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her hands down Phoenix’s chest. It’s the norm here. Every week, there is a different celebration, another reason to praise the gods. And Phoenix takes advantage of them all. But the Sekhmet feast is the most pleasing to him as the heart of it is to live and love, to show the gods how thankful we are that they have given us bodies to unite and populate the world.
    Phoenix takes the chore of spreading his seed very seriously. I laugh again at him as he dips the girl low, burying his head in her neck. But even he won’t cross the boundaries.
    The Kythan are forbidden to be with humans.
    We are here to serve the pharaohs. And even tonight, where everyone is of equal status, the law cannot be broken.
    He releases her and snakes his limber body over to me. “Come on,” he encourages. “I need to find a gaggle of Narco girls to sate my hunger.” He glances back at the dancing slave girl as she moves on to another, her hands held high, her body lit with alcohol.
    “That you do.” I eye him. “Just be sober in time for the procession.”
    He chuckles, and finishes off his drink. “Maybe you’ll loosen your skirts enough tonight to celebrate with me.” He hooks his finger under my sash and tugs me closer.
    I bat his hand away but laugh. “There isn’t enough drink in all of Egypt for that to happen.”
    Phoenix is one of the most attractive guardians. This is true. And he wouldn’t consider sleeping with me as anything other than a way to blissfully pass the time. As he does with any guardian he beds. It wouldn’t change his feelings for me, or our friendship. He’d continue to think of me as he always has. But I’m not as flighty as him, or the other citizens of Alexandria. I’ve been raised in a world where physical love is enjoyed for what it is, and nothing more. But there is something different about how I view it for myself.
    Phoenix once asked me what I was waiting for. And I had to admit that I didn’t know. But that I didn’t just want to simply give myself over to another for pleasure. I want to at least care for the person, and for it to count for something .
    Though what, I’m not sure. I’m a guardian. Relationships are rare for us. We breed in order to create more guardians to serve the pharaohs. We don’t marry and live in family units. Mothers raise children until of age: seventeen. When the Change occurs—the first shift—and we can devote our life to servitude. And as such, I only met my father once. He died in the war between Cleopatra and her brother shortly after I was born. I don’t even remember him.
    Phoenix cocks his head, a smile in his illumined red eyes. “Come on,” he says.
    The lamps burn bright above the crowded streets. Strings of candle-lit votives canopy the district, casting the palaces in a living, vibrant glow. Narcos kindle fire pits in the center of the feast. Boars and fish rotate slowly over the embers.
    Phoenix and I move leisurely through the party, him stopping every few seconds to kiss or grope another half-dressed woman. He’s unstoppable. I decide to let him enjoy himself, and free him of my timid ways.
    “I’m famished,” I say, gaining his attention from a Shythe girl. “I need to recharge after exerting myself in the battle.”
    “Of course!” he shouts over the laughter and music, but his eyes stay trained on the girl in his arms. “We’ll meet up later . . . after.”
    I shake my head at him again, then wander away from the circling girls, like predators flocking to his side. What I said wasn’t entirely an excuse to flee from the debauchery I know is about to follow. I haven’t eaten since before we left to face Octavian’s legion, and I am hungry. But I also want to find Lunia and head back to the palace to retrieve Xarion for the procession. And an intoxicated Phoenix won’t make a good guardian escort.
    There’s a long line before the buffet. The spread displays figs and cheese with dill fronds, buttered honey bread and salt fish,