What if... Walt made a different choice?

How dare he?!

 Anubis put his arms around me. He smelled of temple incense—copal and amber and other ancient fragrances.

"Don't. Don't die like Walt feared you would. He feared for you stronger than he mourned himself. The most you could do is to leave it behind."

"Walt." I rasped.

Walt didn't answer. His eyes were closed. He lay perfectly still.

I hugged his forehead, the incantations of the white-hot spell gradually fading from Anubis's palm, which was rapidly cooling. "I'll miss you."

Anubis seemed to look somewhere far, far away. "It never gets better."

I put a hand on Walt's. They were ice-cold, so unlike the life bursting from him mere minutes ago. "Bring him back to the Nome. I'll settle things with my brother first, and then we'll... We'll give him a proper burial."

Anubis nodded mutely. A door of darkness formed behind me as Anubis picked Walt up. "Carter and Zia are in trouble. I'll try to send reinforcements to help you. I will meet you at the First Nome at sunrise when my minions will start preparing for Walt's soul. Watch out for Setne."

A wet droplet tapped my arms, but I didn't care. I ran into the door of darkness and hated Anubis for letting him die like he was supposed to.