So after 6 hours of studying and 5 hours of the TeenNick HOA marathon I would be remiss if I didn't update. Speaking of the marathon, I'm beginning to remember why I made Peddie get married. Just kiss for Anubis' sake!

Chapter 11 House of Lovers

"What's taking you two so lo…." Claudia's voice broke Colton and I apart as we awkwardly exchanged glances with my younger, and highly amused, sister. "Thank Anubis you two aren't like your parents because it took ages for them to get to the same point. Now if you're done exchanging DNA I found the mosaic."

"Right," I told her with an awkward chuckle (and a bit of a scowl too.) "Let's go and reunite some lovers."

"Before you two become real lovers yourself," I heard Claudia mutter before the peddle beneath my foot 'accidentally' reached her calf.

"Oops," I told her with a giggle. (It's not like it was big enough to really hurt.) "Sorry, Sis."

Colton giggled, but easily led the way through the tunnel into our library. A few pinches and bruises later, Claudia and I made our way over to him radiating in the joy of having blood close in age to you. (Well I was just glad to have a sister at all really). "So is this him? Luce's ancient love."

"I guess so," I told my Osirian with a shrug moving closer to study the image. "You're right though Claudia. He does look a lot like Osiris. Guess that's what you get when you start marrying your cousins."

"Wait," Claudia stopped with a giggle. "Aren't you two cousins?" Wait, what? I really, really, hoped this wasn't about to turn into a Mortal Instruments incest thing… "Let me think. Our great-great-grandparents were Colton's great-grandparents, which would make you… third cousins once removed."

"Which really means nothing when you think of the fact that we have two souls and one pair of those souls have been marrying for thousands of years," Colton reminded my sister with a laugh. "I think we're fine. And it was just a kiss BTW. We're not even technically dating and I'm understand completely now if she didn't want to. My DNA exchanging was atrocious."

All I could do was laugh.

"Any who…" Claudia noted bringing us back to the situation at hand. "Now that we've found the ancient lover trapped in an ancient mosaic, did Luce say how you get him out?"

No. No she hadn't.

"I mean we have superpowers, right," Colton suggested with a shrug. "Maybe if we just place our hands on it or something he'll come out."

"I doubt it will work like that."

The woman who stood in front of us really was no more than a girl, but it was obvious even to Claudia who didn't have supernatural abilities, that this was Luce. Flaming red hair and yellow eyes matched perfectly with the dress she wore. The dress flickered around her like a candle flame, and I was only left to wonder if she was the goddess Hathor who was associated with the softer side of fire. As if reading my mind, Luce turned to me and nodded. "Names have power you know. Her own name once killed your mother, so I do hope you understand my desire to keep mine silent. With only a mutter of the word Raet will know I'm trying to free my love and come not only for me, but for you two too. She believes you to be dead, and it's probably best for it to remain that way."

"Of course I'll protect you," I told her with a solemn nod hoping not to anger the goddess who, unlike Anubis and Osiris, didn't have to keep me alive to fulfill their vows. "Do you know of a way to free your love?"

"Of course she doesn't," Claudia, who for some odd reason seemed the least awed by the goddess' presence, scoffed. "If she knew how to free him she wouldn't have recruited you."

"That's not exactly true," Luce spit back causing me to be startled. She looked so innocent I'd already begun to forget her immense, immortal, power. "I know how to free my love, but I cannot do it myself. When she imprisoned him Raet took his soul and imprisoned it in this mosaic, but his body was entombed in a sarcophagus I know to be hidden beneath this school."

Colton was the first one to make the connection. "The chasm. Raet dropped your lover in that pit." Luce/Hathor nodded. "How on earth are we supposed to get down there, and furthermore how would we possibly carry it back up?"

Luce pondered the question for a moment before offering an answer, "The pit looks like it goes on forever, but it doesn't. Instead the pit passes through the Du'at at various points. As the Chosen One and Osirian you can pass through the Du'at and even bring others with you so long as they're wearing that necklace."

"But that still doesn't answer the question of how we get down there," I reminded the goddess frankly. "I mean it's not like we can just jump."

"Actually," Luce told us with a crooked smile. "You can."

"Well this I can't do," Claudia piped in. "You can't expect us to actually just trust you and jump into a bottomless pit with only a necklace for protection."

I had to agree with Claudia. I didn't trust Luce or Hathor or whatever her name was. My gut told me she didn't want us dead, but that she wanted something much worse. Still, Colton was the one who physically knew if someone was a danger to me, and he seemed to like Luce just fine. Maybe my years of paranoia are just catching up with me.

"Ask Colton," Luce suggested (once again as if she was reading my mind. And considering she's a goddess maybe she actually was.) "Your own father told you that you'd know if I was a danger to Eve. If I was telling you to jump to your death I think you'd know."

"She's right," he reminded me with a reassuring squeeze. "I'd know if you were in danger and I don't feel anything but the need to help Luce. I'm getting a good night's sleep and then going. Are you two in?"

I wasn't in. I didn't like risking Colton and Claudia's life to help a stranger even if that stranger was a goddess, but it wasn't like I was letting Colton go in alone. Call him my destined protector all you want, we all know he'd die without me.

"Well I'd much rather visit the Du'at than history class so I'm in," a beaming Claudia decided to my great anger.

"No way. I have never asked for anything as your older sister so you owe me. Neither Colton nor I will give you that necklace, right?" Colton nodded clearly in agreement. Risking our lives was one thing destiny and all, but Claudia needed to stay safely at home.

"One, you've know you're my sister for like 24 hours so you haven't exactly had a chance to ask anything of me," Claudia noted firmly. "And if you don't give me that necklace I'll jump in after you anyway and then you'll have to carry my dead body around so you could take it home to our parents and explain how you trying to protect me got me killed."

I wanted to say no and feel confident that Claudia wouldn't do it, but there was a certain light in her eyes that reminded me of the musical "Pippin." Everyone told Pippin that if he wanted his life to have meaning he had to die spectacularly and that little glint in my sister's eyes made me wonder if maybe they're right and creativity, genius, does come as a package deal with just enough insanity to die to prove you wanted to live.

"Fine," I told her relenting warily. If she died anyway I'd never forgive myself. If any of us were to die I sure hoped it would be me so I didn't have to live with it. "We're going to bed now, and tomorrow we'll jump. And know Miss Luce that if we jump and die I will haunt you for the rest of eternity until you wish that it was you and not your lover entombed in that mosaic. Understood?"

Luce seemed surprised by my threat, but she nodded. Sighing I headed through the ground-level door into the chilling night fully aware of the insane deal I just made and would have to fulfill tomorrow.