Theodosia

c h a p t e r t w e n t y t w o

C A P T I V E

Theodosia hadn't felt this anxious in years.

Her skin crawled and itched as though she could escape her anxiety by crawling out of it. She wanted to be with Ahkmenrah and Larry, not stuck sitting in a pile of junk, waiting. She knew Ahkmenrah must be feeling like she was – anxious and alone. She saw the pain his eyes when he had to leave her behind with Kahmunrah. She wanted to take it all away and promise that everything would be okay, but how could she? Nothing was okay.

It was all her fault that they were in this mess. If only she had left him New York like she was supposed to. She shouldn't have been selfish. She shouldn't have tried to take so much extra time with him. If she hadn't, he would be miles away from Kahmunrah. He would be safe, waiting on Larry to bring back his tablet. He would miss her at first, Theodosia knew, but he would move on with time. It's all he would have – lots and lots of time. After the life that had been taken from him, he deserved an eternity to make up for the loss. Theodosia feared she had taken that from him. Kahmunrah had already killed him once, what's to say he wouldn't do it again?

Theodosia didn't know what she would do if she lost him, but it was taking every ounce of her self-control not to think about.

She sighed. Instead, Theodosia was left with was her self-pity. She stewed among the "treasures" Kahmunrah and his posse of world-famous villains had hoarded. Jedidiah was being kept close to Kahmunrah and far away from Theodosia, where she couldn't "meddle." She had tried to escape with him once, when Kahmunrah had his back turned, but even she had known it was a shoddy attempt. She was nothing if not a fighter, but she had never been faced with a more perilous situation. For the first time in her long life, her only option was to sit and wait, like a damsel waiting for her prince.

She felt pathetic. She wasn't the type of woman to sit still and wait for someone else to save her, but despite herself, she continued to heed Ahkmenrah's warnings. She wished she could tell him somehow, ease his mind, even just a little. Look, Ahkmenrah, I'm being good. I'm sitting so still Kahmunrah will forget I'm even here.

But the longer Larry and Ahkmenrah took, the harder it was to keep her promise. It was incredibly hard to stay quiet when she was forced to watch Kahmunrah in all his narcissistic glory, as he paraded around in a silk robe with another man's name on it, fighting the air like a child pretending he was a big, strong soldier. As if. It was even cruel to compare Kahmunrah to a child. At least a child had some awareness outside of itself.

"Ooh, you know, I—" He punched the air again. "I do sort of feel like a...floating butterfly."

Theodosia rolled her eyes behind his back, biting her tongue so hard she worried she'd rip right through it. She was truly a fool in love. The torture of watching him strut around, trying on various exhibits important memorabilia, acting like a complete buffoon was worse than anything they could have inflicted on her. She tried to picture Ahkmenrah, as a reminder of the promise she made, but the insults were beginning to pile up.

"Mr. Egypt," one of the men called, walking in with two other exhibits; he wore a long robe that looked more like a dress to Theodosia. "These two here heard that we're taking over the world and they want in. I don't know who they are, but they-they're on exhibit here too, apparently."

Theodosia didn't like the way he spoke. His accent sounded strange, and it was hard to understand. He sounded like he was always gargling something, she'd never heard anything like it before. The other henchman Kahmunrah had recruited had a funny accent as well. It sounded somewhat like the annoying soldier from the painting, but thicker. He was black and white just like the painting too. Compared to the man in robe/dress, he looked like he came from an entirely other world. She found it particularly weird how he wore his coat. He didn't put his arms through it, he just let it sit on his shoulders like a strange blanket.