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shell of solidified At, the sensation had abated. It was no longer a threat.
    “And conversely,” Re-Nik continued, “the twins should not have any reaction if they don’t sense danger. It is the most definite way to tell if someone is a threat to you or them.”
    “So, what—you want to use me as some kind of an Apep detector?”
    “Precisely, dear Alexandra,” Re beamed at me using Nik’s lips and cheeks and eyes. It was a little disconcerting, seeing the godly pride I’d come so used to seeing on Nuin’s face altering Nik’s features. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we could expand our protective barrier to include all of our trusted people instead of carrying it around with us everywhere we go?”
    “Or we could just run,” I suggested. I looked at Marcus. “You’ve got a helicopter. Let’s fly somewhere . . . get away. If we go now—”
    “It won’t do you any good,” Re-Nik said, drawing my attention back to him. “Apep can sense the sheuts your twins carry. Their power calls to him. Wherever they go, he will find you.”
    “But—”
    “Apep will track you down, and the twins will jump you to a safer time and place,” Re-Nik said, talking over my objection. “It is already written in the timeline, my Alexandra. It is what is .”
    “Oh,” I said numbly. “Oh, I see. Well then . . .” I frowned. “Did you know?” I looked from him to Marcus and back. “Those things you keep saying—‘this is how it starts’ and the like . . . did you know this would happen?”
    “No, Lex,” Marcus said. “I knew—”
    “Heru . . .” Re-Nik’s voice was ripe with warning.
    Marcus exhaled heavily, rubbing his hand over his shaved head. “I knew nothing of this—of Apep or Carson or Genevieve.” He stared at Re-Nik, his gaze hard, challenging. “I only knew you would travel through time once more.”
    My mouth fell open. “And you didn’t tell me?”
    “Aset warned me the stress would be unsafe for you and the children so early on in the pregnancy.”
    “What about the stress of traveling through freaking time?”
    “We only did what had to be done to keep you and the little ones safe,” Re-Nik said. “Your health and comfort have always been our top priority.”
    I made an ugly scoffing noise but couldn’t bring myself to actually speak. I was too pissed.
    Marcus cleared his throat. “Should we get on with this, then?”
    I nodded once, unable to even look at him, the liar.
    Re-Nik encased us in a bubble of solidified At, and the three of us made our way up to the conference room on the second floor of the house. By the time I’d finished clearing Neffe, Aset, Carlisle, and my heads of guards, Sandra and Vali, who’d all been waiting for us in the conference room, Dominic had arrived.
    Nik shrouded the room in a film of impenetrable At, and the nine of us took our seats around a circular mahogany table, the six virtually present members of the Council of Seven visible on the monitors hanging at even intervals on the walls around the room. Among them were my great-grandfather, Ivan, and my biological father, Set, the latter of which who shared a screen with my grandfather, Alexander. Set and Alexander were currently in Eastern Washington, watching over my family—my parents, sister, and grandma—as they packed up enough of their lives to move here for the duration of my sister’s and my pregnancies.
    I glanced over my shoulder at burly Ivan, with his sculpted goatee and diamond-hard eyes. He gave me a somber nod in greeting. Alexander and Set shared the screen on the wall directly opposite Ivan, sitting shoulder to shoulder and looking cozy as could be. I no longer thought of Set as the man he’d been while possessed by Apep; though others still had issues separating Set’s actions from Apep’s, he was, to me, once again, the kindly man he’d been millennia ago, when his body had been his and his alone.
    I shifted in my chair, my focus flitting to the open doorway. A