Chapter 4

House of Sacrifice

"Considering we have an infinitely long journey ahead of us, are you going to tell me what sent you over the edge, Nina?" Eddie inquired only a few minutes into our trip. I noticed Elena and Nile exchange a laughing glance, but Raet didn't even acknowledge our existence. Something told me she wasn't just the serious one, but the stuck-up one too.

"I didn't go over the edge." Eddie didn't understand; I'd done nothing wrong.

Clearly he didn't agree, "You lied about only talking to Anubis once, you've been to this Du'at before, you know how to do magic, but most of all you changed your number and didn't tell anyone. If that's not going over the edge then I don't know what is."

"I just needed space," I explained. "Fabian was dating Mara and you weren't the Osirian…"

"But I was still your friend," a hurt Eddie reminded. "After everything we went through surely you know that even without a genetic need to protect you I'm still here for you. What happened?"

I sighed and began kicking the rocky earth before answering, "It's hard to explain. I remember sitting at my own graduation when suddenly I couldn't breathe. It was like a piece of my soul was missing. Then Anubis appears and say your Osirian spirit was gone and…" How could I explain this? "Do you remember what it felt like when your Osirian spirit was activated?"

"How could I forget? Patricia and Alfie had just freed me from Rufus and I came back and the house was… talking. I could hear the house talking to me and telling me to find you."

"It wasn't the house, that was Osiris," I told him with a shrug. "But I don't mean what happened I mean how did you feel?"

Eddie squinted for a minute before he remembered, "It was like the world had more depth… like I had more depth. I felt different. I didn't feel the need to act out anymore because I'd found my purpose and my purpose was to find and save you."

"And now?" I prompted. The only way Eddie could understand what I'd felt all summer was for him to understand what he'd lost.

"Now I feel like that lost teen again. I'm still more mature… but that sense of purpose, that definite reason for being. I don't have it." Confusion dawned on Eddie's face when he spoke again, "How did I never realize that before?"

"Because I took it from you," I confessed thinking of the choice Anubis gave me at graduation. "Anubis appeared to me with your Osirian spirit cradled in his hands. He told me that while the Osirian spirit had no place to go not only was I in danger, but the former Osirian wouldn't be able to get closure. When I asked what I could do to help you since you'd always helped me, Anubis told me that you still wore your ring despite it being useless. The ring's connection was broken, but Anubis could do a spell that bound me to you that way you could continue to feel my sense of purpose and understanding."

"Why do you make it sound like that was a bad thing?" Even without knowing exactly what the connection entailed guilt laced his voice. He knew keeping him from pain had made me a bit crazy.

"You had my sense of purpose, and I got your sense of confusion," I admitted before speaking quickly. "It was no big deal, really. Think of all the times you got hurt because of me. Or the times you risked your life to save me. I owed you, and I wasn't going to take away you and Patricia's newlywed happiness by sacking you with the feeling of being forever lost."

"Darn it Nina," Eddie clearly wanted to say something a bit stronger, but in a place as creepy as the Du'at you want to be on your best behavior. "Why would you let yourself be unhappy to keep me happy?"

"Because as you said we're friends!" Darn it Nina don't start crying. Not here. It will only make everything worse. "And it wasn't that bad. Anubis helped me get through it. Whenever I'm here, or practicing magic, or even seeing something I shouldn't I'm in touch with my Chosen One spirit. When I'm consciously aware of that side of me I'm perfectly fine. I mean do I look like the rebellious and confused teenager you were before Senkarah? Here I can feel the purpose, so I'm fine." To prove my point I smiled brightly. "It was the least I could do for you and now, when you have the Osirian spirit back, everything will be perfect."

"I still wish you hadn't," Eddie told me with a sigh of resignation. "But thank you."

"If you two are done being sappy," Elena complained. "We're at the first task. We," she pointed to her fellow gods, "Can pass right through, but you two are human enough that you'll have to solve Cry of the Stillborn's Mother riddle."

"No problem then," Eddie told her confidently. "If there is one thing we're good at it's riddles."

I shared Eddie's confidence, but the moment my eyes rested upon the demon all hope was lost. Instead of a head, the creature wore a guillotine. I turned to the gods ready to ask if this was normal, but the trio had disappeared and left Eddie and me alone with the monster. Just as I wondered how it would speak, the blade slid up and down while words appeared in my head.

"This place is for the dead, not the living. Turn back or soon enough you will belong."

Well that was a death threat if I'd ever heard one, but we couldn't go back. From what Raet said there were two options-Eddie becomes Osirian again or Eddie dies. I'd much prefer the former to the latter and Eddie probably would too.

"But if you will not leave you shall face my task," the demon continued. "My question is simple, but only those who understand its answer can move on. What aspect of man always comes after it would be useful?"

Wait, what? This wasn't like any riddle we'd solved before. There were no rhymes, no hidden clues, just an honest question about the nature of man that I didn't know the answer to and, from the sullen look on his face, Eddie had just as many ideas as me.

It seemed Eddie and I had dug our own graves and soon enough this demon would chop off our heads and throw us in.