No harm ever came from reading a book

@disasterlibrarian​  

Lilith studied Evy with a quiet curiosity for a long moment before she finally decided to give voice to the question that had grown in her mind. “With how your own life is so completely and consistently entwined with destiny, your past lives and pre-destined battles….do you ever wonder just how, precisely, fate might be involved in your son’s life? What factors might…eventually and inevitably come into play” 

“I do.” How could she not wonder, after what Lilith had said about her actions affecting everyone? Evy tensed at the words “pre-destined battles.” There was a part of her that enjoyed the thrill of fighting for her life, but it had been weakened by the events of Ahm Shere. She felt no great desire to battle another ancient evil for the fate of mankind, and if -- God forbid -- that was indeed her destiny, the last thing she wanted was for Alex to be involved. “He’ll be all right, won’t he? You said my family would be fine.”

As useless as the words had been without their object of power, Ammit had been surprised to hear the ancient magic spoken by a mortal. With only a couple of exceptions, it had been millenia since anyone had attempted to harness that power. Her surprise lessened – or perhaps shifted – when she looked up at the crying mortal to see Nefertiri’s face. It seemed the princess still hadn’t learned not to play around where death was concerned. Maybe her resurrection had made her arrogant.

Ammit could fix that…

She lifted a hand with every intention of making a killing blow — of tasting what she was sure would be a sweet and tender Ba – but only placed her palm against the woman’s tear-stained cheeks. This vessel, empty though it had been, did not want to harm its mate’s.

No concern, she would gain more control of this one as time went on. For now, Ammit could use a guide in the unfamiliar mortal world. Once she was comfortable, and fully herself, she could dispatch the princess and do away with her meddling soul forever.

Until then, Ammit could use the last vestiges of the vessel’s memories to play along as well as she could.

“Do not cry, N-Evelyn,” she said, her voice raspy and deeper than she had expected. “I’m here, too.” She sat up, with some effort, and turned back to the other woman, taking Evelyn’s shaking hands in hers. “Your husband is here,” then, as an afterthought, “sweetheart.”

Evy had never felt colder or emptier than in the few minutes when she’d found herself facing a world without Rick. The warmth of his touch spread through her like fire, and she sat soaking it in for a moment before turning her head to brush her lips against his palm, her heart nearly bursting with joy and relief. Her joy was briefly dampened by confusion when he spoke, however. The voice was unquestionably Rick’s -- hoarser than usual, but that was to be expected; Evy had also had difficulty speaking in the first moments after Alex woke her up. No, what concerned her were the words; they were so different from her husband’s usual manner of speech. Was something wrong with him?

She blinked and shook her head, telling herself she was probably fretting over nothing. The man had just died and come back to life, and so he wasn’t feeling quite himself; that was all. When she’d first awakened, it had been impossible to tell if she was Evelyn or Nefertiri. Perhaps Rick, too, was experiencing memories of his past life, where he’d been a Medjai assigned to protect her.