Recreated Read online

  ALSO BY COLLEEN HOUCK

  Reawakened

  The Tiger’s Curse Series

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2016 by Colleen Houck

  Cover art copyright © 2016 by Chris Saunders

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Houck, Colleen.

  Recreated / Colleen Houck. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Reawakened ; 2)

  Summary: “Lily must go into the Afterlife to save Amon and protect the world from being overthrown by the deadly Devouror of the Underworld”—Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37660-0 (hc) — ISBN 978-0-385-37662-4 (ebook)

  1. Amon (Egyptian deity)—Juvenile fiction. [1. Amon (Egyptian deity)—Fiction. 2. Gods, Egyptian—Fiction. 3. Supernatural—Fiction. 4. Love—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.H81143Ref 2016

  [Fic]—dc23

  2015015060

  ebook ISBN 9780385376624

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Also by Colleen Houck

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  A Woman’s Lost Love

  Prologue: Lost

  Chapter 1: Reprieve

  Chapter 2: Spirit Lake

  Chapter 3: Heart Scarab

  Chapter 4: Hassan

  Chapter 5: Room of Riddles

  Chapter 6: The Spell of Isis

  Chapter 7: Huntress

  Chapter 8: The Heart of the Sphinx

  Chapter 9: Calling Nebu

  Chapter 10: The Place Where Dreams Are Born

  Chapter 11: Heliopolis

  Chapter 12: The Waters of Chaos

  Chapter 13: Turquoise Trees

  Chapter 14: The Celestial Barque

  Chapter 15: The River Styx

  Chapter 16: Guardians of the Gates

  Chapter 17: The Scales of Justice

  Chapter 18: The Heart of a Dreamer

  Chapter 19: The Lake of Fire

  Chapter 20: Breath of Evil

  Chapter 21: The Mires of Despair

  Chapter 22: Reapers and Jackals

  Chapter 23: Heart Blood

  Chapter 24: Where There’s Smoke

  Chapter 25: Shadow of a Man

  Chapter 26: The Crown of the Mistress of Dread

  Chapter 27: Secret Names

  Chapter 28: The Waters of Osiris

  Epilogue: Beacon

  Acknowledgments

  The Unicorn and the Lion

  About the Author

  For Matthew, Alan, Sarah, Katie, and Chris,

  who love being in my books

  even if they’re not mermaids or dragons

  A WOMAN’S LOST LOVE

  An Ancient Egyptian Love Poem

  Lost! Lost! Lost! O lost my love to me!

  He passes by my house, nor turns his head,

  I deck myself with care; he does not see.

  He loves me not.

  Would God that I were dead!

  God! God! God! O Amun, great of might!

  My sacrifice and prayers, are they in vain?

  I offer to thee all that can delight,

  Hear thou my cry and bring my love again.

  Sweet, sweet, sweet as honey in my mouth,

  His kisses on my lips, my breast, my hair;

  But now my heart is as the sun-scorched South,

  Where lie the fields deserted, grey and bare.

  Come! Come! Come! And kiss me when I die,

  For life, compelling life, is in thy breath;

  And at that kiss, though in the tomb I lie,

  I will arise and break the bands of Death.

  How could I have done something so foolish? Amon thought. Leaving the safety of the afterlife for the uncertainty of the netherworld had been a bad decision, a dangerous one. But Amon had felt as if there were no other option. Besides, death was what he sought, though admittedly he would have preferred a gentler one.

  As he wandered the stone path leading to, he hoped, a temporary refuge, Amon wondered what form death would take. Would he be swallowed up by a monster that would slowly digest him over centuries? Would he be flayed alive by a creature whose expertise was in making a man suffer? The best case he could think of would be death by venom. The netherworld was full of venomous creatures bent on the destruction of those who wandered into their nests.

  Even though Amon courted death, he didn’t wish to succumb to it just yet. Lily had only recently returned to her mortal life, and it would be years before there was even a remote chance that he could be with her again. Amon had promised to meet her in the afterlife. Exactly how he would accomplish that now he didn’t know, but he had decades to figure something out. The truth was, even if he hadn’t met Lily and fallen in love with her, he still would have given up his calling. It had been so many years. Too many. And death wasn’t the worst thing he could imagine.

  His brief sojourns into the realm of mortals were no longer enough. If he had reunited with his brothers before the judging, they would have known what he was up to, would have talked him out of it. That was why he leapt before he saw them again. He wanted more. He needed more than just a pale shadow of a life.

  So he had forsaken his duty. Forsaken his brothers. And now he’d forsaken the gods themselves. There would be a reckoning, but he didn’t care. Lily was the only remaining tether linking him to the path he walked. The only reason he didn’t give himself over to the next plane of existence. Wherever that might be. So, he fought to bide his time as he waited.

  As the days passed, he tore asunder every gnarled and frightening beast of the netherworld that challenged him. Some came at him because he was reckless. Some, he suspected, were sent as punishment from the gods. Others were drawn to his melancholy state. The brief moments of respite he earned were too short. No matter where he went or how evasive he was, the demons always found him.

  Though he’d left his mortal body behind, his wandering soul still felt the pangs of the flesh. Fortunately his needs were markedly less than they were in the human world. When Amon thirsted, he begged the spirits who lived in the trees for gifts. When Amon hungered, he stole provisions from the stores of the creatures he slaughtered, and, occasionally, if nothing could be found and the pains of his empty stomach became overwhelming, he roasted the bodies of the beasts he’d slain.

  When he was utterly exhausted from the terrors he’d brought upon himself, and he was relatively safe, Amon slept. It was always brief. Always fitful. Dreaming was the only happiness he felt in his otherwise horrifying existence.

  The worst part about wandering the netherworld wasn’t the endless barrage of monsters or dangers that threatened a second and permanent death. It wasn’t the separation from his brothers, his constant companions for thousands of years. It wasn’t even the loss of purpose he felt, the absence of self-assurance he’d always possessed, or the knowledge that he had a place in the cosmos, one he was if not satisfied with, then one he accepted.

&
nbsp; No. The worst part was also the best part.

  He could feel her.

  Lily was in another place, another world, and yet, he could allow himself to be with her. When he was certain that no attack was imminent, and he let his tired body rest, he’d close his eyes and see her. That was the part Amon loved. He could hover near her like a ghost. He couldn’t speak to her or touch her, and she didn’t know that he was there, at least not consciously. Her subconscious mind, though, could sense he was near, that he was watching over her, much like a guardian angel. This was a tremendous blessing. But it was also a curse.

  Amon knew a connection as powerful as theirs went two ways. He had hoped that they might simply meet in their dreams. That their bond had been brief enough that their minds would brush gently against each other as they slept. But the link between them proved stronger than that. As Amon walked with Lily through New York, he knew she also journeyed with him through his land of nightmares.

  His decision to leave paradise had caused terrible consequences for the girl he loved, and now that he was in the netherworld, there was no getting out. The gods would not help; he’d abandoned their cause. Death would be his only reprieve, and yet every time he thought he’d hurt her enough and would give up, give in to whatever dark creature was currently seeking his demise, he’d feel her, an unconscious appeal to keep trying. To hold on a little longer.

  Amon sought answers to his dilemma by peering through the Eye of Horus, but the things he saw confused him. Sometimes it teased him with glimpses of a possible future. A way out. If he could just last long enough, survive in the form in which he currently existed until Lily’s natural, mortal death, there was a chance he could find her. That their bond would draw them together once more.

  Other times, he saw Lily as a different person, a different creature altogether from the girl he knew. He envisaged himself tortured and abused. His brothers jealous and angry. The gods at war with Chaos. These visions made no sense. Chaos was being held at bay for another millennium. The gods getting together for a meal wasn’t even likely, let alone a war.

  The uncertainty Amon felt was normal. He was used to the strange shadows of the future and past mingling together. The Eye saw all, and yet nothing it revealed ever made sense. Events were never in the proper order. It took a tremendous amount of focus and energy to direct the Eye to show him any one particular thing. To prevent himself from going crazy, Amon spent much of his time trying to ignore the visions that rattled his brain. Since he’d entered the netherworld, though, the Eye had gone into overdrive.

  Still, the Eye’s energy drain was worth it when he asked to see Lily’s future. The things he saw gave him hope. Hope that they might be together again, that there was a possible future where he could again hold her in his arms.

  There were moments when he saw himself cupping her face in his hands, tenderly kissing each of her closed eyelids, tasting the salt from the tears that slowly trickled down her cheeks. These blissful flashes were all he needed to know. The rest he’d let the universe worry about. Perhaps it was selfish of him to maintain their connection, but he just couldn’t let Lily go. Not yet. Not when there was a chance.

  Though Amon knew that she likely walked the netherworld with him in her dreams, there were times, however brief, when they both slept. During those occasions, it was possible to communicate with her, but Lily’s mind always blocked him out, her body so exhausted from the trials of their connection that her consciousness shut down and she slept deeply.

  When this happened, he didn’t push. She needed to rest, and as badly as he wanted to talk to her, there was no point. He’d doomed the both of them to this fate because he was weak. If he had only loved her enough in the beginning to leave her alone or had sent her away earlier, maybe none of this would have happened.

  Of course, without Lily, it was quite possible that he and his brothers would be dead and the world overrun by Chaos. Still, if he’d been a little more vigilant regarding his emotions, then she wouldn’t be suffering now. She’d be just another human girl, one of billions in the world. No one of any importance, and certainly no one the gods would be paying any attention to. No one except him.

  Amon sighed. The truth was that as long as Lily held his heart, Amon would fight. He was beholden to her; if she wanted him to press on, he would find a way.

  “Amon!” I jerked awake, my pulse racing as the nightmare slowly ebbed. I’d taken to keeping a night-light on near my bed ever since the horrors that took over my dreams still haunted my dark room when I woke. Some terrible creature had cornered him. It had screeched in a satisfied way, its putrid breath stinging my nose as its tongue darted out to lick the blood from a gash on Amon’s shoulder. It all felt so real.

  Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my body and slid from the bed as I headed to my favorite spot on the balcony overlooking Central Park. Once there, I rubbed my hand over the head of the falcon statue perched on the railing.

  The bird reminded me of Amon’s golden falcon form, and when the sun warmed it, the heat stored in the metal carving seemed to linger, even in the late hours of the evening when I paced my room unable to sleep. It soothed me when I touched it and I could picture Amon as I’d last left him and not as the bruised and pain-filled man he was in my dreams.

  He was lost to me. I knew that. I acknowledged that I should try to move on, maybe try to date someone else, but the memory of my Egyptian sun prince come to life was a hard one to beat. Amon wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty darn close. Even now I could easily picture him standing near me—his golden skin warmed by the sun, the glint in his hazel eyes, and that secretive smile hiding behind his defined and very kissable lips.

  Sighing, I leaned on the railing and looked out at the park. I was in love with a guy who was centuries old and currently moldering away in an elaborately decorated sarcophagus fashioned by Anubis himself. His spirit half, the half that was supposed to be in paradise while he waited for the next time he was needed, haunted my dreams.

  Either he was in grave trouble or something was seriously wrong with me since I’d returned from Egypt. Still, the creatures I saw in my dreams were much more horrifying than any I could have made up. I wasn’t that creative. Even worse than my suspicions that Amon was in danger was the problem that I couldn’t tell anyone about it. Nobody even knew he’d existed.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Dr. Hassan knew, but he lived on the other side of the world. I’d written to him when I got home, and his elated response made me smile even though I’m sure he’d figured it out when he couldn’t find my body on the pyramid after Amon and his brothers had saved the world. I was more than a little proud to be a part of the whole thing, even though fooling Amon into siphoning off my energy had nearly killed me.

  It took a month to get a reply from Dr. Hassan, though I’d fanatically checked the PO box I’d leased for our secret correspondence every day. He’d told me not to worry, that Amon had the protection of the gods, that he’d hidden the brothers well, and that I should be proud of the sacrifices I’d made to keep the world safe.

  That was pretty much the extent of his letters. They got progressively shorter as time went on. It was as if he, too, wanted me to just forget everything that had happened and move on with my life. But how could I? Amon haunted my dreams. Not that I wasn’t happy to see him. I was. But the horrors he faced were enough to send any girl, even one who had seen the things I’d seen, running for the nearest mental institution.

  My parents were worried. My lack of sleep was starting to show, though I tried to act as though my life was simply business as usual. They had no idea that I’d nearly died, fallen in love with a drop-dead (no pun intended) gorgeous mummy come to life, and spent an extended spring break in Egypt. The fact that I’d actually made it through to the end of the school year without my grades falling was a major accomplishment.

  They didn’t know about my experience with Amon in Egypt and how much it had transformed me. I myself didn’t know h
ow much I’d changed until I got home. I thought it would show on my face, all the emotion, all the trauma, all the…death, but my parents only noticed my hair. My brown, no-nonsense straight hair was now riddled with random sun-kissed highlights of different shades. They didn’t like it.

  The first thing my mother said was, “What were you thinking?” Immediately she picked up the phone and lectured our hairstylist, who didn’t have anything to do with it but who cleared his schedule instantly to repair the “damage.” I told her quietly but sternly that I was rather fond of it and that my intention was to keep it. To say they were shocked at my little act of rebellion was an understatement.

  As much as they protested my decision to keep my new highlights, they outright refused my request that they call me Lily instead of Lilliana. As a result, I began to feel like a stranger in my own home. To keep the peace, I told them I’d go to the college they wanted as long as I was allowed to spend the summer at my nana’s farm in Spring Lake, Iowa. I figured it didn’t matter anymore where I went, and the compromise went a long way toward assuaging the fears my new hairdo ignited.

  Once I got the acceptance letter, they backed off and left me to my own devices, which meant I could mourn the loss of Amon without anyone taking notice. One month after another went by, and then graduation was upon me.

  As I gazed in the mirror the morning of graduation, I was dismayed to see that my golden highlights, the last tangible proof I had of Amon’s touch, were fading. At this rate, they’d be gone by Christmas. I indulged in a good cry before showering and dressing for my graduation ceremony.