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Sure, I worried sometimes that I’d miss the day to day. I loved the detailed “boring” work of cleaning a piece, cataloguing it, and further acquainting myself with its history. But who was to say I’d lose that? I could still get my hands dirty once in a while. I’d be in charge! I’d truly, finally…

Be my own master.

Huh. Just thinking that almost gave me chills.

What really made my hair stand on end, however, was when I reached the currently off-limits area for the new installation and drew back the curtain to reveal the Ennead that made up its entrance.

Some people thought the Ennead referred to the Egyptian pantheon, and it did, but it was complicated. It actually could mean any group of nine of them, in any combination. While Amy had been in charge of installing the displays, I had done the fabrication for the entrance piece. I’d had to. I wasn’t the only person who could do fabrications, but I had begged to do that one, almost like I was compelled to.

The archway itself was made of paper mache to look like rocks, like the caverns of the underworld, and above, which patrons would need to pass under to enter the exhibit, was carved and painted foamcore boards to depict Amun-Ra sailing his nightboat through the underworld’s depths to reach the next morning and bring the sun.

Upon the boat were nine deities I had chosen myself, some being obvious to include, like Ra, and others maybe a little strange to have appear together.

At the front of the boat, in order, were Anubis, Ptah, Geb, and then Amun-Ra in a sort of captain’s chair in the middle. Behind him were Seth, Horus, Thoth, and Osiris. Finally, at the very back, on the stern, was Bastet in the form not of a human-sized figure like the other deities, but presented as a household cat. Or maybe she was the lioness goddess; I hadn’t decided for sure and had left it up to interpretation. Merry would say I had fashioned her after our own cat, but I honestly hadn't even thought that until I was finished.

Shaking myself from the reverie of just how good it looked, including how well Amy had installed it, I decided I didn’t have to be too cross with her for begging me to finish the walkthrough. In fact, once I got inside and started looking around, she hadn’t completely thrown me under the bus. I’d still need to come in early to finish my other work, but everything looked pretty solid at a glance. I might even be able to get this done before Merry’s arrival.

I certainly intended to do that, but I was so enraptured by this particular exhibit, I kept getting distracted by reading the signposts that explained each artifact. I was supposed to read them, at least in passing, to ensure they were all in the right places, but I kept lingering. Egyptian history and mythology was one of my favorite subjects and had even inspired the only tattoo I’d ever gotten.

The feather of Ma’at, a symbol of truth, balance, and justice, outlined in blue on my left forearm.

I loved the pieces in this collection too. Whether a lotus drinking cup, a dancer's belt, an ivory comb, even a scroll ofsome unknown author’s love poems. Maybe especially that. I wasn’t so adept with Egyptian culture as to be fluent in reading hieroglyphics without a key, but one of the translations was printed on the signpost.

Bound though we may be,

let us bind our hearts to each other

with winding cords—

No, I didn’t have time to sit here and read the whole thing. I needed to get into gear.

But wait. The scroll wasn’t in its case! Amy had wanted to reinforce its protective covering to more safely hang it inside the glass, but she must have forgotten to return it. Where was it?

I started my search by looking around at the nearby displays, like our fabricated sarcophagus. We had a real sarcophagus as part of the exhibit too, but that was far too fragile to display upright like this. Had she set it behind—

“Care to dance?” a sultry voice whispered.

Despite my distress at not finding the scroll behind the sarcophagus, I smiled. My arms were crossed from agitation, so I wiggled the fingers of my right hand, knowing full well that Merry would take it.

He did, spinning me outward like a move fromDirty Dancing, only to reel me back in until I was nestled against his side. “Hey there, gorgeous,” he purred.

In my mind, he was the gorgeous one. He had big, beautiful black eyes, short black hair, naturally springy and thick, and the most adorably wider and yet delicate nose that looked especially cute when he had sunglasses perched atop it. He didn’t have sunglasses on now, since it was after sunset, but his touch wasthe real thrill. His dark skin was so soft and smooth, I never tired of feeling it brush against mine.

He was handsome enough to be a model—which he also did on occasion—but his real profession was dancing. Currently, he was in a sold-out production of the musical version ofAida. He played one of the Egyptian guards alongside Aida's love interest Radames, as well as being part of other ensemble dances. He got to do some very sexy, masculine moves in that show, which I could watch over and over again.

“Ready to go?” Merry pulled me in front of him, keeping a firm hold of my hands.

Tonight, he wore a black button-down, black slacks, and an azure blazer.

He always looked so good inblue.

“Almost. I’m looking for something.” I pulled from Merry’s grasp to continue searching for the missing scroll. If it wasn’t near its case, I might need to do an entirely new overview. “I have some other bad news too.” I glanced back at him.

“Oh?” Merry took one of my hands again and started leading me through the exhibit. “And what might that be?”

“Mer, I said I’m looking—”

“Then look in this direction. What’s the bad news?”