Ancient Hearts: A Time Travel Fantasy Romance (Kingdom of Sand & Stars Book 1)

by Candace Osmond

  “You put everyone here in danger,” he added, then softened his tone as he took a step closer to me. “Peach, there are children here. You need to think before–”

  “I did think!” I finally broke. “About Silas. And nothing else.” I pushed off from the wall and let my hands flap to my sides. “I can’t believe you’ve been here this whole time and haven’t saved him. Dad, you know he would have risked everything to rescue you from a situation like that.”

  He exchanged a knowing glance with Anubis. “It’s not that simple, sweetheart.”

  “Why?” I stomped my foot. “Why isn’t it simple? What’s so hard about it?” I hauled the necklace out from under my shirt. “And what the hell is so damn special about this stone? I demand answers. I deserve them.”

  Dad shrugged out of his knitted sweater with a heavy sigh and slowly folded it before placing it on a chair. I knew what was coming. A famous Alistair Godfrey lecture. But I had more of myself to explain before he dove into all the reasons why I was a fool.

  “I had to try, Dad,” I said calmly. His eyes sparkled with pity. “I had to find him. I need it, you have no idea how badly. For two whole years, I’ve carried this disgusting guilt around everywhere I went and it’s slowly killing me.”

  “Guilt?” His face pinched with confusion.

  I shrugged and toed the floor with my boot. “About…your deaths. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, I would have been here when the cave-in happened. I would have been the voice of reason and never would have let you guys go down into the pit without a crew.” My throat tingled with treacherous emotion. “I…could have saved you both. You and Silas.”

  “Oh, Peach,” Dad replied sympathetically. His hands rubbed my upper arms and coaxed me to sit down next to Anubis. “That’s not–” He shook his head and pinched the bridge between his eyes. “The man you knew, he’s gone. That wasn’t Silas in that temple tonight. Well, I mean, it was. Physically–”

  “Just tell me what’s going on.” I looked between him and the Egyptian god that sat next to me. “You’re driving me insane here.”

  Anubis rose to his feet. “Enough of this. Alistair, she’s correct. If what you say is true, then Andie deserves to know everything.”

  “Dad?” I urged with glossy eyes. His reluctance was making me nervous.

  My father pulled up a rickety wooden stool and sat across from me. “The man you saw tonight is Silas, yes. But it’s the version of who he was before he came to work with me years ago. He’s under the control of Horus right now and doesn’t know who you are.”

  My throat tightened. “Is that supposed to explain everything? That just leaves me with even more questions.”

  He rubbed his hands together with a deep sigh. “We don’t really know exactly what happened, but soon after he and I arrived here, he was taken by Horus. Somehow, his mind was wiped. Or parts of his memory, we’re not completely sure yet.”

  His words hurt my brain and I tried to piece together the jumbled ideas. “But wait. Back up. Why would Horus take him? Why would he wipe Silas’ memory?”

  Anubis moaned quietly. I could sense his impatience with the whole situation, and I felt bad for what I put him through. “Horus’ brother, Amun, has been residing in the body of this man you call Silas. That’s what Horus wants. Amun’s memory. Amun’s knowledge of this colony and the portal we protect.”

  My eyes bulged and I leaned back in my chair. Adrenaline rushed over my chest like an undertow. “Um, what?”

  Dad leaned forward and took my hands in his, willing me to look him in the eye. “The soul of Amun had lived in Silas’ body for years. It’s how my research took off. It’s how he was able to help us find so many hidden treasures all over the world. He and I worked together to uncover things humanity never would have dreamed of, and I aided him in finding this very place. We were the perfect team. But the plan never involved me returning to the past. Only him.”

  I chewed at the inside of my cheek. None of it made any sense. “So, you’re saying that an ancient God possessed the body of the man I love?”

  “Not quite possessed,” he replied. “More like co-existed. Amun and Silas both resided in the body. Shared one another’s thoughts and memories. When the presence of Amun was wiped, it only left Silas behind and open to Horus’ ability to control the minds of men.”

  I struggled to follow. “But…how? How did the soul of an ancient Egyptian god get inside of a kid from Halifax?”

  Dad’s stare dropped to the stone around my neck. “With that.”

  I tipped my chin down and slipped one of my hands from Dad’s grasp to let the weight of the rock sit in my palm. “Silas’ necklace?”

  Anubis shifted on his feet and crossed his arms. “Technically, it belongs to Amun. It’s crafted from the same stardust that created us all. It’s how we remain immortal. When Amun dies, his soul is stored inside the pendant until it can be resurrected in a new body. Preferably an available one. The fact that this man Silas was alive while Amun was resurrected is unheard of.”

  “It may have something to do with the circumstances surrounding the whole event,” Dad chimed in. “During our first dig together, the one where we discovered the necklace, Silas was injured and knocked unconscious. But he held the stone in his hand. His blood smeared all over it and I watched the thing glow to a blinding light before Silas awoke a new man.”

  I hopped to my feet and immediately regretted it as my mind swarmed in circles, threatening to push me down. My stomach churned and a wave of nausea washed over me. I stumbled over to the shallow countertop that held my father’s cooking trinkets and braced myself against the edge as I focused on my breathing.

  “Andelyn?” I felt my father’s comforting hand against my sweaty back. “Are you alright?”

  “It’s too much,” I muttered before squashing down a vomity belch. “I think I’m going to be sick. Just give me a minute.”

  “It is a lot for one to process,” Anubis added from behind. Niya rubbed her head against my leg and I tried not to think of the fact that she was a magical manifestation. “But I find it strange that you didn’t at least suspect any of this prior to coming here.”

  I managed to turn my head in his direction and glared at him from under my lowered brows. “You find it strange that I didn’t assume my boyfriend and father survived a cave in because they used a time portal to escape?”

  “No, the part about Amun and Silas,” he replied with hesitation in his tone.

  A cold shudder ran through me and I stood straight as I turned to my father. “Wait a second. You said Amun entered Silas’ body during your first excursion together?”

  “Yes,” Dad replied with a reluctant sigh. As if he knew where this was going. “You knew him as Silas, but the man has always been Amun.”

  “Why?” I tried to ignore the whine in my voice. “Why the lies? You could have trusted me.”

  Dad shook his head. “Silas made me swear not to tell another living soul. He said our world wasn’t ready. We made a deal, though. He would help me with my work if I helped him to find a way back.”

  “Back?” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. “To here?”

  Dad gave a slight nod. “He was disappointed in the future we lived. Said it wasn’t right, something went wrong. He felt it was his duty to find a way back to this time and fix it. The plan never included me going with him, of course, only helping him find the portal.”

  The tinge of betrayal seeped back into my chest and I winced from the pain. “So, Silas was just going to leave without an explanation?”

  A pitiful smile crept across his lips and he tipped his head to the side. “At first, yes. But then, over time, his plan changed. When we first found the portal, it was broken. We worked to fix it for months. Silas was determined to make sure he had a way back to the future when his work was done here. He refused to leave until he knew for sure. I thought it was because he preferred our time, or simply enjoyed working with me. But now I know.” Dad r
eached for my face and wiped a stray tear that streamed down my cheek. “He didn’t want to leave until he knew he could come back to you.”

  Out of all the crazy things that happened to me in the last week, this was the hardest to digest. I waited a beat for him to tell me it was all some cosmic joke. That this was all some elaborate dream, or I’d suffered a serious brain injury and they were just amusing me. My mouth gaped, empty of words, as I looked at Anubis. He crouched and listened intently while Niya wove through his dangling fingers. No, I never would have dreamed up any of this. Which meant…

  The man I loved was an ancient Egyptian God from another world.

  “Andie?” Anubis said.

  I heard his voice, but it rang inside my ears like an echo from far away. I couldn’t move.

  “Alistair, she’s not even blinking. Her skin…she’s gone almost translucent. Should I fetch Eirik?”

  I shook my head and managed to blink. The sudden wetness burned. “I don’t need a doctor.”

  “What do you need, Peach?” Dad asked. “What can I do?”

  I squared my jaw and looked him right in the eyes. “You can help me save Silas.”

  “Andelyn,” Dad replied with a sigh. “We’ve been circling that for nearly two years. He’s violent, unpredictable, powerful, and heavily protected by Horus.”

  “We have to try,” I pleaded. Desperation ran hot in my veins and I held on tight. “There has to be something we can do. Anything. Something you haven’t thought of. Someone who can help?”

  Dad exchanged another look with Anubis. “Oh, Peach, I–”

  “Actually, she may be right,” Anubis chimed in. Dad gawked at him. “We’ve tried separating Amun from his brother in the past, but it’s only cost us lives and resources.”

  “He never leaves the temple,” my father countered. “Not without a handful of guards surrounding him.”

  Anubis’ wide mouth turned up with a grin as his eyes focused with purpose behind them. “Almost never. But there may be someone who can lure him away without suspicion. Someone Horus would never think to betray him.”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “The same person who made that necklace,” he replied and stood up. His massive frame towered over me. “Their mother, Isis.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  My feet were like cement blocks as I dragged them through the winding halls of the colony toward my room. It was the middle of the night, so Dad and Anubis decided it best to leave at first light. As eager as I was to get the ball rolling on our plan to save Silas, part of me was relieved. My body was wrung from all energy and I yearned for the comfort of my bed.

  A shower wouldn’t hurt, either.

  I wondered, then, what the colonists did for bathing down here. My room only had a washbasin for freshening up. Were there larger rooms with amenities like a bathtub? Or was there some communal bathing area?

  My skin stuck to my clothes with a thick sheen of vodka sweats and dust from the air. My hair was beginning to clump together in greasy, sandy strands. But I’d worry about that later. I needed sleep like I needed to breathe.

  In just a few short hours, I’d discovered my father was alive, trekked across the desert in search of my amnesia ridden boyfriend who, in turn, murdered me and tossed my body in a shallow grave. Then I was thrust back into my body by the Egyptian grim reaper. Sleep was needed, but a drink would be even better. I pulled aside the curtain that served as my door and entered my room to find Shadow sitting on my bed, my backpack at his side.

  “Shadow!” I took a few long strides over to him and his answering coos gave me a sense of relief I never knew I needed.

  He was covered in dirt, the greenish gray skin of his knees scuffed and bleeding. I took his tiny, three-fingered hands in mine to examine them. Then I noticed the fresh wear marks on my bag.

  “Did you drag this back all by yourself?”

  My palms filled with the same warmth as before, when he communicated with me, and I knew. He’d been scared and ran back with my bag in tow.

  “You poor thing,” I said and scratched behind one of his leathery ears. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Like a small child, I carried him over to the table that held the washbasin and dipped a clean cloth in the cold water. Before long, the water turned black as I cleaned his wounds and wiped the caked dirt from his scaly skin.

  “I could use a bath myself.” I shrugged out of my leather jacket and let it fall to the floor. “But I’m exhausted and I’m betting you are, too.”

  I shuffled back to the bed and crawled over the lumpy surface as I kicked off my dirty boots. A weakened breath exhaled from my chest and I didn’t know if I could peel myself from the spot if I tried. Shadow hauled himself up the side and squat at the foot of the bed, a hesitant expression on his cute lizardy face.

  I smiled and patted the straw-filled mattress next to me. “Come on, then.”

  He hopped over and nuzzled up to me like a cat. Before long, we were both drifting off. All thoughts of the nightmarish day falling behind me as I welcomed the empty void of sleep. I needed it. For tomorrow would bring a new wave of uncertainties. But I took one comforting thought with me as I spiraled into coma-like sleep.

  I was one step closer to getting Silas back.

  ***

  My internal clock was all askew without the rise and fall of the sun to tell me what time it was. But an annoying ruffling sound stirred me from sleep, and I peeled open an eye to find all the contents of my bag scattered across the bed. Shadow’s back was facing me as he hunched over a pile of my stuff.

  “What are you doing?” I asked with a croaky morning voice. He immediately flinched and spun around in a cower. “Hey, no, it’s okay, I’m not mad.” He smelled like beef jerky and the bits of torn wrapper at his feet told me he finished off my stash. I grinned and patted his head. “Guess I’ll need to find some new rations.”

  He let out a stream of little purrs as he grabbed one of my liquor bottles and held it up with a curious look. I took it and stared at the crystal-clear promise inside.

  “It’s called vodka,” I told him. He tipped his head from side to side, his thin ears flopping about as he examined the bottle. “I need it,” I added, and the admittance stung my heart. “It’s bad stuff, but I’m dependant on it. Like…medicine.”

  The curtain moved at the side of my vision and I peered up to see Dad duck into my room.

  “Morning, Peach,” he said chipperly and set a small tray of food down on the table.

  I really needed a damn door. “Morning, Dad. What’s that?”

  He motioned to the tray. “Breakfast and hot tea. Courtesy of Eirik. They insisted I feed you, as if you weren’t capable of doing it yourself.”

  Eirik wasn’t wrong. If eating was on my list of priorities right now, it’d be near the bottom. I smiled, grateful for the kind gesture.

  “Did you sleep well?” he asked and took a few leery steps closer to the bed.

  I shrugged and ran a hand through my unruly hair where it got stuck. “Like the dead.”

  “Andelyn,” Dad said disappointedly.

  I tore through a couple of knots in my hair and grabbed an elastic from the pile of belongings on my bed. “It’s Andie, Dad. Has been for years.”

  He opened his mouth to retort, but I watched the attempt exhale from his body as he stuffed his hands inside the pockets of his woven sweater. He knew better. My father’s gaze fell on my scattered collection of belongings and a look of pure disappointment entered his eyes. Then I realized, as I followed the stare…

  The vodka bottles.

  I scrambled them back into the bag. “Uh, from the plane.”

  He nodded and pursed his lips as he took a step closer. “The journal. I see you found it.”

  Relief flooded my chest. I wasn’t ready to have that conversation with my father. The one where I had to admit his worst fear. That I had become my mother. The tortured alcoholic that left him with a newborn baby and a broken heart.<
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  “Yeah, pretty much all of this is yours,” I replied and picked up the old leather journal. “Do you want it back?”

  Dad waved it off. “No, no. You keep it. It’s all up here, anyway.” He tapped the side of his head with a grin then guffawed. “I hid that book under my desk for so long, in hopes you’d never find it. And here it was the very thing that led you to me. Wasn’t it?”

  I nodded as I began pulling everything toward me and stuffing it all back in my backpack. Shadow sniffed around at the remnants of beef jerky crumbs that clung to things. “That, and sheer stubbornness.”

  He let out a laugh. “Not surprised.” A slightly awkward silence hung between us. Dad cleared his throat. “You ready to go? We’re, uh, leaving for Isis’ soon.”

  “Have you been there before?” I asked.

  “Sadly, no,” he replied. “I rarely leave the colony. My work anchors me here.” He pointed at my head. “You can thank me for that fancy little earpiece. Took me a solid eight months to rejig it for English.”

  I mindlessly reached up and brushed the annoying metal device that incessantly tugged at the skin near my ear. “You made these?”

  “No. The Star People have had them for years, to communicate with one another. When I arrived here, I could get by with some of the native Egyptian speakers but was lost with all the others. I worked closely with the Mau People and Eirik to add English to the list of languages it translates.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” I said with a grin. Then a thought occurred. “Wait. Isis’ temple. Wasn’t that uncovered in Italy?”

  Dad slowly wandered about my room, examining the bare walls and my make-shift door. “The one devoted to her worship, yes. But she resides on the other side of the Nile. Not as far as Italy, but far, nonetheless.” He motioned at the basin of cold water. “Get cleaned up and some food in you. We’re leaving shortly.”