Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

I stop outside my family home, Kema swaying on my shoulder. Maybe I shouldn't have brought her, but I'm supposed to be getting her used to being outside and after nearly two months of training, I finally feel as if we've got a good thing going.

Not that it makes me comfortable with heading inside. I'm not sure how well I'm going to do with having a whole dinner of hearing about how wonderful it is to have all of the temples represented under one roof. And no doubt Mum is going to tell me all the ways she thinks I'm doing a bad job with my training.

I grasp my scarab in my hand, ignoring how it pushes my formal collar up to press into my neck. It soothes me a bit and makes me feel more prepared to head inside.

"Well, I guess there's no putting it off," I say to Kema. "Ready to meet the family? I think Rash's kestrel will be here, but the two of you aren't allowed to get into a fight."

Kema looks at me as if she doesn't know what I'm talking about. And maybe she doesn't, we haven't had that much time to bond yet.

I let go of my scarab and resettle my collar into the right position before taking a deep breath and stepping through the front door. Familiar voices echo through the hallway, but it only increases my dread over what I'm going to find once I'm in the dining room. I know what my parents are like and I doubt Ben and me being Blessed is actually going to help with any of their pressure-inducing tendencies. If anything, it's going to make them worse.

"Ah, you're here," Mum says as she spots me in the doorway.

I give her a tight smile. "I am." I use my arm to gesture for Kema to head for the perch.

This time, she seems to sense what I'm suggesting and spreads her wings to soar over, settling herself on the perch and watching everyone intently. Rash isn't here yet, but Kema seems to keep a keen eye on Dad's goose. Luckily, she's currently too small to successfully make a meal out of him, and by the time she's bigger, she should be better trained.

"Sit," Mum instructs. "Your brother and Mesu are with your dad in the garden."

"Mesu's here?" I ask, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. I haven't seen him since tableau practice a couple of weeks ago.

"Yes. Your dad asked them for help with his shed, you know what he's like. We heard that he's Seth Blessed too."

"He is," I acknowledge, trying to get my thoughts in line.

Mesu.

Here.

When we still haven't talked about our conversation the other day.

"Are you all right?" Mum asks. "You look a bit pale, are they treating you well at the temple? You know you can move back home if you want?"

"I'm fine," I assure her with a tight smile. "Everyone is lovely at the temple." And I definitely don't want to move back home .

"I remember those days," she muses, looking off into space. "I met your dad in that first week, we were paired together during practice for the creation myth tableau."

I freeze. "You were?"

"Oh yes. Have I never told you the story?"

It's probably more of a case I wasn't listening when she did, but I don't say that out loud. "I guess I never realised that's how you met."

"He was my favourite Geb," she says, a dreamy note entering her voice that is really stomach-churning for me. "The others were all right. But they had nothing on him. I used to love being partnered with him."

I nod, not really knowing what to say. All I can think of is Mesu playing Seth opposite my Nephthys, even if no part of the creation myth we were working on was romantic, it certainly felt like there was something between us.

"Have you started doing the practices yet?" she asks, oblivious to my churning thoughts.

"Yes."

"Oh good. That's an excellent position for you to have. You should try to impress your mentors so they select you to be the Nephthys next time someone important comes to London. Maybe it'll even be the Pharaoh on her coronation tour. I hear she's coming."

"I'm not sure it's really for me."

"Just give it a go," she counters. "Maybe it's the Seth you're partnered with. What's he like?"

"He's..." One of my oldest friends. The object of a lot of my current thoughts.

Walking into the room right now.

"Mesu," I say, unable to tear my gaze away from him.

"Shan, I didn't realise you were here," he says, his surprise coming through his voice.

"I just arrived," I say.

Our gazes lock and neither of us moves as we try to process how we're feeling around one another. Or I assume that's what this is, it's certainly how I'm feeling.

"Are you staying for dinner, Mesu?" Mum asks.

He clears his throat, clearly a bit frazzled. "I was going to head back to the temple."

"Nonsense, you should stay. I'll go set a new place at the table." She gets to her feet and bustles off. Dad's goose waddling and honking behind her.

"Kema is with me today," I say awkwardly, gesturing to the perch.

"So I see. Are you bonding well?" He doesn't move from his spot in the middle of the room.

"As far as I can tell," I respond, looking over at my kite and wondering if there's something I'm missing that'll tell me about her well-being.

"Good, good."

Footsteps sound and I look up, almost hoping it's Mum coming back in the room, only to find it's Ben instead.

He looks between us, a curious expression on his face. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," I say a little too quickly.

"I'm just..." Mesu waves around before deciding to sit down as far away from me as possible.

"You're both being weird," Ben says as he flops down beside me. "Did you guys kiss or something? Is he bad?" he asks me.

"What? No! How should I know?" The room feels as if it's gotten about ten degrees hotter as I do everything I can to avoid Mesu's gaze.

He shrugs. "Weren't you paired together in creation myth class?"

"That doesn't mean we kissed," I murmur.

He shrugs. "It's part of one of the scenes. I don't know why you're being so strange about it."

"We grew up together," Mesu ventures.

"Exactly," I respond. "It would be like kissing a brother."

"That's perfect for playing Seth and Nephthys," Ben jokes.

I run my finger under the edge of my collar, trying to find a way out of this conversation that doesn't involve revealing that we have kissed, and it was definitely not for a tableau of any kind.

Nor was it bad.

"It wouldn't be like kissing a brother," I say firmly. "I'm sure Mesu is a very good kisser." I meet his gaze as I say it and instantly wish I hadn't. There's something akin to hope lingering in his eyes and I don't want him to think this means anything. I don't want to think that myself either.

Ben looks at Mesu. "I think part of the Nephthys Blessed magic must be making her act strange."

"I haven't felt any magic," I murmur.

Both of them look at me at once.

"Seriously?" Ben asks. "Not even that feeling in your gut when you go into a sacred space?"

My eyes widen. " That's what that is? I just thought I was nervous."

He laughs. "You didn't realise that was your Blessed Sense?"

"You didn't either," Mesu reminds him. "And it was only because I got it too that we thought to ask one of the older Blessed. Shan's on her own."

"I'd still have questioned it on my own," Ben protests.

"Would you?" Mesu raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing my twin.

Despite the confusing feelings within me, I find myself smiling in response. Maybe dinner isn't going to be so bad with Mesu here. Especially when Ben clearly has no idea that things are a little strained between us.

"Dinner is ready," Mum calls through.

Ben is on his feet within seconds, rushing into the dining room as if he's completely forgotten that we're all about to get grilled about life at the temple, and pushed towards the paths our parents deem best.

I get to my feet and head to the door, running into Mesu as he does the same. He reaches out a hand to steady me, his touch making butterflies dance within me.

I look up, meeting his gaze. My breathing hitches, and for one moment, I completely forget that we're standing in the middle of our family home and everyone is waiting for us, I just want it to be the two of us and nothing more.

He clears his throat. "We should go through for dinner." He doesn't take his hand off my arm even as he says it.

"We should," I respond, my words coming out as barely a whisper.

"Shan..."

I shake my head. "Not now." I step away, only realising as I do that in saying that, I've implied that there is going to be a time to talk about this.

And maybe there should be. We clearly can't continue on like this if it's even obvious to Ben that there's something off between us.

"Okay," he says softly. "We should go eat."

"And avoid talking about kissing."

"Your brother is the one that brought that up," he points out.

"My brother, your best friend. Who's to say which one is weirder?"

"Your brother, definitely," he counters. "Especially if he finds out I kissed you."

"Then maybe you should sleep with your door locked just in case. Unless you share a room."

"Thankfully, we don't."

"You're lucky, Ben snores badly."

"Oh, I remember from all the times I used to stay here," he responds, gesturing for us to head through to the dining room. "There was one night where it was so bad I snuck out of his room and into yours."

I laugh. "I remember that. I tripped over you when I got up to go to the bathroom."

"And when you got back, we spent several hours plotting what we were going to eat at the Tamesis Festival the next day."

I smile at the memory. "And what prizes we were going to win. Didn't we plan on trying to get the stuffed hawk with a sun disk on his head?"

He groans. "We did. But all we ended up with was a pair of scarab charms."

My stomach does a funny flip-flop and I stop in my tracks.

"Shan?" Concern shows on his face, and he glances towards the dining room to check we're still alone. He steps closer. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I say, regaining my ability to think properly. "It's just I realised I rarely take that scarab off."

Surprise flits over his face. "You don't?"

I shake my head and fiddle with my ornate collar so I can pull the thin leather cord from around my neck. On the end is a blue-glazed scarab.

"I didn't realise you wore it." His voice is full of something that sounds like awe.

"Well, scarabs are supposed to bring luck. So I put it on before a test I was really nervous about and I got great marks, so I just...kept wearing it."

"I didn't realise." He reaches out to touch it but thinks better of it and pulls his hand away.

I meet his gaze, feeling the intensity of the emotions within me.

It almost makes me certain of what I want. The only problem is that it does nothing to help me with all the expectations that's going to bring with it, even if I don't want to face them.

Ben appears, making the two of us jump back from one another. I tuck the scarab safely away and straighten my collar.

"Are you two coming?" he asks. "Mum's asking me loads of questions already and I'd much prefer it if you were in here to deflect some of them."

"Sorry, we're coming. Mesu was just helping me...practise for next time I'm playing Nephthys." I grimace at the terrible lie.

Ben sighs. "Great, Mum's going to love that." He turns and disappears back into the dining room.

"So, I guess we're going in," I murmur.

"I guess so," Mesu responds, his hand reaching out and grazing my lower back as we head into the dining room and to the dozens of questions that are about to head our way.