Do you really think that Tutankhamen would have taken a chance on some pale girl with pretty eyes had you not been the priestess of Anubis?”“You did.” The words fall out of me.“What?”I look up at him. “You took a chance on me.” I sit up, breath heavy in my throat. “When I was nothing but a dead, lost thing.

If I wasn't discovering something, if I wasn't studying, well then, what was I doing? I know I wouldn’t be happy unless I made a difference. So what was the happiness of a moment worth against the happiness of my life?' I let out a breathy laugh and squeeze his hand. 'I guess it doesn't matter now.” I stare out over camp, but a glassy sadness blurs my vision. “Have you ever wanted something so much that everything else in the world seemed so small?'He tilts his head toward me, narrowing his eyes. 'I'm beginning to.

Ahhh.' Anubis narrows his eyes at me. “I’ve given you inspiration. Now you’re thinking about bringing the lightbulb to ancient Egypt. It would be a hit––all those dark tombs.”You. I was thinking about you. His eyebrows rise. “Huh? Me?”Fluorine uranium carbon potassium. I said that out loud. 'I mean,' I stutter, 'I was thinking about…unimolecular reactions.

I want to go home.”“Impossible. You’re here now.”“But why?”“Jane Ezrael,” Anubis says, “you’re dead.

She wants me. And I am terrified, knowing how much I want her back.

And whose heart do you want me to steal?” The words escape me in a whisper.A small smile pricks Aten’s lips. “King Tutankhamen.

Well, it’s probably a good thing Anubis didn’t kiss me. I would have died all over again.

From beneath the folds of his robes, he reveals a small steel dagger. “You have tempted fate so many times already and still yield to it. Time for history to rewrite itself. Time for Tutankhamen to have a new ending.” Aten holds the hilt out to me.I stare at the dagger. The hilt is bronze, carved with sun discs that glow when they catch the sun. “What do you want me to do with that?”Aten smiles a white, gaping grin. “Kill Tutankhamen and carve out his heart.

My name is Zia Rashid.

I bet if I were pharaoh, I’d have had my tomb planned and designed by the time I was ten. I've always wanted to be five steps ahead of where I am. And my mind does it right now: I picture the king on his deathbed, and Ay delivers the awful news to me, but I'm the best embalmer in Thebes thanks to Anubis, so I'm alone in a dark room, and I cut open his soft chest, and take out a heart filled with dreams and love and sadness.