Chapter 15

The day went by too fast; by the time Elizabeth realized it, the sun was setting again. She barely had time to visit Peter before Maya assigned her a bunch of tasks for the evening celebration. Her only consolation was that neither Julian, Maat, nor Abayomi had been spared from an equally disastrous fate.

While Elizabeth was weaving the bracelets they would wear, a tradition dating back to Ancient Egypt, she couldn't help but laugh as she watched Julian pass by, carrying a log on one side (the other end was held by a local boy she didn't know) and looking utterly disheveled.

She became so distracted that she forgot what she was doing and passed a ribbon incorrectly, ruining the progress she had made and having to start over.

"I'd like to see you do this," Julian said amid a grunt, his face sweaty and red from the effort.

"Luckily for me, Mother Nature blessed you with superior strength," she replied, feigning a compliment, although the joke was implicit in her t