Neil braced his feet on the rocks, swallowing thickly.“I was looking at Akhetaten, Akhenaten’s capital.Not… as rubble.”
He closed his eyes, and he was there again—the palaces and temples rising up from the sand.Curtains billowed from windows, fruit trees shaded secluded gardens, and women laughed over the lilt of music.
“Engadu!”one of the Adrija men complained, waving for them to stop blocking the path.
Neil ripped himself from the memory and scrambled up the rest of the incline.
Constance gripped the tree below him.She frowned at where to go next, her reach not being quite as long as Neil’s.
He extended his hand.Constance clasped it, and Neil hauled her up, instinctively catching her as she reached the top.
She fell against him, soft curves palpable through her blouse and trousers.
Fiancée,Neil thought numbly.
Fake fiancée.
He let her go and quickly hurried after the rest of the men.
“How did you do it then?”Constance pressed impatiently.
“How did I do what?”
“Akhetaten!”
Neil’s jaw tightened.“I didn’t do anything.It just happened.”
“How long has it been ‘just happening?’”
“A few years?”Neil mumbled back.
“Two?Five?”
Neil turned on her.“I don’t know exactly!I told you.It doesn’t always happen the same way.Maybe I’ve been doing it forever, and I just…”
He bit back the rest, pushing angrily through an innocent stand of waist-high grass.
Constance clamped a hand around his arm and hauled him out of the path.
The men behind them chuckled as they passed, sharing knowing looks.
“Stuffy, I am not going to think any differently of you just because you can do a bit of magic,” Constance huffed.
Neil stilled with surprise at her words.
He hadn’t even known the fear existed until Constance voiced it—but there it was.And why wouldn’t it be?How couldn’t his impossible, unscientific ability change the way people thought about him?
They would assume he was crazy.Or worse, they would expect him to be some kind of magician—which he wasn’t.
“You won’t?”he pushed back tentatively.
Constance let out an exasperated huff.“You’re my friend!I just want to know what this means to you.”
Neil was touched.
Constance spilled out the rest.“I’m also desperately curious, and it’s entirely unfair of you to leave me in suspense.”
Neil suppressed a helpless groan, acknowledging that Constance wouldn’t leave him alone until she had the whole story.
