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Eye of Horus in his possession, he will be able to find it on his own, but a shadow cannot return to the mortal realm.” Anubis paused, then rubbed his fingers together, looking at them instead of me. “Do you want to know my theory?”
    I swallowed and said weakly, “Sure.”
    “I believe…Amon left his heart containing his true name with you. Such a thing has only happened once before, and Amon would well know that using magic of that kind is strictly forbidden. In truth the knowledge of it has been hidden from all but the gods. Of course, in Amon’s case, having access to the Eye of Horus, he would be privy to such spells.”
    “A sp-spell?” I stammered, a cold sweat spreading across my skin.
    “It was used once before by Isis and Osiris. Isis enacted a spell so that she and her husband could never wholly be separated. Even death could not keep them apart.”
    “But Seth killed Osiris.”
    “He did. Since death is natural and Isis used unnatural means to enact the spell, there were, shall we say…complications. A terrible price was paid, and the balance of the cosmos needed to be adjusted. Such a thing has been prohibited since that time.”
    “It worked, though. Didn’t it? I mean the two of them are still together. Amon told me about how she tricked Amun-Ra so she could visit her husband.”
    “Yes. It worked,” he admitted.
    “Even so, I don’t see what all that has to do with me and Amon. We broke the bond, remember? I had to kill him.”
    “You did. But if such a spell linked you prior to Amon’s death, it would still be in effect upon your separation.”
    “Well, he didn’t do a spell that I recall,” I hedged.
    “I have not come to judge either one of you. What has happened, has happened. My purpose is to rectify the important issue at hand.”
    “Finding Amon,” I murmured thoughtfully. He bowed his head in affirmation and I said, “I get it. I do. But I’m afraid you don’t understand. Amon doesn’t
want
to pick up where he left off. He wants to quit his job.”
    “No, Lilliana. It is you who doesn’t understand. Amon
must
be rescued. If you will not do it to save the cosmos from the worst kind of darkness and evil you can imagine, and if you will not do it to save the lives of Asten and Ahmose, who will die a permanent death the same instant that Amon does, then perhaps you will do it to save Amon from endless torture and pain, for that is what he experiences right now.
    “What I fear the most is not his death or knowing that he suffers. It is that he will be found by the Devourer of the Dead, who resides in the netherworld. She seeks out those lost souls who wander the Paths of Desolation and sates her endless appetite by consuming them. If she gets her hands on him, Amon’s suffering will be eternal, for she can feed off of him continually.
    “His connection to you will make him especially desirable to her. It is not often that she has the opportunity to feast upon a heart like Amon’s, a heart that is filled with love. The blackened souls we send to her are never satisfying enough and any remaining energies they retain are consumed too quickly. Her power is held in check simply because we starve her. A juicy heart such as Amon’s, fueled by your bond, would grant her enough energy to escape the confines of the netherworld.”
    “I thought you said his heart was missing.”
    “That is my…theory.”
    “Then how can she eat it?”
    Anubis sighed. “The link between Amon and his brothers and between the two of you makes all four of you susceptible, for she can sense you through him. Whatever piece of Amon’s heart remains, whether it’s his memory or his soul, it will be as enticing to her as fresh blood is to a shark.”
    Holy Egyptian heaven.
My hands shook. I wasn’t sure if I actually understood everything Anubis was explaining, but I couldn’t deny the seriousness of the situation. “Assuming all of this is true, and I believed it and wanted to do something