He softened a little, suddenly looking more like the man Jenny was
used to dealing with. ‘’I understand if you want to leave instead of staying here. We can find a
translator somewhere else if necessary.’’

Jenny shook her head, taking a moment to settle her emotions and a few deep breaths to dispel the
nausea. It was probably Ahmanet influencing her, she told herself, she normally never would’ve
reacted this strongly. She gave another, more determined shake of her head. ‘’No, no, that’s fine.
I’ll be fine.’’ She bounced on her toes a couple of times. ‘’How close am I allowed to get?’’

Henry considered it for a second. ‘’Best if you stay off the metal grates.’’

‘’Alright,’’ Jenny padded around Henry and Nick, the latter looking like he dearly wanted to drag
her out of the room, and stopped a few inches from where the concrete floor gave way to metal
grates. She sat down on the spot, folding her legs under her in a lotus position, and took a moment
to smooth the folds out of her pants.

Screwing up her courage, Jenny met Ahmanet’s eyes.

Ahmanet was looking at her with curiosity, though tempered by inhuman patience. She didn’t
look especially uncomfortable, pupula duplex eyes trained on Jenny and showing no signs of pain,
but Jenny figured Ahmanet wouldn’t be comfortable showing discomfort in a room full of people
who kept her prisoner. She sure as hell wouldn’t, if she were in Ahmanet’s position.
Ahmanet was the first to speak, which Jenny was glad for, because she honestly had no idea what
to say. Again, she spoke in Ancient Egyptian.

‘’My chosen. You are unharmed?’’

Jenny, a little startled by the concern displayed by the princess, managed to nod. ‘’I’m fine. I think
I just passed out from the stress or something like that.’’ She glanced down Ahmanet’s torso, and
didn’t see any wounds. ‘’And you? I remember you were shot.’’

‘’Mere flesh wounds. I have already healed from them.’’ She responded dismissively.

Jenny frowned, cocking her head. ‘’Then how come they captured you?’’

‘’I was… taken off-guard by the recent advancements in weaponry,’’ Ahmanet admitted
grudgingly, ‘’I shall not make the same mistake again.’’

That was obvious, because Jenny was pretty sure Ahmanet wasn’t getting out of this one. She
wouldn’t have a chance to make that mistake a second time.

Henry cleared his throat, coming to stand next to Jenny. ‘’Ask her what she’s planning to do to
Mr. Morton.’’

Jenny glanced at him, and relayed the question.

In response, Ahmanet cocked her head, frowning a little. ‘’Why is he asking after the male?’’

Jenny shrugged. ‘’Nick told them he’s your chosen.’’

Ahmanet hissed angrily. ‘’That peasant has dishonoured you!’’

‘’How so? I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean any harm by it.’’

‘’You are my chosen. That makes you royalty. My Queen-Consort. You are above a peasant like
him. He has attempted to usurp your position with his claims.’’ She looked livid at the thought. ‘’I
will kill him for this, my chosen, to restore your honour. I swear it.’’

Jenny blanched. Henry looked desperate to know what they were saying. Jenny glanced up at him
again - sitting down as she was, she had to crane her neck to do so. Jenny thought for a moment,
and then, before she knew what she was doing, lied through her teeth. She tried to ignore the little
burst of surprised satisfaction she knew didn’t come from herself, ‘’she needs Nick alive for now.
I don’t know why.’’

‘’Ask her why, then,’’ Henry pushed eagerly.

Jenny turned back to Ahmanet.

‘’You may tell him that the Dagger of Set will only work for me,’’ Ahmanet said before Jenny
could translate the question, looking pleased, ‘’and that it will not work in his favour should he try
to complete the pact in my stead.’’

‘’You understand English?’’ Jenny asked, surprised.

‘’Your language is simple,’’ Ahmanet smirked, her words heavily accented but definitely in
English.

Henry looked delighted as he crouched down. ‘’You can speak our language? Tell me everything
about your pact with Set.’’
about your pact with Set.’’

Ahmanet very pointedly ignored him. She didn’t take her attention off Jenny, amber eyes
gleaming with a glint of devilish amusement. ‘’This man is very demanding. I will kill him once I
escape these bonds.’’ She slipped back into her mother tongue, still ignoring Henry.

Henry was rapidly glancing between Ahmanet and Jenny. ‘’Why’s she back to speaking
Egyptian? Jennifer?’’

Jenny shrugged helplessly. ‘’I don’t know.’’

Henry glared at the princess. ‘’Speak English!’’

Ahmanet barely spared him a glance. ‘’I will speak to you only, my chosen. You alone are worth
my time.’’

‘’She says…’’ Jenny said slowly, not looking away from the princess, ‘’that she will only talk to
me.’’

‘’Damn it!’’ Henry growled in frustration, abruptly standing and pacing a couple of steps. ‘’Ask
her how the ritual works. How do we bring Set into this world, and how do we kill him?’’

Jenny barely withheld a sigh at the expression on Ahmanet’s face - it was obvious, even without
words, that the princess would not be revealing that information. Jenny honestly did not blame
her. Henry wasn’t making the best impression, after all.

‘’The Dagger of Set will only work for me,’’ Ahmanet repeated, looking smug. ‘’There is nothing
this man can do to change that. The ritual will forever be beyond his reach.’’

Stifling another sigh - this was going to end in trouble, Jenny just knew it - she relayed the
message to Henry, who looked less than pleased. He glared at Ahmanet, opening his mouth to say
something, and then just let out a frustrated grunt and stalked over to Nick to continue
interrogating him instead. It suited Jenny well enough - now she could, at least, ask some
questions of her own without people wanting to know what she was saying.

‘’...At the church,’’ she started hesitantly, ‘’you said that the pact with Set had been altered. What
does that mean?’’

Ahmanet stopped glaring at Nick and Henry to give Jenny her full attention. ‘’When you freed me
from my prison, Set was watching. He does not desire a female body to walk this Earth in, he
wishes a male body to mirror his divine form.’’ She explained it patiently, much to Jenny’s
surprise, seemingly not minding the question. ‘’Therefore, he altered the pact I made with him.
When I complete the ritual, Set will not inhabit your body. Instead, you will be granted power
beyond imagination, and through you, my power shall also increase greatly. You will become a
living god, but not Set’s mortal avatar.’’

Jenny was glad to hear it. She didn’t want to be Set’s ‘mortal avatar’ anyway. The thought of
being shunted out of her body and have it possessed by a god wasn’t a nice one. She rather liked
her body, and she didn’t want to share.

That left her with another question, though. ‘’You also said that I would birth Set into this world
when the time is right,’’ Jenny frowned at the thought. ‘’Did you mean that literally?’’

‘’Once the ritual is completed, we will return to Egypt,’’ Ahmanet responded, ‘’there, we will
start our work to prepare this world for Set. When we have done this, Set will temporarily infuse
his essence into my body. Then I will bed you, and thus impregnate you with the essence of Set.
You will be the mother of a god brought to Earth,’’ the princess finished, anticipation colouring
her voice. It was obvious the thought was a nice one for her.

For Jenny, not so much. If she hadn’t already been sitting, she might’ve fallen down. As it was,
she felt a little queasy. ‘’I don’t want children,’’ she managed to choke out. ‘’I’ve never wanted to
be a mother.’’

Ahmanet looked at her, her four amber irises gleaming under the harsh lighting of the containment
room, and Jenny had the sudden, striking feeling that the princess completely understood that
sentiment.

It, deep down, did not really surprise Jenny.

Ahmanet had grown up five-thousand years ago - though Jenny knew she had been trained to be
pharaoh from childhood, she was still a woman. And in those times, women were expected to
marry and have children as soon as possible. Especially those of high status, to provide heirs. In
Ahmanet’s case, she would have been expected to provide an heir to the throne, and after the birth
of her baby brother, an heir for whichever noble she’d have ended up married to while her brother
took the throne that was supposed to be hers.

She knew exactly what it was like to be confronted with a future she didn’t want.

That didn’t stop her from speaking the words Jenny didn’t want to hear.

‘’You are my chosen. You must.’’

Jenny didn’t respond. She stood up, dusted off her pants, and left the containment room, pausing
only to inform Henry and Nick she would be in the library.

The princess made no attempt to stop her or call out to her, but she felt the burn of Ahmanet’s
gaze between her shoulder blades even after the door closed behind her.
 Chapter 7
Chapter Summary

Ahmanet breaks free from Prodigium - which brings Jenny back to running for her
life. She has a plan, though...

Chapter Notes

Chapter seven done, ahead of schedule. I'd planned on posting it sometime next
week, but I happened to be inspired, so I managed to finish it early - which means
ya'll (and by 'ya'll' I mean the people who actually read my stuff, even though there's
probably not a lot of you) get an update before I'm off to Paris, and don't have to wait
until after I'm back.

The library at Prodigium was probably Jenny’s favourite library in the whole world. Not because
it was particularly big, because it had nothing on some of the larger public libraries, but rather
because of the books that could be found in it.

More specifically, the texts that could be found in the Egyptology section. The texts were either
spectacularly informative, or spectacularly rare, or spectacularly old, or written in actual ancient
hieroglyphs, or, as was the case in the ones Jenny liked best, all of the above.

It was in these books that Jenny took refuge after her little talk with Ahmanet.

The idea of giving birth to the mortal form of Set - and she’d probably end up being forced to raise
him, too, because Jenny honestly doubted he’d just be born and then fully grown five minutes
later - was enough to send revolted shivers down her spine.

She needed some serious distraction from that.

Which brought her to seek out one of the oldest tomes present in the Egyptology section. It was
positively ancient, almost as old as Ahmanet was, and very well-preserved, though it had to be
handled very carefully and with gloves on so the oils in her skin didn’t taint the pages and didn’t
do the book irreparable damage. She would even have to wear a surgical mask to stop the
moisture in her breath from hitting the book.

There was a special room in the library where books as old as this one were supposed to be read,
where the air was kept cool and dry and nearly sterile - again, so the book wasn’t damaged
beyond repair.

Jenny had chosen this book for a reason; it was written in hieroglyphs, New Kingdom like on
Ahmanet’s sarcophagus. She could read them quite well, but not nearly as easily as English, so it
would take a decent amount of concentration. Enough, at least, to make sure she couldn’t think
about anything else. Like getting ritually stabbed in the chest and turned into a god by Ahmanet
and then being forced to birth another god. And ending up as Ahmanet’s Queen-Consort (did that
make Ahmanet the King, or would she be the Pharaoh?) in the process.

Yeah.

Not the future Jenny had imagined for herself, that was for sure.

She sighed, grimacing at the rush of moist warmth it caused inside her mask (she hated those
things for this exact reason), and tried to concentrate on the yellowed papyrus pages in front of
her. The ink used to draw the hieroglyphs was faded in some places and nearly unreadable in
others, which made the text a lot harder to read, but unlike it usually did, it did not irritate Jenny.
The more effort she had to put into reading it, the better.

Brow furrowed in concentration, Jenny eventually managed to lose herself in the book, something
she was more than grateful for.

A while later, it was a sharp knock on the glass of the separate room jolted Jenny from her
reading, causing her to frown as she looked up from her book.

Nick was on the other side of the glass, gesturing at her urgently. It seemed to be important.

Sighing, Jenny waved at him in a way that said ‘calm down, I’m on my way’. She carefully
closed the book and returned it to the metal box it was kept in for protection, closing it securely.
Then she took off the gloves and the mask she was wearing, picking up the box as she left the
room.

‘’What do you want, Nick?’’ Jenny asked as she carried the box over to the correct shelf and slid
it back in it’s place.

‘’We need to talk,’’ Nick said, ‘’is that room secure?’’

‘’It’s a glass reading room. What do you think?’’

‘’So that’s a no, then,’’ Nick muttered, looking around. ‘’Is there anyplace else we can go?’’

Jenny sighed in resignation. It didn’t look like Nick would be giving up anytime soon. ‘’I have an
office. We can talk there.’’

Nick nodded tightly. He looked anxious. Jenny figured he’d finally realized the consequences of
naming himself Ahmanet’s chosen, and didn’t like what they were. Sucks for him, she thought a
little vindictively as she led him out of the library. If he didn’t want the trouble that came with it,
he shouldn’t have lied, simple as that.

Jenny’s office wasn’t particularly big or impressive, as her position in Prodigium wasn’t an
especially important one. Her job had been to find Ahmanet, and one didn’t need a huge office
with a flatscreen tv and leather couches to find a tomb. That didn’t mean, though, that Jenny’s
office was particularly small or underwhelming either. It was, if she had to describe it, a fairly
normal office of average size, decorated in fairly neutral colours and with little personal effects in
it.

Jenny didn’t care; she didn’t really spend a lot of time in it because most of her research was done
in her library or on site. Besides, she didn’t have to share her office with anyone, so she was pretty
content with what she had.
Nick slumped in the guest chair in front of Jenny’s desk while Jenny closed the door behind them
so they wouldn’t be disturbed.

‘’What did you want to talk about?’’

Nick groaned, slumping further into his seat. He was doing a very good impression of a limp
dishtowel. ‘’I made a mistake, Jenny.’’

‘’You’ve made several,’’ Jenny said, not at all sympathetic. ‘’But which one are you referring
to?’’

‘’This is not funny, Jenny!’’ Nick suddenly looked almost frantic, the first hints of panic beginning
to stir on his face. ‘’They’re going to kill me!’’

Jenny paused. ‘’Excuse me?’’

‘’The dagger! They want to stab me with it!’’ Nick dropped his head into his hands, groaning
quietly. ‘’Henry said he wants to do the ritual so Set can be destroyed. And to do that, they have
to stab me with the dagger. They’re gonna kill me, Jenny.’’

Jenny frowned as she leaned against her desk. ‘’It won’t work.’’

Nick looked up. ‘’What do you mean?’’

‘’I talked to Ahmanet, remember? She told me the dagger won’t work for anyone but her. She’s
the only one who can do the ritual and complete the pact. The only thing that’ll happen if Henry
stabs you is that you’ll die, it won’t bring Set into this world. And Henry knows that.’’

Nick’s mouth flopped open ungracefully. ‘’Then why is he going to try it anyway?’’

‘’Honestly?’’ Jenny sighed as she crossed her arms. ‘’Henry is an intelligent man, Nick, and
mostly a good one. Not a kind one, but he does try to do what is right. In this case, his idea of
right is ridding the world of a threat to humanity, at any cost.’’

‘’How in the world does that translate to murdering me when he knows it won’t give him what he
wants?’’ Nick looked flabbergasted, and maybe a little nauseous as well.

Jenny shrugged. ‘’I’m not Henry so I don’t know what he’s thinking, but my guess is that he
doesn’t believe Ahmanet. I think he wants to give it a try, in case Ahmanet lied. He’s trying to
eliminate the possibility of missing his chance at destroying a threat to humanity.’’

‘’And sacrificing my life in the process!’’ Nick added, a touch hysterically.

Jenny nodded, absently wondering why she felt so calm. She was pretty sure she should’ve
reacted more intensely to something like this. But she didn’t. She was calm, she didn’t feel much
of anything, almost uncaring. She shouldn’t be. She knew that. But she was. And Jenny honestly
wasn’t as surprised, or as worried about that, as she should be - her emotions had been screwy
since she’d freed Ahmanet.

Nick’s emotions also seemed a little screwy, but not because he was linked to an undead princess
who was aiming to take over the world - he was just panicking because Henry was planning to
murder him. He had a valid reason for feeling the way he did. God knew Jenny had panicked
when Ahmanet had been about to murder her in the church. She’d been absolutely terrified, and
part of her still was. Jenny could understand Nick being scared.

There was a whisper at the edge of her consciousness.

Nick was yammering away, apparently not noticing Jenny’s sudden distraction.

Jenny frowned as she tried to place that odd feeling, tried to figure out why she had the feeling
things would go to hell again in a few moments.

The air was thick in her lungs, tasting of power.

The penny dropped.

Ahmanet.

She was working on something, Jenny could feel it, could feel it resonating through that thrice-
cursed link, could smell it in the rippling waves of power coming from the direction of the
containment area that kept Ahmanet prisoner.

Abruptly, she pushed away from where she’d been leaning against her desk. She grabbed Nick’s
jacket at his shoulder and began to drag him out of her office.

‘’Jenny, what the hell?!’’ Nick pulled himself free of her grip, looking indignant.

‘’She’s doing something.’’ Jenny wrenched her office door open and hurried down the hallway,
away from where Ahmanet was being kept. Nick barely kept up with her. ‘’She’s trying to
escape.’’

Nick opened his mouth to say something - and then abruptly shut it and started to run as well
when the sound of gunshots started coming from the containment area.

‘’Where’s the exit?!’’

‘’This way!’’ Jenny grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and jerked him around a corner sharply, not
slowing down at all. The exit wasn’t too far, as long as they took the stairs instead of allowing the
elevators to slow them down.

Jenny took the stairs two steps at a time, Nick on her heels, and burst through the doors that
connected Prodigium to the Natural History Museum. It was nearly two in the afternoon, so the
museum was crowded, and it was all Jenny could do not to crash into people or push them aside
as she scrambled for the exit. She didn’t entirely succeed, but the person she did run over was a
teen in apparently good health, and he didn’t seem hurt, so he’d probably be fine.

There was a low, ominous rumble from under the floor.

Jenny sprinted past a display cabinet, eyes locked on to the wide open doors only a hundred or so
feet away, so close, it would only take a few seco-

The floor fell away.

Jenny couldn’t help the shriek that escaped her, clawing at the floor with all her might as she was
dragged down with the collapsing structure. Bits of marble flooring cut into her hands and through
her blouse, little lacerations opening up across her palms and fingers and torso, making it harder to
grasp onto anything, the blood turning her hands and everything within reach slippery. A single
splinter of marble cut into her face, cutting through the skin and leaving a laceration nearly an inch
long, horizontally over her cheekbone, just half an inch shy of her eye.

Nick had, by some miracle, managed to keep on his feet, and he scrambled down after her,
reaching out with terror on his face - and managed to grab Jenny’s wrist just in time. His other
hand found purchase on part of a display cabinet, partially stuck in the broken-up floor, sturdy
enough to hold their combined weight for now. Grunting with effort, Nick began to pull Jenny up.

Jenny did her best to help him along, struggling to find purchase and crawl her way to more stable
grounds. Grit and shards dug into her hands and stomach, her jacket thankfully protecting her
arms and the fabric of her pants thick enough to withstand most of the abuse heaped upon it.

Finally, Nick managed to drag her away from the edge, and he wasted no time dragging her up to
her feet.

Jenny stumbled for a moment, panting with a combination of breathlessness and fear, and briefly
squeezed Nick’s hand in thanks. She grimaced a moment later when the action drove a few of the
tiny shards of marble deeper into her palm and fingers.

‘’That was way too close,’’ Nick looked upset at the thought.

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny agreed with him wholeheartedly. That was way too fucking close. ‘’We should
get out of here.’’

‘’Best idea I’ve heard today.’’

They started running again.

Ahmanet was pissed - Jenny didn’t need the link between them to know that much. She was also
far, far more powerful than Jenny ever could have dreamed her to be.

Wind howled through the streets of London, every gust drenched in wave upon wave of raw
power, and just behind the initial hurricane-force gales, was the sand. Clouds of it, whipped into a
frenzy, large enough to envelop even the Big Ben, engulfing everything it came across.

Windows shattered, doors were torn off their hinges, roof tiles smashed apart against the pavement
- entire cars were blown off their wheels, metal screeching against the asphalt of the streets as they
were slowly moved by the sheer force of the wind.

Above it all, through the howling of the wind and the sand in her ears and the noise of people
screaming and running in terror, Jenny could hear Ahmanet, her voice echoing with force and
determination as she whipped the sandstorm into a mad frenzy and called upon Set to bring her
her chosen.

To bring her Jenny.

Jenny tried and failed to suppress the terrified shudder it sent down her spine, and instead
concentrated on getting the fuck away. Somewhere out of London. Getting out of the city was
probably her best bet right now. If she could find a car that had the keys in it (Jenny did not know
how to hotwire a vehicle, and this was not the time to learn), she could be out of London within
an hour, and on her way out of the country not long after.

She wasn’t sure where she’d go, but at the moment, anything was better than England.

She ducked around a corner, pressing against the stone of the building, intending to take a few
seconds to catch her breath. Nick wasn’t much better off then her, covered almost entirely in sand,
hair and clothes all over the place, like he’d been caught in a hurricane - which, honestly, was a
pretty accurate description.
‘’What do we do? We can’t keep running like this,’’ Nick swallowed thickly, ‘’we’ll tire, and then
she’ll catch up to us.’’

‘’We need a car.’’ Jenny peeked around the corner, squinting to keep the sand out of her eyes.
‘’Do you know how to hotwire one?’’

Nick nodded. ‘’Yeah.’’

‘’Good.’’ Jenny’s mind worked at lightning speed as she thought up a plan. ‘’Here’s what we’re
going to do. We are going to find a car and hotwire it. Then we get the hell out of London. We
head to the tunnel to France.’’

‘’Yeah, alright,’’ Nick agreed. ‘’And then?’’

‘’We find the nearest French airport, and we catch a plane to Iraq.’’

‘’Iraq?’’ Nick frowned, apparently not following Jenny’s train of thought. ‘’Why?’’

Jenny finally caught her breath. ‘’Her tomb. They locked her in there, and they managed to keep
her contained for 5000 years. There must be more to it than just a sarcophagus and mercury.’’

The penny fell, and Nick lit up in understanding. ‘’So you think there might be a way to defeat her
in her tomb?’’

‘’I’m not sure,’’ Jenny had to admit, ‘’but it’s the best chance we have.’’

And right now, she was willing to take just about any chance she could get. Desperation and fear
for her life made good motivators. Jenny did not want to die. So she was going to do everything
she could to prevent it. Simple as that. And she was dragging Nick along for the ride, because
he’d been there when she’d gotten herself into his mess, and he’d damn well be there when she
got herself out of it as well.

Nick peered around the corner like Jenny had done a few moments earlier. He squinted a little. ‘’I
can’t really see a car undamaged enough to drive.’’

Jenny shifted uncomfortably. The amounts of sand in the air had slowly started to increase over
the course of their conversation, and she didn’t like it. ‘’C’mon, we’ll try a couple of blocks
further. I don’t think the sandstorm is quite as severe there as it is here.’’

Not yet, at least, she added mentally. With luck, they’d get there before all vehicles were
destroyed.

Ducking around the corner, Jenny started to run again, Nick on her heels, Ahmanet’s voice in the
air, low and insistent and demanding, haunting Jenny with every step she took.

She just ran faster, intent on escaping the woman nipping at her heels as quickly as possible.

Nearly half an hour later, Jenny and Nick found what they were looking for in an underground
parking lot. Many cars had been left behind while their owners fled the suddenly apocalyptic city
of London, leaving plenty of vehicles for Jenny and Nick to claim.

‘’Which one should we take?’’ Jenny scrutinized the dozens of cars, wondering if she should feel
more guilty about planning to commit a felony. Probably.
Nick made his way over to an SUV of some kind. ‘’This one should work. Better than a sedan or
something. And it should be able to handle off-road stuff once we get out of the city, in case the
roads are blocked.’’

‘’Alright.’’ Jenny nodded. That sounded logical. The SUV it was, then.

‘’Stand back a bit.’’ Nick instructed as he took off his jacket, winding it around his fist until it was
completely covered and his arm was padded almost up to the elbow. Jenny took a step back as
instructed, grimacing when Nick pulled his arm back and then punched through the driver’s seat
window. The glass took a few blows before it shattered, most of the glass falling into the driver’s
seat, and some of it landing on the concrete floor.

Nick freed his hand, and, after shaking the glass out of his jacket and making sure no shards were
left behind, shrugged it back on, shooting Jenny a roguish grin. He looked right in his element. Of
course he did. He was a thief more than a soldier. This was what he did best.

Nick stuck his arm through the broken window and fiddled around with the inside of the door for
a moment, and a few seconds later it just popped open without further fuss.

Nick gave a small whoop of victory and quickly used his sleeve to brush the shards of glass out of
the driver’s seat. He climbed in, and opened the passenger’s seat door from the inside.

Jenny took the hint, walking around the car and sliding in, making sure she put on her seatbelt -
she hadn’t forgotten the way she’d been thrown out of the ambulance. It was something she
wasn’t keen to repeat.

Her hands were sticky with blood and dusty with sand, and once her seat belt had clicked like it
should, she took a moment to wipe her palms on her thighs. A half-dry mixture of blood and mud
smeared over the fabric of her pants, and Jenny hissed at the sharp twinges of pain in her hands -
she still had the little bits of marble grit stuck in her hands, and now that they were momentarily
out of the sandstorm, she was starting to notice that it really hurt.

And her stomach, too. She glanced down, and found that parts of her blouse were practically
ripped to shreds, clinging to her stomach only because of the blood that had soaked the fabric and
then dried against her skin, sticking it there. It had bled, but not as much as the cut on her
cheekbone; now that Jenny was actually paying attention to her injuries, she could feel the drying
blood on her face, trailing down over her cheek, past her jaw and over her throat until it
disappeared under the collar of her blouse. If Jenny hadn’t known that head wounds tended to
bleed a lot, she’d have been concerned.

Nick paused from where he was rooting through a bundle of brightly coloured wires poking out of
a hole he’d torn under the steering wheel. ‘’You okay?’’

‘’Got a little banged up at the museum,’’ Jenny muttered as she started to pick at the bits of marble
in her hands. ‘’I’ll be fine.’’

Nick glanced at her hands, and then at her face, and visibly debated her answer for a moment
before nodding his head and going back to fiddling with the wires.

Jenny let him fiddle, instead concentrating on carefully pulling a thin, razor sharp little sliver of
marble from her palm without opening up the laceration even more or cutting her fingers as she
tried to grasp it. If only she had a pair of tweezers… and maybe of disinfectant wipes. Because
this was just asking for infections and all kinds of nastiness.

Jenny was glad when, a few moments later, she’d managed to take out the sliver, because the car
gave a small rumble and a cough, and then started up smoothly, startling Jenny enough that her
hands jerked.

‘’We’re up and running!’’ Nick grinned victoriously as he started maneuvering the car out of the
parking space. Despite herself, Jenny was a little impressed.

Nick drove out of the parking lot at top speed, crashing straight through the barrier beam and
bouncing onto the street like they were in a bumper car. Jenny managed to keep her head from
slamming into the passenger’s side window, even as Nick started cursing - his window had been
smashed out, and the sandstorm had by now reached this block of the city. He immediately got a
face full of sand, and was wiping at his eyes with one hand even as he raced down the street,
barely missing the rubble and destroyed cars strewn around.

It was the second-most terrifying ride Jenny had ever been in in her life, the first being the
ambulance ride away from the church.

Zombies were creepier than a sandstorm, even though the sandstorm could probably do more
damage.

Nick drove beyond recklessly, reaching a speed of nearly fifty miles an hour in the middle of the
city, missing obstacles by mere inches, honking the horn loudly whenever one of the running
people got too close for comfort. Jenny couldn’t find it in herself to tell him to slow down - she
could deal with the terror of sitting in a car with Nick behind the wheel as long as it meant getting
farther away from Ahmanet.

After nearly forty-five minutes, the SUV containing Jenny and Nick steadily drove out of London,
avoiding the M25 in favour of smaller but less crowded roads to make a quicker getaway.

The engine growled as Nick pushed it to it’s limits, breaking virtually every traffic rule known to
man, nearly running over several people in the process, but he didn’t stop. He continued to drive,
the speedometer climbing higher and higher, the car silent besides the rumbling of the engine and
the whipping of the wind through the broken window.

Behind the SUV, still visible in the rearview mirror, the gales of the sandstorm continued to rip
apart London, but neither Jenny nor Nick bothered (or dared) to look back.
 Chapter 8
Chapter Summary

Mostly a filler chapter; Jenny and Nick get found by Prodigium, and convince Henry
to go to Iraq.

Chapter Notes

A late update, I know, but I've been out of commission for a bit. First, Paris, then I
was dealing with sensory overload. And I can assure you, trying to write on a bright
laptop screen while dealing with sensory overload is not fun. I've mostly been
sleeping, and slowly building up to being able to spend time writing without getting a
migraine.

Anyways, while this is mostly a filler (there's not a lot of plot, to be honest, I'm not
quite at my best at the moment), we are arriving at the point where canon goes out of
the window. I've pretty much cancelled the movie plot.

No Ahmanet in this one, but she'll be making a reappearance sometime soon.

They were picked up by Prodigium troops about twenty miles from Folkestone, just over an hour
after leaving London.

Nick was pumping gas into the car, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings, and Jenny was
cooped up in the car. She couldn’t exactly go outside looking like someone had tried to murder
her (and nearly succeeded), with blood and dirt all over her. Nick was mostly unharmed, and the
few cuts he had were on his chest and thus easily hidden under his undamaged button-up shirt.

As a result, it was his job to refuel the car, as well as pick up some snacks at the shop to keep them
going.

Nick was just returning from the shop, arms full of prepackaged snacks and bottles of water, when
a large black military-style Hummer stopped next to their SUV. Jenny tensed in her seat, hand
straying towards the knife Nick had left with her (how he’d even gotten in and out of Prodigium
without his weapons being taken from him was a mystery to Jenny, because they were usually
quite stringent about security, but at least they had a knife and a gun to defend themselves with).

(She tried not to think of the fact that the gun only had six bullets left, and that they had no extras.
And they were regular bullets, not mercury-laced ones.)

Needless to say, Jenny exhaled a big sigh of relief when the doors of the Hummer opened and
people wearing Prodigium uniforms stepped out.

One of them moved over to Nick, and the second knocked on the passenger’s side window,
gesturing at Jenny to step out of the car. Jenny did, wincing when her flayed hands protested, and
was grateful when Nick’s lie proved to still be the believed truth at Prodigium, because the soldier
didn’t do anything to detain Jenny. Instead, the armed woman seemed rather worried about her.

‘’Are you alright, Dr. Halsey?’’

‘’Fine. Just some scrapes,’’ Jenny responded.

‘’Alright,’’ the soldier said, ‘’we have a first aid kit in the car. If you would, Dr. Halsey.’’

Jenny nodded, slamming the SUV’s door behind her and obediently making her way over to the
black Hummer. The door to the back seat was still open, so Jenny climbed in without having to be
told to. It was big enough for two benches of seats, facing each other, with still some leg room in
the middle. Jenny chose the middle seat (the far seat was already occupied) facing forwards - if
there was something she hated, it was facing backwards in a moving vehicle, be it car or bus or
train.

The female soldier - the name tag sewn onto her bulletproof vest claimed she was called Susan
Miller - climbed in after her, taking the free seat next to Jenny so she had an armed soldier on
either side of her. Nick was stuck in a very similar arrangement, only he looked a lot more
uncomfortable with it.

Jenny didn’t mind the armed guard; she rather liked the idea of people with big guns between her
and Ahmanet and whatever minions she had. She was willing to bet the bullets in those rifles were
laced with mercury, too, which was another layer of protection Jenny especially appreciated.

The Hummer started to move.

Susan dug a first aid kit from under the row of seats, momentarily abandoning her rifle to take out
some medical supplies. Mostly antiseptic wipes, analgesic cream and a lot of gauze and medical
tape, as well as a pair of tweezers, all neatly packed in sterile packaging. ‘’Would you please take
off your jacket, Dr. Halsey?’’ Susan gave her a reassuring look. ‘’I’m trained in basic field
medicine, so I just want to patch you up until we can get you to a proper doctor for further
treatment, alright?’’

Jenny nodded, shrugging off her jacket and letting it fall to the floor.

Susan snapped on a pair of surgical gloves. ‘’I’m going to take care of your face first,’’ she said,
grabbing what seemed to be a pack of moist wipes.

Jenny gave another nod, making sure to keep her head as still as possible as Susan set to wiping
the blood off the skin surrounding the cut on her cheekbone.

Nick was trying to look out of the darkly tinted windows. ‘’Where are we going?’’

The soldier on his right, a gruff looking man with the name tag ‘Jack Poulter’ said, ‘’We’re
heading for Dr. Jekyll’s current location.’’

‘’Where is that?’’ Nick frowned at the non-answer.

‘’Twenty-seven miles north of London.’’

‘’Alright…’’ Nick said slowly. He still didn’t seem assured. ‘’And how’d you find us?’’

Jack gave an annoyed grunt. ‘’You were spotted heading out of the city. We simply followed.’’

Jenny blinked in surprise. She hadn’t even noticed they’d been followed. Apparently big black
Hummers were easier to overlook than she’d thought they were. Jenny couldn’t find it in herself to
be irritated; she didn’t exactly mind some extra protection. Not like Nick seemed to mind, anyway.
He was clenching his jaw, eyes moving restlessly, visibly less than pleased to be surrounded by
highly trained Prodigium operative.

She could, Jenny thought as Susan began to bandage the cut on her cheek, somewhat understand
Nick’s perspective. These were, after all, the people of the organization that had been planning to
stab him to death to perform a ritual that wouldn’t succeed out of the hands of Ahmanet. They’d
been planning to kill him for no reason at all beyond redundancy. Jenny could see why he’d be
somewhat apprehensive around Prodigium people.

Susan finished taping some gauze to Jenny’s cheek and moved on to focus on the cuts spread
across Jenny’s chest and abdomen. ‘’I’m sorry, Dr. Halsey, but I need you to open your blouse so
I can properly reach everything.’’

Jenny instantly flushed red with embarrassment. She didn’t really want to open her blouse - she
wasn’t exactly planning on flashing everyone in the car. Especially when Nick was there, he was
definitely the type to start making lewd comments or start giving her lecherous stares.

The soldiers - another woman and two men - were professionals, at least, and could probably be
counted on to look away respectfully or at least ignore it.

But Jenny could also understand that Susan would need the fabric of her blouse out of the way, so
she could properly reach each laceration to treat them. She couldn’t clean and disinfect anything if
there was a layer of fabric covering the torn skin. After a few seconds of deliberation, Jenny bit
back a sigh and nodded, moving to open the buttons of her blouse.

Susan stopped her before she could even undo the first. ‘’Your hands are damaged, Dr. Halsey.
Let me do it.’’

Jenny carefully dropped her hands into her lap - they did hurt a lot, so fiddling around with
buttons was probably not the best idea anyway - and tried to ignore the lecherous smirk Nick was
wearing. If her hands didn’t hurt as much as they did, Jenny would’ve slapped him. It’d worked
when he’d been an ass back in Iraq, so she figured it would work again.

This time, though, she’d have to delegate.

Since Susan was busy unbuttoning her blouse, Jenny turned to Jack Poulter. ‘’Could you please
slap Nick for being a pervert?’’

Nick’s eyes widened. An amused grin overtook Jack’s face.

‘’Owch!’’ Nick yelped and rubbed his upper arm, where Jack had punched him. It wasn’t a soft
hit, it was one meant to hurt. Not harm, per se, but it did cause some pain.

‘’Respect Dr. Halsey’s privacy,’’ Jack informed Nick in clear terms, and then did just that himself,
directing his attention out of the window, away from Jenny. Nick, still rubbing his arm, gave a
mulish expression, but obeyed anyway.

Jenny was grateful for it; it was embarrassing enough as it was to have Susan see her half-naked.
Susan was a professional, though, and she acted like it, cleaning and treating each laceration
quickly and methodically, without lingering at the more inappropriate spots.

Jenny’s torso was soon spotted with patches of gauze and tape rather than dried blood, and about
fifteen minutes later, her hands were also cleaned, treated and carefully wrapped. She would need
a new blouse, and a shower to rid herself of the sand leftover from the sandstorm, but at least she
wasn’t covered in blood anymore.
‘’Thank you,’’ Jenny thanked Susan as the woman packed away the medical supplies.

‘’Not a problem, Dr. Halsey,’’ Susan responded with a smile. She clicked the first aid box shut
and returned it to it’s spot under the seat.

Jenny drew the remains of her blouse together so it at least covered the cups of her bra, and then
clumsily zipped up her jacket to cover her up the rest of the way. Her hands and other injured
parts still hurt, but Susan had given her some painkillers that should take care of it soon enough.

Henry’s location turned out to be a tiny airfield that Jenny had never heard of before. It was too
tiny for commercial flight. The kind of airport used to fly for leisure or sport.

A private plane was parked on the airstrip, and Jenny and Nick were ushered into it without much
fuss.

Henry was already waiting for them, sitting in one of the big leather chairs and typing furiously on
a laptop. He looked less than pleased, though the expression slid off his face and was replaced
with relief once he spotted Jenny and Nick. ‘’Jennifer, Mr. Morton, good to see you alive and
well… at least reasonably so,’’ he added, lingering on Jenny’s bandaged hands and the gauze
peeking over the top of her jacket’s collar. ‘’Are you very hurt?’’

‘’Cuts and bruises, mostly.’’ Jenny responded as she chose a seat, diagonally across from Henry,
next to the window. ‘’Susan already patched me up.’’

Henry squinted a little. ‘’Susan Miller?’’

‘’Yes.’’

‘’Hmm. Good soldier. Competent field medic.’’ He glanced briefly at his laptop. ‘’I gather you
were caught in the sandstorm at some point, to gain injuries like those?’’

Jenny grimaced. ‘’The floor collapsed on me at the museum. Got stuck in splintered marble.’’

‘’It was pretty awful,’’ Nick chimed in. ‘’Half the museum nearly collapsed on us.’’

‘’So it did.’’ Henry agreed. ‘’Luckily, Prodigium only took minor damage.’’

‘’The ceilings literally collapsed,’’ Jenny said, wondering how that counted as ‘minor damage’.
Henry had to operate with a different dictionary than she did, because collapsed ceilings were
counted under ‘major catastrophe’ in her book.

‘’Only in the containment area used for Ahmanet. The rest of the base was left untouched bar the
sand that blew through. All it needs is a vacuum cleaner or two.’’ Henry typed a few more
sentences. ‘’The ceiling will take a little longer to repair, but it should be done in a week or two.’’

Outside, the plane engines started up with a steadily increasing roar of noise.

Nick cleared his throat. ‘’Changing the subject, where are we going?’’

‘’Prodigium has multiple bases. The London base was merely our main one. Now that it’s
temporarily out of commission, we’ll be relocating to France for a few weeks.’’

‘’Actually, Henry,’’ Jenny spoke up before Nick could get the idea to lie about this too and steal
her thunder again, ‘’Nick and I need to get to Iraq.’’

Henry paused, adjusting his glasses on his nose. ‘’Iraq?’’

‘’Well, I figured that the tomb managed to imprison Ahmanet for five millennia.’’ Jenny
explained. ‘’That’s a long time. So I figured, what if there was more than mercury to it? It seems a
little farfetched to me that a mercury bath can stop Ahmanet from using her powers, even if it does
weaken evil spirits. Maybe, if I investigate the tomb a little closer, I’ll find something that can help
us stop her.’’

Henry thought it over for a few seconds. ‘’It does have some merit to it.’’

‘’Plus Iraq is thousands of miles away,’’ Nick added in, ‘’it’ll give us some time to plan before
Ahmanet catches up, if nothing else. France is pretty close, if she’s coming for me,’’ he eyed
Jenny shiftily, and Jenny gave him a warning glare, ‘’and she can somehow track me, it wouldn’t
take her long to cross the Channel.’’

‘’Indeed,’’ Henry responded slowly. ‘’Perhaps Iraq is the best place to go for now. It’s worth a
shot, at least.’’ He stood up from his chair, placing his laptop on the small, lacquered table in front
of him. ‘’If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll inform the pilot of our change in plans.’’

‘’So…’’ Nick said when Henry had disappeared into the cockpit. ‘’I guess we’re going to Iraq
again.’’

‘’Don’t even start,’’ Jenny groaned.

‘’What? I wasn’t going to say anything!’’

‘’I swear to God, if you start about Baghdad hotel rooms, I will hit you. I don’t even care how
much it will hurt.’’

Nick, despite himself, grinned for the first time in a while. ‘’Trust me, I won’t. You hit pretty
hard.’’

Jenny found herself grinning back. ‘’I try.’’

Nick’s grin faded, and he shot a paranoid look around as he leaned closer to Jenny. Automatically,
Jenny leaned in as well, to hear what he had to say.

‘’Do you, y’know, sense anything?’’ Nick whispered as quietly as possible. ‘’From her?’’

‘’Um,’’ Jenny said, ‘’give me a second to concentrate.’’

Nick nodded, watching her avidly.

Feeling a little self-conscious, Jenny closed her eyes, mentally trying to find her link to Ahmanet.
It was elusive, for several long seconds.

Then there was a tiny spark of awareness.

Jenny opened her eyes. She looked at Nick. She could feel the expression of distress written all
across her face.

‘’What?’’ Nick asked anxiously.

‘’The gem. She’s found it.’’

‘’The dagger is complete?!’’ Nick hissed out in horror.

Jenny shook her head. ‘’Not yet. But she knows where to find the gem. It won’t be long now.’’

‘’...Fuck.’’ Nick blew out a long breath, slumping back in his chair. ‘’Where?’’

‘’The crusaders’ tomb at the subway. It was buried with one of them.’’

‘’Fuck.’’ He repeated.

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny agreed.

‘’Is there time to go grab it before Ahmanet gets to it?’’

‘’No. She’s, like, minutes away from it.’’ Jenny ran a hand through her hair, wincing when the
pressure caused pain that cut straight through her painkillers. ‘’We wouldn’t even reach London in
time, let alone the tomb.’’

‘’Fuck.’’ Nick repeated himself for the third time.

It was a sentiment Jenny wholly supported. She, too, was less than pleased Ahmanet was gaining
ground. With the dagger as good as completed - she pretty much had the gem, considering there
was no one to stop her from taking it - all Ahmanet would have to do was hunt Jenny down and
murder her. Which meant Jenny had to get the hell to Iraq, to figure out a way to stop her own
death from happening.

Yeah.

She’d thought this kind of shit only happened in movies, but apparently not.

God, a movie. If only. If this were a movie, Jenny knew for sure the monster would be defeated in
the end. She probably wasn’t that lucky, though.

Henry returned from the cockpit. ‘’The travel plans have been confirmed,’’ he informed Jenny and
Nick as he retook his seat, ‘’we’re going straight to Iraq.’’

‘’Baghdad?’’ Nick asked.

‘’Yes. From there, we’ll make our way to the tomb over land.’’ Henry confirmed. ‘’There will be
Jeeps waiting for us. And new clothes,’’ he added, glancing at Jenny. ‘’Susan told me your blouse
was ripped to shreds when you fled the museum.’’

‘’Turns out fabric can’t stand up to razor-sharp marble,’’ Jenny said. ‘’Who knew, right?’’

Henry eyed her in concern. ‘’You’re alright, though.’’

‘’Nothing big or deep enough to require stitches or glue.’’

‘’Good, good. I’ll have a doctor on waiting in Baghdad as well. Just in case.’’ Henry returned to
his laptop, starting to type again.

Jenny was quite happy at the idea of a doctor - she should probably get herself some things like
tetanus shots and antibiotics, because that marble floor just couldn’t have been sanitary, with
people tracking God knows what into the museum from outside. Jenny didn’t fancy getting all
kinds of nasty infections and diseases just because she forgot to get her shots. She wasn’t a fan of
needles, but compared to the dagger that might be in her near future, Jenny felt she could handle a
few tiny, thin tubes of steel.
few tiny, thin tubes of steel.

Nick should probably get some shots as well, Jenny figured, and some antibiotics. He’d been
injured too, a few cuts on his chest (they’d been treated by Susan as well, once she’d finished
patching up Jenny), and it would probably be bad if Nick succumbed to infection or something
like that in the middle of the Iraqi desert.

The plane slowly came into motion, starting to roll down the airstrip. It gained speed quickly.

Jenny made sure her seatbelt was on when the plane took off, and kept it on until they were
halfway over France - just in case Ahmanet had managed to somehow call up another murder of
crows to crash this plane also.

She didn’t, but being strapped to her chair for a while made Jenny feel better anyway.

The flight passed quietly.

Jenny was a little surprised how quietly, actually. There hadn’t so much as been a whisper of
trouble. Not even turbulence. Certainly no murders of crows or hurricane-force sandstorms.

It made her feel a lot better about being on a plane, considering the one she’d been in before this
one had been smashed into bits on the English countryside. A quiet flight was nice.

The alcohol offered by the flight attendant (it was a private jet, fully staffed, so the alcohol was
strong and high-quality) probably helped with how calm Jenny felt about it all, though. She’d
succumbed to a couple of glasses of Henry’s ridiculously sharp whiskey, which was exactly what
she’d needed. It gave her heartburn, but she could ignore that, and the alcohol did help calm the
anxiety.

Nevertheless, Jenny was glad when they arrived in Baghdad and she could get her feet back on
solid ground.

The heat practically smacked her in the face when she stepped out of the cool, air-conditioned
plane, but Jenny didn’t mind. She liked hot weather.

A small contingent of people and vehicles were waiting for them. A row of big, bulky Jeeps and
more Prodigium soldiers (at least twenty of them, fully armed and packed for a field operation - it
was kind of impressive to see) were lined up and ready to go. It looked very much like they were
about to go into battle.

Jenny hoped to God that Ahmanet couldn’t get to Iraq easily and that it wouldn’t come to a battle.

Henry led them over, and as they came closer, Jenny spotted the sign of the Red Cross on several
of the soldiers, signalling their proficiency in medicine. The doctors, as promised, ready to go.
Henry obviously wasn’t in the mood to wait around in Baghdad; Jenny had a feeling she’d end up
being treated in one of the Jeeps on the way to the tomb.

She was right; one of the doctors met her halfway and led her towards one of the Jeeps, Nick
stubbornly on her heels. He refused to get into another Jeep.

‘’I’ve been with Jenny since the start, I’m going to be there to the end!’’ He snarled when one of
the doctors tried to get him into a second Jeep, wrenching his arm loose and climbing in after
Jenny without a second thought.
Jenny raised her eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to.

Two doctors climbed in, one for them each, as well as two regular soldiers, as there was space for
six people (driver’s and passenger’s seat not included, which were also filled by Prodigium
soldiers). Eight people per Jeep in total. Amongst them, a solid twenty soldiers.

Jenny watched as the doctor treating her measured out meds for her tetanus shots as the car started
to move, and hoped to God that the soldiers wouldn’t be needed.

The needle stung as it entered her arm. Jenny could almost feel the liquid being pushed into her
body. The cuts covering her, all neatly bandaged and, according to the doctor, not to be touched
until the dressings had to be changed, itched and burned.

Jenny swore she could smell desert sand. (They had not yet entered the desert, or even left the city
of Baghdad.)

A red sun, scorching with heat, burned down on her. (The Jeep was a hardtop model, no sunroof,
and the windows were tinted.)

Jenny wrung her hands and barely felt the pain.

 Chapter 9
Chapter Summary

Jenny and the boys arrive at the tomb, and waste no time searching for a solution to
their problem.

Chapter Notes

Well, there we go, chapter 9 is up.

Still no actual appearance from Ahmanet, but I promise she's back next chapter.

The trip was, over land, a couple of hundred miles. Which meant that, when travelling with a
small caravan of cars, it was a long trip. Especially because Henry insisted they avoid most cities
and towns unless in need of more gasoline for the Jeeps.

Jenny wasn’t sure why they needed to avoid places with lots of people - she honestly doubted
people even knew Ahmanet existed, let alone worked for her - but Henry was in paranoid mode
and since he was in charge of the soldiers, he made the decisions. It did mean detours, though, lots
of them, driving around each town or city in a wide arch to avoid them, sometimes adding hours,
or, in one case, nearly half a day to the trip.

Jenny really didn’t mind so much; after the days of stress and running for her life she’d
experienced, it was actually kind of nice to be able to just sit back and watch the landscape rush
by the window. The car was air conditioned, some radio channel was playing soft rock at low
volume, and there was a case of drinks and snacks tucked under one of the seats - Jenny hadn’t
been this relaxed since she’d made the mistake of sleeping with Nick in Baghdad a week ago.

Everything had been kind of stressful after that.

This was nice. Plus, she’d gotten a clean blouse and bra, and that was really appreciated as well.

All detours included, it took a couple of days to reach the tiny town Ahmanet’s tomb had been
hidden under.

The crater that had revealed it was still there, and the town was still completely abandoned. It’s
inhabitants had obvious decided not to return, which Jenny could somewhat understand. First
they’d been overrun by insurgents, then they’d been bombed, and to put the cherry on the sundae,
their village had been turned into a smoking crater with an ancient, cursed tomb at the bottom of it.
The mercury fumes must’ve permeated the whole village by now, too. It had become unlivable.

When Jenny stepped out of the Jeep, she completely understood the villagers’ decision not to
return. The place was a mess, and if it weren’t for Ahmanet, Jenny would have chosen never to
return too.

The soldiers fanned out, rifles at the ready, forming a protective wall around Jenny, Nick and
Henry. A few of them split off to search the village at the sound of a barked command.

Jenny doubted they would find anything. She didn’t so much as spot a flying bug. The village was
utterly and completely deserted. Nothing but a heap or bricks and dust on top of a cursed tomb
filled with poison and death.

‘’Get the supplies,’’ Henry ordered one of the soldiers, who nodded and obeyed.

Jenny watched as several crates were pulled from the three Jeeps’ trunks. Climbing rope stuck out
of the top of one of them, and Jenny was sure she could see climbing harnesses as well. They’d be
rappelling down, as she’d expected. It wasn’t as if there were any stairs down into the tomb
anyway, unless Henry also had a rope ladder stowed away.

‘’I’ll have some people set up camp just outside the pit.’’ Henry said as he came to stand next to
Jenny. ‘’I’m planning for us to go into the tomb immediately, if that works for you as well.’’

‘’Sure,’’ Jenny nodded. The sooner she got this over with, the better. She couldn’t wait to be free
of Ahmanet again, to be able to live her life without constantly fearing for her life. She wanted to
live without dreading every breath she took, knowing that it might be her last before Ahmanet
caught up to her and plunged that dagger into her chest.

Henry gave a nod of his own. ‘’Go get kitted out, then. I have a climbing harness in your size.
Tahn,’’ he gestured at one of the soldiers standing next to the crates, ‘’will help you gather
everything you’ll need.’’

‘’Alright.’’ Jenny made her way over to the crates and the soldier named Tahn.

‘’You’ll be wanting your supplies, then?’’ The man asked her.

‘’Yes, please,’’ Jenny responded.

‘’Let’s see, then,’’ Tahn pulled one of the crates closer and started pulling stuff out of it. Jenny
soon found herself with her hands full of climbing harness, coils of climbing rope, a large
flashlight, a helmet with a light on it, an oxygen mask complete with a tank that would last two
hours, and lastly, a fully loaded handgun.

‘’Mercury-laced,’’ Tahn said, handing her an extra clip of bullets. ‘’It’s not a lot, but should the
undead bitch turn up, you’ll have enough to distract her and run for it.’’

Jenny honestly doubted it, because she’d spoken to Ahmanet and she hadn’t been all that
impressed by modern weaponry. Add the fact that she had the ability to call up sandstorms, and
that they were in the middle of the desert… well, Jenny didn’t think a couple of mercury bullets
were going to do anything to stop Ahmanet.

She took the gun anyway, as well as the extra bullets and the thigh holster, because as useless as it
was, it did make her feel better to have a weapon on her. She could pretend she stood a chance
against Ahmanet with the weight of a firearm against her leg.

Tahn rummaged through the crate some more, finally pulling out a small backpack. ‘’In case you
find something down there that might help us and is small enough for you to carry back up,’’ he
said as he handed it to her.

‘’Thanks, Tahn,’’ Jenny said, momentarily putting her other stuff on the ground to put the
backpack it onto her back. Once she’d pulled the straps tight, she stepped into the loops of the
climbing harness and began fastening it around her hips and thighs.

Jenny was ready to go a few minutes later, feeling a little silly with the huge helmet on her head.
Nick and Henry were in the same boat as her, though, so at least she wasn’t the only one
wandering around looking like an idiot. It was enough to make her feel a little better.

‘’Ready to go?’’ Nick finished fastening his own climbing harness.

A bit away, three soldiers were hammering metal pins into the ground to help secure the climbing
ropes to.

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny said, ‘’I’m ready.’’

‘’Good,’’ Henry approached, all kitted out himself, wearing practical clothing. It looked odd,
seeing him out of a suit. Jenny had never seen him without one before. ‘’If you’re both ready,
then, we should get going.’’

Jenny nodded, following him over to the edge of the pit. She looked down, seeing the carved,
screaming face, and swallowed hard.

Suddenly, she was nervous.

Anxiety cramped her stomach. She felt like she was going to throw up. This tomb was what had
gotten her into this mess, it was the reason for her death sentence.

Jenny didn’t want to go in a second time.

Everything in her screamed not to go in a second time. Her bones ached with the knowledge that,
if she did, she would not like the results.

She went in.

Her oxygen mask was hot and moist against her face with each exhalation of breath, and she
grimaced at the feel of it. It felt gross. Jenny couldn’t wait to get out of here and get it off her face.
Her heart pounded against her ribs in anxiety, loud and painful.

She reminded herself that the solution to her problem was probably down there. As much as she
wanted to get out of this pit and run like hell, she couldn’t. This was her only chance, and she had
to take it. Because if she didn’t… well, the consequences weren’t pretty.

After a few minutes of slow descent, her feet touched the ground. Jenny was glad for it, quickly
unhooking herself from the climbing ropes so she could walk around freely. The ground was a
little slippery under her feet, mercury staining the rock silver. Jenny was glad for her oxygen
mask, uncomfortable as it was. At least she wasn’t breathing in airborne poison. That was
something, at least.

Switching on the light on her helmet, Jenny carefully made her way towards the nearest wall. She
hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the hieroglyphs last time she’d been here in her haste to find
Ahmanet (something she sorely regretted today). Now that she was back a second time, though,
Jenny was planning to read them all, and she hoped to God they contained the solution to her
problem.

Nick and Henry appeared on either side of them, switching on their flashlights to further illuminate
the wall, revealing a large section of glyphs.
‘’Can you read them?’’ Henry asked.

Jenny nodded. ‘’They’re New Kingdom. I can read them.’’

‘’Good.’’ Henry handed her a small headset. ‘’It’s linked to a recording device. Make sure to
translate verbally, please.’’

‘’Alright.’’ Jenny took the headset, briefly taking off her helmet to hook it around her ear. The
little microphone pressed against her cheek, barely half an inch from her mouth.

She put her helmet back on as she scanned the glyphs briefly. They started maybe twenty feet to
her left and twenty feet up the wall, so Jenny moved backwards and to the side until she was able
to get a good look at the whole picture. She was more than a little relieved that they were carved
quite clearly, and that they were perfectly readable, even after 5000 years.

Last time she’d noticed how well-preserved everything was, too. Then, she’d been impressed by
the fantastic condition everything was in. Now she just felt nauseous.

Slowly, Jenny started to translate the hieroglyphs in front of her, and it was all she could do to stop
her voice from shaking at the dread and discomfort aching in her bones.

The glyphs in the antechamber were, all things considered, quite tame.

And not at all what Jenny had been looking for.

The foremost subject was the ‘Evil God’, as Set was apparently referred to in here, and his
apprentice Ahmanet, also referred to as the ‘Dark One’. Neither was mentioned often by their
actual names, which Jenny supposed was superstition. Something along the lines of names having
power and attracting attention by using them.

Jenny hoped to God that that wasn’t true, because none in their party was shy about calling
Ahmanet or Set by name, and they definitely would have attracted attention by now.

The glyphs told about the Evil God and his powers, and his desire to walk the Earth in a mortal
body without the limits of his divine body - apparently, gods were bound to certain rules, and one
of the ways to circumvent those was to take a mortal form. In a mortal body, the Evil God would
be free to intervene in the human world as much as he desired, wherein the divine laws would not
allow him to do so.

The Dark One was his gateway to mortality, the only person in the world with the power to break
through the tenuously thin barrier that separated human from divine.

And to do that, the Dark One needed the Chosen.

When the Dark One used the dagger given to her by the Evil One to kill her Chosen, enough
power would be released to tear the barrier and bring the Evil One into the mortal world. (And
resurrect the Chosen as a god, the conduit for the power of the barrier, the divide between human
and divine, the power over life and death - the third most powerful being on the planet, third only
to the Dark One and the Evil One.)

(Jenny tried not to think of that as she translated.)

(She also tried to ignore the expression of covetous fascination on Henry’s face, his attention
absolutely fixated on Jenny as she spoke.)

The stories and warnings carved into the walls of the antechamber sent shivers of dread and
revulsion down Jenny’s spine, but it wasn’t what she was looking for. Right now, she couldn’t
care less about the legend being spun in front of her, or the archaeological significance of it. She
just wanted a way to take down Ahmanet so she could move on with her life. And find something
to do that didn’t involve hunting down ancient corpses. Jenny was pretty much over that, she
wanted something less… archaeological. Something that didn’t involve accidentally freeing an
undead, murderous princess of old and getting chased halfway across the world and back.

Well, she mused as she finished translating the last glyphs in the antechamber, she did know
enough about Ancient Egypt to be able to teach a university course on it. She could go back to
school, get licensed as a teacher, go teach Egyptology somewhere. Certainly a lot safer (and more
comfortable) than plodding around tombs trying not to breathe poison.

‘’Was that all of it?’’ Nick looked as uncomfortable as Jenny felt. ‘’I’m running out of oxygen.
We should go back up soon.’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny said, throat sore and dry from talking so much. She checked the dial of her
oxygen tank, which was strapped to her wrist, and found that she, too, was low. Only half an hour
left. ‘’That was all. Nothing useful, I’m afraid.’’

‘’There’s still the tomb itself,’’ Henry said, glancing at the entrance to said tomb longingly. ‘’How
much oxygen do you two have left?’’

‘’Half an hour,’’ Jenny said.

‘’I’ve got just over a quarter hour,’’ Nick said.

Henry looked less than pleased, but nodded in resignation. ‘’We’ll go back up. We’ll take a break,
have something to eat, and then we’ll get back down here for the rest.’’

That was a plan Jenny could agree to. She was tired and hungry, and she needed the bathroom, so
going back up for a break sounded like a really splendid idea.

She didn’t actually have to climb back out of the pit. The soldiers up top in the village were
strong, and they easily pulled her all the way back up. All she really had to do was grab onto the
rock at the edge of the pit and pull herself onto steady ground.

The troops had been busy while they’d been down in the pit, Jenny noticed as she took off her
helmet. A couple of military-style tents had been erected a safe distance from the tomb, and when
Jenny was away from the precipice and took her oxygen mask off her face (fucking finally), she
could smell food being cooked.

Her stomach rumbled hungrily. She could definitely go for some of that food. It smelled delicious.
Something hearty and savoury, maybe something along the lines of a meaty sauce. Either way,
Jenny wanted some of it, because she was hungry and it smelled good and she honestly didn’t
care what it was as long as she got it into her stomach asap.

She returned her supplies to Tahn, who was in charge of all that, and wasted no time making her
way over to the tent the smell of food came from. It was a large military-style one, and inside there
was a makeshift kitchen and a bunch of collapsible tables and chairs. Jenny wondered how the
hell those had gotten here, because there was no way all of this would have fit in the Jeeps. She
asked Henry.

‘’I had ordered a small truck of supplies as well,’’ he explained, ‘’but they hadn’t quite finished
loading when we arrived in Baghdad, so they followed an hour or so behind us. Everything here
was set up while we were in the tomb.’’

That made sense. Jenny nodded in understanding. ‘’Must’ve been a big truck.’’

‘’Fairly, yes,’’ Henry agreed. ‘’Now, how about something to eat?’’

‘’I’m starving,’’ Jenny agreed. ‘’Have you seen Nick yet?’’

‘’He’s on his way,’’ Henry led her deeper into the tent, ‘’I’m pretty sure there’s spaghetti and
meatballs for dinner today, as well as fresh garlic rolls.’’

Jenny was pretty sure she was drooling a little. She loved spaghetti and meatballs. She grabbed a
tray from the stack and stepped in line; it was just about dinner time, so the vast majority of the
soldiers were also waiting to get some food. Three cooks were manning the makeshift food bar,
busily dishing out steaming plates.

When it was Jenny’s turn, she was handed a large plate with a heap of spaghetti, tomato sauce
poured over the top and a generous serving of meatballs on it as well.

‘’Cheese?’’ One of the cooks asked, and when Jenny nodded, she got a bowl with some grated
cheese as well, so she could add it to her own taste. A second, smaller plate was handed over as
well, containing two rolls that smelled strongly of garlic and herbs, sliced open and buttered. It all
looked delicious.

‘’Cutlery, condiments and drinks are over there,’’ the third cook in the row gestured to another
table a few feet away. ‘’you’re welcome to come get seconds or thirds whenever.’’

Jenny thanked him and went to get herself a fork and knife, as well as one of the bottles of water
on offer. As she sat down at a free table, Henry joining her, she noticed Nick entering, looking as
hungry as she felt. She waved at him briefly so he knew where to come sit once he had his food,
and then hungrily started in on her own plate.

It was delicious. Piping hot, savoury, tomato-y and cheesy, and the meatballs were fantastic.
Whoever had cooked this was not messing around. Jenny appreciated it very much.

She was a shit cook herself, so when someone made her something edible, she always appreciated
it. The last time she’d tried to cook pasta, the fire department had been called in because her
neighbours were convinced Jenny’s home had caught fire.

Nick plonked down in the seat next to her and dumped all of the grated cheese in his bowl over
his spaghetti sauce. ‘’Smells good, doesn’t it?’’

Jenny, whose mouth was full with spicy garlic bread, nodded. She swallowed thickly, washing
the crumbs down with a little water. ‘’It tastes even better.’’

Nick took a bite, and then nodded in agreement, looking at Henry. ‘’You hire good cooks.’’

‘’The only way to sustain a long day of hard work,’’ Henry said as he curled some pasta around
his fork, somehow managing not to splatter sauce everywhere.

Jenny chewed on one of her meatballs. ‘’You want to go back in after dinner, right?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Henry nodded, ‘’I don’t know how much time we have, because I’m sure The Dark
One,’’ he made sure to use the title Jenny had found in the antechamber, which Jenny appreciated,
‘’is hunting us as we speak. I think we should push as much as possible before she catches up.’’
‘’I agree,’’ Nick said. ‘’There’s still some daylight left, we can do another hour or two.’’

‘’More, even,’’ Henry said, ‘’I have some large construction lights and a generator on site. If
necessary, we can work until far after sundown.’’

Jenny was totally okay with that. She was tired, but she could stand to lose sleep if it meant not
getting murdered and godified at the end of the day. She didn’t object to working through the
night to find a way to stop Ahmanet. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do. ‘’Let’s finish
eating then,’’ she told Henry and Nick, ‘’and get back to work.’’

Half an hour later, Jenny was once again strapped into her climbing harness and halfway down
into the pit.

Going in a third time was even worse than the second time.

That didn’t stop her, though. She was determined to put an end to this once and for all. If that
meant going into this hellhole that made her bones ache with dread and her head hurt with anxiety
not once or twice, but three times (possibly even more often), so be it.

A couple of soldiers rappelled down with them, guiding down crates with supplies while Jenny
untied herself from the climbing ropes and clicked on the light on her helmet. She didn’t know
how to set up construction lighting, so she’d leave that to the Prodigium troops, and instead do a
last sweep of the antechamber to make sure she hadn’t missed any text.

She found some bits and pieces, but they mostly seemed to be warnings. Jenny wished she’d
found those the first time she’d been here, and that she’d have been smart enough to pay attention
to them. Past her was kind of an idiot, Jenny had to admit.

Present-Jenny wasn’t doing too well on the idiot-meter either.

There was the low buzz of electricity behind her, and with a few flickers, suddenly the
antechamber was flooded with light. Jenny blinked for a moment, a little taken off guard, before
she managed to blink away the spots in her vision. She switched off the light of her helmet, since
it was no longer needed, and squinted in the direction of the lights to find Nick and Henry. They
were already moving towards her, carrying a portable construction light each.

‘’Ready to go into the tomb itself?’’ Nick asked her.

‘’Of course,’’ Jenny said, and absolutely didn’t mean it.

Neither Nick nor Henry seemed to notice, both too intent on getting into the tomb to pay much
attention. Jenny was actually kind of glad for it; she was not in the mood for too much attention.
She let Nick and henry go ahead, allowing them to use the lights they were carrying to properly
illuminate the tomb. It took a few deep breaths and a quick mental pep talk before Jenny could get
her feet moving again, and a few more seconds before she could actually convince herself to step
into the tomb.

The first time Jenny had stepped into Ahmanet’s tomb, she had been awed.

Impressed by the theatrical look, impressed by the age, impressed by how well everything had
been preserved.

Today, she just felt nauseous.

Revulsion turned her stomach, and she was so faint with terror she felt like she was going to pass
out. She pushed through it, somehow managing to keep that fantastic spaghetti in her stomach
where it belonged.

Instead, Jenny started to methodically work her way through the tomb. The headset was already
on her head and running, tucked under her oxygen mask so the recording would be extra clear.
The entire tomb was lit decently thanks to Nick and Henry. She still had a couple of hours of
oxygen - plenty of time to make a good start. Plenty of time to be careful with her investigation.

This was the time to be thorough and precise. She couldn’t miss a single thing. Not now, not
when lives were at stake.

She started at the entrance of the tomb, scouring every inch of wall for glyphs, and the floor as
well. There were warnings, all over the walls, as well as what looked a lot like spells to capture
and contain evil. Nothing to help her take down Ahmanet yet. Jenny wondered how she’d missed
the glyphs the first time.

Maybe because the lighting hadn’t been as good. Maybe because she’d been too excited at finding
her life’s work to pay attention.

Maybe she just hadn’t wanted to know.

By the time oxygen started to run out and they had to get back up to camp, Jenny hadn’t made a
lot of headway. All she’d found on the walls was more warnings and spells, as well as a
description of the ability of mercury to weaken evil spirits, which they’d already known.

No new information, no clues on how to kill the Dark One.

It was frustrating. Jenny didn’t let it get to her, though. She’d only translated maybe a third of the
walls of the tomb, and she hadn’t even started on the stuff inside. There was plenty of possibility
left. She had to stay positive.

She was pulled out of the pit by a couple of troops and led towards the mess tent for a quick snack
and something to drink.

Then, after taking care of her nightly ablutions, which were once again possible due to the
makeshift bathroom set up nearby, Jenny asked one of the soldiers to lead her towards where she
was sleeping. It was minimal, a simple cot with a pillow and a blanket and a small collapsible table
next to it to function as a nightstand, and she had to share the space with another seven women,
but it was a bed to sleep in, and that was all she really cared about at the moment.

Jenny was asleep in a matter of seconds.

She opened her eyes, and saw red sand.

 Chapter 10
Chapter Summary

Ahmanet pays Jenny a visit in her dreams. Jenny, Nick and Henry spend more time
in the tomb, chasing a solution. The stress of being hunted finally starts to catch up to
Jenny, and she has a bit of a breakdown. Secrets are revealed.

Chapter Notes

Ahmanet is back, baby! I'm very excited about it, and hopefully so are you. She
really is a joy to write.

Enjoy!

Apprehension seized her throat like a vice.

Jenny whirled around, trying to ignore the blistering sand under her feet and the scorching sun
beating down on her. She knew, deep in her gut, that she was not alone in this dream world.
Ahmanet was here. She could feel it.

‘’Setepa-i…’’

The whisper came from behind her. Jenny nearly stumbled in her haste to turn around. Kicked-up
sand flooded over her feet, burning at her skin.

Ahmanet stood before her, in her mortal form, whole and healthy and alive. Her skin was a
healthy brown again, and her eyes dark but human. She was close enough that Jenny could touch
her if she’d wanted to. She looked… not angry per se, but definitely displeased.

Jenny expected her to say something about London, or perhaps about the fact that Jenny was still
running from her. Instead, Ahmanet turned her head, surveying the reddish dunes around them.

‘’It is beautiful, is it not? The desert.’’

Jenny blinked, taken off guard. ‘’It’s, um, yes. Yes, it is,’’ she managed.

‘’Walk with me,’’ Ahmanet requested lightly.

‘’Alright,’’ Jenny said. She wasn’t sure what else to say. Ahmanet wasn’t acting like Jenny had
expected her to, and it had thrown her off her game.

The princess started towards one of the dunes. Jenny followed.

‘’This is a real desert, you know. At least, this is what it looked like, when I was a child.’’
Ahmanet’s voice was soft, a little wistful. ‘’The Nile is only a few miles west of here. I used to go
swimming, when my father allowed it, with a couple of the palace children. Guards, too, of
course.’’

Jenny tried not to stare. Of all the things she could have imagined, Ahmanet reminiscing over
childhood memories was not one of them. It was a very… human thing to do. Despite herself,
Jenny felt a little touched Ahmanet was willing to tell her this.

‘’It doesn’t look like this anymore.’’ Ahmanet said. ‘’The Nile is a popular place to build. A good
place for farming, when so little soil in the rest of Egypt will support crops.’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny said awkwardly, ‘’there’s a lot of cities at the Nile now.’’

‘’I would imagine so.’’ Ahmanet agreed. She stopped walking. They’d made it to the top of the
dune by now.

In the distance, miles away still, was a sprawling palace of white stone, gleaming under the
burning sun like a jewel.

‘’My childhood home,’’ Ahmanet provided when she noticed Jenny staring.

‘’It’s beautiful.’’

‘’It is even more beautiful inside.’’ She glanced at Jenny. ‘’Once my pact with Set has been
completed, I will rebuild it. You will be able to see all of it then.’’

Jenny swallowed at the reminder. She didn’t say anything.

‘’I will build a shipyard, too, at the Nile,’’ Ahmanet continued. ‘’When it is done, I shall have a
ship built for you. You will be able to take trips down the Nile, if you’d like.’’

‘’That’s, um,’’ Jenny managed, ‘’very generous of you.’’

Ahmanet turned to look her straight in the eye. ‘’You are to be my Queen. A Queen never wants
for anything, for her King will give her everything her heart desires.’’

Jenny dared to ask, ‘’and you will be my King?’’

Ahmanet nodded. ‘’Yes. I shall be your King.’’

Jenny nervously licked her dry lips. ‘’And what will Set be?’’

‘’Set will be your son, and he will be your father. He will be Set, like he has always been.’’

That made little sense to Jenny. ‘’How can someone be my son and my father at the same time?’’

‘’Set is a god. Mortal relationships hold little meaning to him. You will birth him, so you are his
mother. He will grant you godhood, so he is your father.’’ Ahmanet shrugged, a gesture that made
her look so very human. ‘’And in the end, he shall always be your god.’’

‘’...Right,’’ Jenny said.

Ahmanet said nothing, turning back to look at the desert.

For a few seconds, it was silent between them, the only noise the faint breeze sweeping up little
clouds of sand. Jenny gazed at the palace in the distance. It really was beautiful.

Finally, Ahmanet spoke again. ‘’Tell me, Jennifer, how are you enjoying my tomb?’’
Jenny choked on her saliva. It was a second before she managed to catch her breath, giving
Ahmanet a horrified look. ‘’H-how’d you know that?!’’

‘’You are my chosen,’’ Ahmanet said, turning to look at Jenny. ‘’Did you think I would not keep
my eye on you? That I would not ensure I would not lose you?’’

Jenny sputtered something incoherent.

‘’You are a fool, Jennifer, to think I would just let you run like that without knowing where to find
you.’’ The princess scrutinized her for a moment. ‘’No matter. You’ll not be able to keep running
from me for long.’’

And there was the threat Jenny had been expecting at the start of the conversation. It didn’t make
it any less terrifying - especially now that she knew Ahmanet was very much aware of her
location. She stared, terror draining the blood from her face, speechless.

Ahmanet gave a slow, predatory smile. ‘’You can’t run from me, Jennifer,’’ she repeated. ‘’I’ll
find you wherever you try to flee.’’

‘’I’m starting to see that,’’ Jenny mumbled, more to herself than anything.

Ahmanet’s smile widened. ‘’It would save you a lot of trouble if you just surrendered to me now.’’

Jenny felt a tiny flare of rebellion at that. ‘’Didn’t you just say a King gives a Queen everything
she wants? What if I want you to leave me alone?’’

‘’You are correct. A King gives a Queen everything her heart desires. But in return, it is a
Queen’s duty to obey her King.’’ Ahmanet gave Jenny a significant look.

‘’I’ve never been very good at obedience,’’ Jenny said, conveniently ignoring the fact that she’d
pretty much been a model child when she was young, and hadn’t done anything beyond maybe
running a red light once in a while during adulthood so far. Except the shit she’d done in the last
week or so, of course, but that didn’t count.

‘’You have been quite rebellious since freeing me.’’ Ahmanet agreed.

‘’Right,’’ Jenny said, ‘’and I’m not planning on changing that.’’

Ahmanet gave another of those so-very-human shrugs. ‘’No matter. I will teach you to obey me
once I have made you mine.’’

Jenny looked back towards the palace in the distance. It was still glittering under the sun, like
mother of pearl, or maybe silver-dipped diamonds. It really was gorgeous. Like the palaces of old
Jenny had seen illustrations of in her books. The kind of palaces she’d dreamed of as a child. It
was the most gorgeous piece of architecture Jenny had ever seen in her life, but right now, it didn’t
make her feel anything. She didn’t want it.

‘’Physically, perhaps,’’ she finally answered, ‘’but mentally and emotionally… no. I’m not going
to be yours. I refuse.’’

Finally, the anger Jenny had expected made it’s appearance on Ahmanet’s face. She looked
absolutely furious at Jenny’s defiance. Like she’d never been insulted like this before.

‘’You dare deny me?! You dare deny your King?!’’

Somehow, Jenny found it in herself to look Ahmanet straight in the eyes and not flinch. She
wanted to, but she found strength she didn’t knew she had, and glared right back. ‘’You’re not my
King. You’re my death sentence.’’

Ahmanet’s expression darkened. Her eyes blazed amber without warning, all humanity burned
away with her fury.

Jenny’s newfound bravery shrivelled up and died.

She shrank back without thinking about it, breaking eye contact and hunching in on herself to
make herself look smaller. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Ahmanet relax a little once
Jenny made it clear she wasn’t going to challenge her further. The princess just looked at Jenny
for a few long, long seconds. Jenny stared at the sand at her feet, pouring all her attention into
observing the contrast of the red sand against the paleness of her skin, and made sure not to look
up.

‘’If you were anyone but my Queen and Chosen,’’ Ahmanet eventually said, voice sounding
tightly controlled, ‘’I would kill you for your insolence.’’

Jenny wasn’t quite able to stop herself from flinching.

‘’I will not intentionally harm you beyond using the dagger to complete part of my pact with Set.’’
Ahmanet continued. ‘’But I will not allow you to show me such defiance.’’ She was silent for a
moment. Jenny dared glance up at her. She looked thoughtful, then nodded to herself like she’d
made a decision. ‘’I should punish you for this. However, I know from personal experience that
ascending to divinity is a painful process. Therefore, I shall refrain from punishing you this time,
and when I use the dagger on you and you ascend, I shall take that as your punishment instead.’’

Jenny wondered if that really was the mercy Ahmanet framed it as. She wasn’t about to start
protesting, though - if it stopped Ahmanet from ‘punishing’ her, Jenny was fine with not saying
anything.

Ahmanet sighed. She sounded disappointed. Oddly, it bothered Jenny more than her talk about
punishment and ascending to godhood.

‘’I should let you sleep properly.’’ Ahmanet turned back to the desert. ‘’I’m sure you’ll need your
energy to search for a way to kill me tomorrow.’’

Jenny opened her mouth to say something, and instead woke up in her cot at camp. There was an
odd, hollow ache in her chest. She knew, instinctively, that it didn’t come from her. Something
about that knowledge made her own chest ache similarly in unbidden sympathy.

Jenny wiped at her face, mildly surprised her hand came away wet with tears she hadn’t known
she was crying, turned over, drew the covers up to her ears, and tried to go back to sleep. She
failed.

(She failed to ignore that ache too.)

(Jenny didn’t get another wink of sleep that night.)

Dawn found Jenny slouched at a table in the mess tent, breakfast in front of her. She’d barely
eaten a bite of it. The coffee was given more attention. She was on her second cup, loaded with
more sugar than she usually put in her coffee in a whole week.
Most of the soldiers were already up; the only ones asleep were the ones who’d had the night
shifts keeping watch, and were now sleeping because they’d been up all night.

Neither Nick nor Henry had appeared in the mess tent yet.

Jenny was kind of grateful for it; she didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now. And she knew
that if Nick saw her looking as exhausted and half-upset as she did now, he’d be asking questions
at the same rate a machine gun spat out bullets. He’d been doing that a lot since their unfortunate
one-night stand in Baghdad a week ago. Right now, Jenny just did not have the emotional
capacity to deal with that too. The night had left her entirely too raw for her liking.

She’d not slept at all after being visited by Ahmanet in a dream. That ache in her chest, like a
black hole had opened up and sucked away happiness and replaced it with loneliness and hurt and
an old, festering kind of anger, hadn’t faded for hours. To know that those emotions weren’t hers
didn’t make it any better. It hadn’t made them feel any less real.

Jenny poked at her breakfast and wondered why it upset her so much to know Ahmanet felt like
that. Surely she shouldn’t care if Ahmanet was less than happy? The princess was out to kill her,
Jenny shouldn’t give a damn about anything but saving her own skin, and killing Ahmanet in the
process of doing so. And yet…

Sighing to herself, Jenny dragged a hand down her face and focussed on the slowly cooling bowl
of porridge in front of her. It was already going glue-y and lumpy. There were raisins in it, as well
as apple slices, and Jenny had a couple of pieces of buttered toast as well. She didn’t feel hungry
at all. She forced herself to dig her spoon into her porridge and eat it anyway, trying to ignore the
fact that it was barely lukewarm anymore, because she’d be spending all day in the tomb, and she
was going to need her energy for that.

Jenny was halfway through her toast and feeling a little more stable when Nick stumbled into the
mess tent, apparently still half-asleep, unshaven and hair sticking everywhere. He made a beeline
for the food bar, and got his own porridge, toast and coffee. Blearily, he glanced through the tent
for a place to sit, and spotted Jenny. He made his way over and plonked down on one of the free
chairs.

‘’Morning.’’ He grunted.

‘’Morning,’’ Jenny responded tiredly.

‘’Someone’s in a good mood,’’ Nick halfheartedly stirred his porridge.

‘’Fuck you,’’ Jenny said. ‘’I’m just tired.’’

‘’Yeah, I didn’t really sleep well either.’’

Jenny took another bite of toast and said nothing.

Nick sighed. ‘’This whole thing… it’s just, I’m tired of it. Right?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny could at least agree to that.

‘’How come you didn’t sleep well?’’

Jenny slowly chewed on some toast. She probably should tell Nick about Ahmanet appearing in
her dreams. She didn’t want to, though. This was something personal, and she didn’t want to
spend the rest of the day being interrogated about it. ‘’...Just a nightmare,’’ she responded after
swallowing her toast, ‘’the storm in London really freaked me out.’’
‘’I know, right? Did you see that face the sand made when we left? Freaky.’’ Nick bought her lie
easily, not even suspecting he’d been lied to.

‘’Yeah,’’ Jenny agreed hollowly, ‘’freaky.’’ She ate some more of her toast. Wished for a little
more butter to make it less dry. Had a sip of her coffee. Winced at the amount of sugar in it.

Nick was still stirring his porridge. He hadn’t taken a single bite of it yet.

It was silent. Awkwardly so.

Jenny wished that instead of butter, she could maybe have some honey or some brown sugar for
on her toast. She nibbled on one of the crusts. Had some more of her coffee. It was almost cold
now. There was a layer of undissolved sugar at the bottom of her mug, just barely visible through
the flimsy layer of not even lukewarm coffee on top of it. Jenny scraped some out with her spoon
and smeared it over her toast and ate it. Better than just butter. Not as good as honey.

She made a mental note to brush her teeth before she went back into the tomb. Or gargle with
mouthwash. She was pretty sure she’d seen a bottle of mouthwash somewhere.

She ate her last bite of toast, dripping with coffee-sugar. It made her mouth feel dry and sticky.
She piled her dishes back onto her tray. ‘’I’m going to get ready for the day,’’ she told Nick,
getting up.

‘’See you at the pit,’’ Nick responded, finally finished with stirring his porridge.

Jenny left him to it, dropping her tray off at the washing-up station and then making her way out
of the mess tent. Time to hunt down that bottle of mouthwash.

An hour later, a little more upbeat and with a minty fresh taste in her mouth, Jenny was once again
being lowered down past the screaming face carved into the rock wall of the pit. Nick looked a
little more awake, and Henry had finally appeared about half an hour ago, having apparently been
busy with all kinds of stuff since five in the morning.

Jenny entered the tomb without waiting on the boys, eager to get back to work. She still had a lot
of glyphs to translate and other stuff to go through - there was no time to waste.

It took her a few moments to find where she’d left off yesterday, as she hadn’t had anything near
to mark it without ruining the glyphs. Jenny’s inner archaeologist had managed to rear it’s head
yesterday, and Jenny hadn’t managed to find it in herself to actually mark the wall with the
luminous but slightly corrosive liquid Henry had had for that purpose, nor had she allowed him or
Nick to do it. They probably thought it was some kind of female hysteria (honestly, men!) or
something, but they’d indulged Jenny anyway and hadn’t ruined anything in the tomb, which
Jenny’s inner archaeologist was very grateful for.

Once she’d found the glyphs where she’d left off yesterday, Jenny resumed her translation. So far,
not a lot of useful things had come up at all, but there was still two-thirds of the walls to go, as
well as the glyphs on the various decorations. The statues surrounding the pool of mercury, for
instance, had glyphs scribbled all over square bases they stood on, and also over their chests and
arms. Apart from the statues, there were also plaques of smooth stone surrounding the pool, also
inscribed from top to bottom, and some of the skeletons strewn around were holding smaller
tablets of stone.
Hours later, she had still gained no knowledge except for repetitions of what she already knew.
Nothing that hadn’t already been repeated at least five times. Nothing groundbreaking. Nothing
even especially important. And definitely nothing that would help her survive this whole ordeal.

Jenny was starting to get frustrated, she had to admit it. And anxious.

The knowledge that Ahmanet was actively hunting her and knew exactly where she was didn’t
help. The Ahmanet in her dreams had been very clear; she was coming for Jenny, and Jenny
didn’t have a lot of time left to find herself a way out of it.

Nick and Henry were pretty much useless while Jenny was translating. They mostly just hung
around, listening to Jenny as she narrated the things written on the walls, occasionally offering
commentary when they felt like adding something. Both had started to get frustrated early in the
day, when it had started to become obvious the walls were mostly covered in spells of
imprisonment and prayers to ward off the presence of the Evil God.

This, in turn, frustrated Jenny even more, because it meant both Nick and Henry were constantly
breathing down her neck in an effort to make her translate faster.

‘’Another prayer?’’ Nick asked in dismay. ‘’Can’t you just, I dunno, skip it? There’s gotta be
something more interesting than this.’’

‘’Do you want to translate, then?!’’ She finally snapped at him, too frustrated to keep it in
anymore. ‘’Oh wait, that’s right, you can’t read hieroglyphs! So shut up, Nick, and let me do my
job!’’

Nick took a step back, eyes wide, raising his hands in surrender. ‘’Sorry, sorry!’’

Henry eyed her in concern. ‘’Jennifer, are you feeling alright?’’

Jenny managed, somehow, to keep herself from actually snapping at her boss too. It wasn’t easy.
Her voice was tight with tension. ‘’No, Henry, I am not feeling alright, okay?’’

Henry continued to give her a concerned look. Nick looked torn between wanting to flee from the
‘crazy upset chick’ and awkwardly patting her shoulder.

Jenny took a few deep, calming breaths, stubbornly staring at the hieroglyphs on the wall. She
blinked, feeling tears in her eyes, and cursed the fact that the stress was making her emotional.

‘’Do you,’’ Nick started hesitantly, licking his lips, ‘’do you want to tell us what’s wrong?’’

The noise that escaped Jenny was half-laugh, half-sob. ‘’What’s not wrong anymore, Nick?’’ She
tried to hold back the tears, and failed. ‘’Everything’s gone to hell, and here I am, translating
useless prayers that won’t save our lives, helping exactly no one. And you two,’’ she added,
before they could say anything, ‘’are just hovering constantly, and I can barely breathe without
you two needing to comment on it, and I’m just so sick of it!’’

Nick and Henry looked a little shocked at her outburst, trading a look over Jenny’s head.

‘’Would you like to take a break for a few hours?’’ Henry suggested. ‘’I can have the cook make
you a cup of tea and some of those cookies you like, I’m quite sure we have all the ingredients
needed on site.’’

Jenny wiped harshly at her face. ‘’We don’t have time for a break,’’ she said, and hated how thick
and loaded her voice sounded.

‘’There’s plenty of time,’’ Nick said soothingly. ‘’Nothing is going to happen.’’

Jenny bit her lip, suddenly feeling guilty she hadn’t told Nick about her dream. It didn’t help her
effort to stop crying. God, she felt like such a useless dweeb right now. This was not at all what
she needed right now, let alone what the rest of the team needed. She was the only translator they
had. She needed to get her shit together and do her fucking job.

‘’We don’t have the time,’’ she repeated, a little more firmly.

Nick opened his mouth, then abruptly closed it. Realization washed over his face. He paled a little.
‘’We really don’t have the time, do we?’’

Jenny shook her head, choking back a terrified sob.

Henry was looking between them, out of the loop and looking a little lost. His eyes were slowly
starting to narrow. ‘’Jennifer? Why do you think we don’t have a lot of time?’’

Jenny froze.

Nick, on the other hand, completely ignored Henry, too focussed on Jenny to care about what
Henry was asking.

‘’Jenny,’’ Nick pressed, utterly serious, ‘’how much time do we have?’’

‘’I don’t know.’’ Jenny shrugged, swallowing thickly. ‘’Not a lot.’’

‘’Give me an estimate.’’

Jenny gave another shrug. The tears were starting to slow a little. ‘’Anywhere in between an hour
and a couple of days.’’

Henry was starting to look suspicious. ‘’How do you know that, Jennifer?’’

Jenny gave Henry a nervous look. She hunched in on herself a little, turning her gaze back to the
glyphs on the wall as if they contained the secrets to the universe. Or maybe the secrets of not
dying via a dagger to the chest.

Nick looked hostile, shifting in a way that put him closer to Jenny, protectively. He reached out a
little, grabbing Jenny’s hand and giving it a quick, encouraging squeeze.

Jenny couldn’t quite make herself squeeze back. The jig was up, she knew it, and she was too
terrified to really do anything anymore.

‘’I lied to you.’’ Nick said, boldly. ‘’When you brought us to Prodigium.’’

Henry watched them silently, but Jenny was sure he already knew what Nick was going to say.

‘’I’m not the Dark One’s chosen.’’ Nick said. He squeezed Jenny’s hand again.

Jenny glanced up at Henry anxiously. ‘’I am.’’

For a moment, Henry said nothing. He looked at Nick. ‘’Is there a reason you decided to lie about
this and put everyone in danger?’’

‘’Well, what was I supposed to do?’’ Nick was a little offended. ‘’This borderline militia randomly
shows up and drags me back to some secret base that coincidentally has ways to keep supernatural
people locked up, and then starts interrogating me about the Dark One and her Chosen. I was
trying to protect Jenny. And I was right. You were planning to kill me when you thought I was
the Chosen! Like hell I was going to let you do that to Jenny!’’

‘’We had no choice! If Ahmanet gets her Chosen, she’ll have access to her full power!’’ Henry
argued. ‘’Set will enter this world and darkness will rule. We had to make an attempt at preventing
it!’’

‘’The ritual will only work for Ahmanet.’’ Jenny interjected sharply. ‘’I already told you this.
There’s absolutely no reason for you to plan Nick’s death - my death - anyway.’’

‘’What if she lied to you? For all we know, she was lying!’’ Henry continued to argue.

‘’She wasn’t,’’ Jenny said, ‘’because stabbing me with that dagger isn’t what’s going to bring Set
into the mortal world. He won’t take over my body so you can attempt to kill him.’’

Henry gave her an incredulous look. ‘’Yes, it is. That’s what the ritual is for. You know what the
myths say as well as I do.’’ He pointed towards the antechamber. ‘’You translated them yourself
just yesterday!’’

Jenny stared back stoically, trying to ignore the tears finally drying on her cheeks. ‘’I talked to
Ahmanet, remember? The pact was altered when I freed her. Set wants a mortal body, but not a
female one. He wants a male.’’

Both Henry and Nick were instantly on high-alert. Jenny frowned - had she forgotten to tell Nick
about that? Thinking back, she probably had forgotten to tell him.

‘’What changed, Jennifer?’’ Henry asked demandingly. ‘’Tell me how the pact was changed.’’

Struck witht he sudden sense it was a really bad idea to tell Henry how the pact had changed,
Jenny lied through her teeth. ‘’She didn’t tell me. All she said was that killing me with the dagger
will give her her full power. When I asked about Set, she just told me that I would find out in
time.’’

Both Nick and Henry watched her closely.

‘’Are you sure? She didn’t tell you anything of importance?’’ Nick pressed.

‘’I’m actively helping her enemies to find a way to destroy her,’’ Jenny said dryly. ‘’Do you really
think she’s stupid enough to tell me important information, knowing that I will try to use it against
her?’’

‘’No,’’ Henry said, looking thoughtful. ‘’No, she’s smarter than that. She’d keep you in the dark
to protect herself rather than risk her secrets being exposed.’’

Nick shook his head. ‘’Anyway, getting back on topic - Jenny, are you sure you can’t give us a
more accurate estimate of how long we have left?’’

Henry snapped back to attention. ‘’How do you know that anyway?’’

‘’I’m her Chosen,’’ Jenny said uncomfortably. ‘’We have a link. She can manifest in my dreams. I
fell asleep last night and she was just... there.’’

‘’Did she do anything to you?’’ Nick looked enraged at the thought.

Jenny shook her head. ‘’No. We just talked.’’

Henry took hold of her upper arm, leading her over to one of the large rocks near the doorway to
the antechamber and pushing her down to sit on it. ‘’Tell me everything about that dream. All the
details.’’

‘’We were in a desert,’’ Jenny started, ‘’in Egypt. It had Ahmanet’s childhood home in the
distance, this huge white palace. It’s only a few miles from the Nile. Not sure where exactly. We
talked. Ahmanet told me about her childhood. Then she said that she knew we’re here, in her
tomb, and that she’d be coming for me soon.’’ Jenny swallowed. ‘’That she’d use the dagger on
me.’’ She looked up at Henry and Nick. ‘’I didn’t get a timeline, or her current location. I don’t
know when she’ll get here. All I know is that it’ll be soon.’’

Nick looked horrified. Henry looked like he was planning.

Jenny stared ahead and tried to keep the bile from climbing up her throat. Her stomach was
churning. Tears burned behind her eyes. It was all she could do not to get overwhelmed again like
a few minutes ago.

After a few long seconds, Henry hesitantly cleared his throat. ‘’Are you feeling better, Jennifer?’’

Jenny stared at him for a second, and then burst into tears.
 Chapter 11
Chapter Summary

Jenny gets some time outside the tomb, and has a heart-to-heart with Henry. The
soldiers are informed of her status as the Chosen. Decisions are made. Jenny gets a
guard.

Chapter Notes

Update! And a little quicker than usual, too! Yay!

Not a lot happens in this one, to be honest, but, y'know, sometimes chapters like these
are necessary. I'm pretty sure Ahmanet makes her return next chapter, though, or
maybe the chapter after. Either way, I'm planning a pretty decent confrontation, so...

On another note, school is starting back up in a couple of days, so I shall once again
be spending my days studying law. This means I get less time to write (boo!), and
thus updates will probably be a little less frequent. It really depends on the amount of
homework and stuff, and how many actual lectures I have to attend. I'll try to keep it
to one update a week, but it might be once every two weeks or so instead.

Anyways, the new chapter. Enjoy, and, if you have the time, I'm always happy to
find out what your thoughts are, so feel free to leave a comment!

Nick awkwardly took a seat next to Jenny, carefully placing a steaming mug of piping hot tea on
the table. He pushed it over to her, wincing visibly when Jenny hiccoughed into the handkerchief
Henry had given her and wiped at her eyes.

‘’It’s, um, chamomile,’’ Nick said hesitantly when Jenny failed to reach for the mug. ‘’The, um,
the cook had some of it on hand in case of illnesses and stuff.’’

Henry approached, looking dishevelled, seating himself in the chair on Jenny’s other side rather
ungracefully. ‘’Those sugar cookies you like are being made,’’ he said, ‘’the cook had everything
he needed to make a couple of batches.’’

Jenny wiped at her eyes with the hanky, reaching out for the mug of tea. It was still scalding, the
water having boiled only minutes earlier, and she sipped at it very carefully to avoid burning her
mouth.

The men on either side of her were watching her very carefully. They’d both been rather startled
by Jenny’s little breakdown, and Jenny wasn’t sure to be grateful or offended with how gently
they were suddenly treating her. It was like they thought she was going to shatter into a thousand
little pieces at the first hint of a raised voice or unfriendly look.

Henry cleared his throat. ‘’You know, Jennifer, if I’d known you were Ahmanet’s Chosen, I
would’ve acted differently. You shouldn’t have been afraid to tell me.’’
For a moment, Nick looked outraged. Probably because Henry had been perfectly willing to kill
him trying a ritual that wouldn’t work for redundancy. He quickly got his expression under
control, though, instead making himself look as sympathetic and supportive as possible.

Jenny tried not to snort into her tea. ‘’I know how you treat people you deem threats at Prodigium,
Henry,’’ she said, hating how her voice trembled thickly. ‘’I didn’t want you to lock me up like a
wild animal.’’

‘’I never would have done that to you.’’ Henry stated with conviction. ‘’I’ve known you for
thirteen years. You’re like the daughter I never got to have. I’d have moved heaven and earth to
find a way to free you without harming you.’’ He looked at her, waiting until Jenny looked back.
‘’I’ll find a way, Jennifer. I’ll find a way to kill Ahmanet, and to kill Set, without you being hurt in
the process.’’

Jenny laughed wetly. ‘’That’s impossible, Henry. She already has a hold over me. Killing her
would hurt me. There’s nothing you can do to change that.’’

‘’Regardless, I will try.’’

Nick reached over and squeezed the hand that wasn’t holding her tea. ‘’And I’m gonna be here to
protect you from her until we find out how to get rid of her. I promise.’’

Jenny looked up at Nick. ‘’She said she’s going to kill you, you know.’’

Nick swallowed, but held her gaze determinedly.

‘’It’s because you lied about being her Chosen,’’ Jenny continued. ‘’She said it was an insult to
me. That you were trying to usurp my position as her Chosen and Queen. And she said that she
would kill you for dishonoring me.’’ She looked at Henry. ‘’And she said that she’s going to kill
you too. For being demanding, and for capturing her.’’

Henry gave her a strange smile. It was somewhere between reassuring and threatening. ‘’I’d like
to see her try. She’s not met my… other side yet.’’

Jenny tried not to shudder at the little reference to the alternate personality Henry liked to refer to
as Edward Hyde.

She’d seen Henry’s alter several times, and he terrified her every time he managed to overwhelm
Henry and claw his way to control. Edward Hyde, strangely enough, seemed to harbour a kind of
fondness for Jenny - he had, unlike he had done to other people, not tried to hurt her. Not badly, at
least. The most Jenny had suffered was a fairly light bruise when he’d shoved her out of the way
to get at someone else. Which was probably just about how far the extent of Hyde’s ‘fondness’
stretched, to be honest. That didn’t mean Jenny wasn’t absolutely frightened of him, though -
Eddie Hyde was violent and cruel, the complete opposite of the generally calm and kind Henry
Jekyll.

Henry’s smile lost it’s threatening edge. ‘’Now drink your tea, and then we’ll see about those
cookies.’’

Jenny drank her tea.

The cookies, when they arrived about forty-five minutes later, were the brown sugar and lemon
biscuits Jenny liked best.

As she bit into the first, she couldn’t help but wonder how the cook had gotten the recipe; only a
few people that Jenny knew of knew how to get these cookies just right.

The satisfied glint in Henry’s eyes probably told her all she needed to know.

How he had gotten the recipe, though...

They didn’t make her go down into the tomb for the rest of the day.

Jenny protested, because time was running out as it was and they really did not have enough of it
left for a break, but she gave up fairly quickly. Nick and Henry didn’t seem like they were going
to listen to her anyway. And honestly, Jenny didn’t really want to go in again. She would, in fact,
give quite a lot to never have to go into that tomb ever again.

It was hard to think of the fact that, a week ago, she’d been so utterly excited at finding this place.
It had been her ultimate dream to find Ahmanet’s tomb. She’d searched for it for thirteen years.

The fact that this tomb, her life’s work, would probably lead her to her own grave was a bitter pill
to swallow.

Jenny tried not to think of it, and instead occupied herself with the steady stream of chamomile tea
and sugar-lemon cookies offered by Nick and Henry.

Besides, there was some entertainment (and distraction) to be had in camp; a couple of the soldiers
had brought some simple games with them. And since Jenny had nothing better to do, she found
herself playing Go Fish with Nick, Henry and a handful of soldiers. She was losing terribly, but it
was entertaining and it took her mind off things, so Jenny didn’t mind losing.

Once Jenny had sufficiently calmed down, a while later, and wasn’t about to start freaking out
right in the middle of the tent, Henry leaned in to talk quietly in her ear.

‘’I’m going to tell my troops you’re the Chosen, Jennifer. It’s to make sure they know protecting
you is the priority,’’ Henry explained to her as he put down his cards, keeping his voice low so
only Jenny and Nick could properly hear him, ‘’we can’t let Ahmanet get to you, and they need to
know who to protect should it come down to that.’’

Jenny nodded silently, deciding that silence was the better part of valour. She was pretty sure that,
if she opened her mouth and said anything, her voice would break. Or she would cry again. Or
both.

She felt her hand being squeezed, and looked at Nick. It was a habit he’d picked up somewhere in
the last few hours. Jenny couldn’t find it in herself to be annoyed by it. It was actually kind of
reassuring. Which was odd, because a couple of days ago, Jenny had been dead-set on hating
Nick for trying to steal her life’s work.

Henry cleared his throat. ‘’Tahn, would you go gather everyone, please? I have a few
announcements to make.’’

‘’Yes, sir,’’ Tahn said, dropping his hand of cards on the table and standing up. He marched out
of the tent without pause. Jenny watched him go with an odd sort of resignation in her stomach.
All of the soldiers would know soon enough. She didn’t know what to expect of that, didn’t know
how they’d react and treat her once they knew the truth, and Jenny wasn’t sure she really wanted
to know either.
Not that she had much choice in the matter.

Henry seemed pretty intent on making sure she was protected, and apparently that meant she
needed a lot of soldiers around her. Jenny wasn’t sure how she felt about this either. She wasn’t
very keen on being surrounded by soldiers at all times.

Jenny focussed stubbornly on her hand of cards. It was a bad hand. She wouldn’t be yelling ‘go
fish!’ anytime soon, that was for sure. Maybe next round - if there was going