This chapter is dedicated to my husband, Casey, who has always thought I am a great writer and has been supportive of me even when I wanted to stay up and write at three in the morning.

Chapter Six

There are things a person feels when waking up from a deep sleep: disorientation, dizziness, anxiety. Vera felt all of these things upon waking and they only increased as she regained awareness, instead of waning. The more she thought about the night before, the more she felt uneasy about everything that had happened. At first she had thought Amias's offer to be friends a nice gesture, but now she was worrying over every tiny detail of their conversation. How could you trust someone you couldn't even see?

That thought had kept her awake long after she had wanted to go to sleep. To try and calm herself down she had spent a few hours reading her favorite book by candlelight. She couldn't remember when she had finally fallen asleep, but it had been very late – or rather, very early.

Dragging herself out of bed, Vera decided that she needed to at least try and talk things out with the one person who she knew she could always trust. That was one thing she could say about Halsten; he was always brutally and uncaringly honest, no matter the situation. Unfortunately, he was also incredibly protective of her and tended to overreact when she was in danger. If he thought she was ill or had gone mad he would probably take her to see every physician within five hundred miles and never let her leave his sight again.

She sighed and started pacing the floors with worry. There had never been any signs of madness in her family. Not a single one. Completely sane and normal, the lot of them. She should have known better than to have dealings with an invisible voice. Now she was questioning her sanity.

But Amias had claimed he wouldn't be invisible any longer – that he would take on a different form. Perhaps she could wait and see how things turned out, at least before she went running to Halsten for advice?

She threw on some clothes and trudged down the stairs just as the hall clock chimed ten. The kitchen was empty when she peered in, but her father had left her some toast along with a message saying he was at the dig site and wouldn't be home anytime soon.

"Halsten?" she called out into the hallway, hoping he would hear her and respond.

When there was no response Vera huffed in frustration and wandered around to the back of the house to see if he was outside. Sure enough she found him watering what was left of his teeny tiny little garden. He had been trying to get plants to grow in the little plot of dirt for weeks, but the weather was too dry and he had far too little patience.

"I don't know why you ever even started with that," Vera said to him as she motioned toward the shriveling plants.

"Yes, well, I've never understood why you and your father like to spend so much time in the desert digging up corpses," he replied.

"For one, there are rarely ever any corpses involved. We see a lot of pottery and ruined buildings, but not a lot of dead people. And it's important to learn about the people around us."

Halsten shook his head. "You sound just like your father. He was up at the crack of dawn this morning going on about how he had uncovered the find of a lifetime and that one of the locals was close to 'solving the puzzle.'"

"What puzzle?" she asked as she tried to remember what her father had been talking about the last time they spoke.

"Oh, whatever that was he found in that godforsaken cave," he grumbled.

Vera froze on the spot, her eyes widening in realization. "The markings? The one's on the wall of the cave? Is that it?"

Halsten frowned at her. "Yes, yes. I suppose you're excited about it now too?"

"More like disappointed," she responded. "I really wanted to figure it out myself."

He shrugged and said, "Were you not listening? I said they were 'close' to solving it. Perhaps you should go see if you can be of help."

Vera brightened and smiled at him. "I don't suppose you would let me take the carriage to the site by myself?"

"Absolutely not. What would your father say if I let you go traipsing off alone and you got hurt?"

"I'm just going straight to the dig site, Halsten. I'm not traipsing anywhere. Besides I'm nineteen years old, not nine."

He ignored her, choosing instead to walk away from her and start readying the horses and carriage. She rolled her eyes, but didn't argue further. Halsten was stubborn as a mule and there was no talking him out of something once he had set his mind to it.

Vera couldn't believe someone else had nearly solved the meaning of the cave markings. She had spent hours pouring over ancient language books and hadn't found anything remotely close to resembling them. Whoever had figured them out had to be an expert. Even though she had wanted to solve it herself, part of her looked forward to meeting the person working on it. Perhaps Halsten was right and she could be of some help.

Upon arriving at the site, she noticed everything seemed to have stopped. No one was working or bustling about. Everyone seemed to be gathered around one tent: her father's. She knew immediately that must be where they were discussing the cave markings. Nothing else would be so important it would stop all other work at the site. She had to push and shove her way through the crowd of people to make her way to the front. Many of them gave her harsh looks, but she ignored it and tried to find her father in all the madness.

"Papa?" she called over the clamor of voices. "Thomas Kirke!"

Her father's blonde curls popped up over the crowd, the grin on his face almost comically wide.

"Vera!" he called to her. "I'm so glad you're here! Your friend was just enlightening us on the meanings of some of these cave markings! He really is quite knowledgeable."

Confused, she faltered and accidentally ran into Dr. Peter's back. "My apologies, sir," she told him.

"Not to fret, dear!" the old man replied. "No harm done. Come and see what young Amias has found out for us!"

Her hesitation at nearing the front of the crowd doubled at hearing Amias's name.

"I'm sorry, did you say Amias?" she asked, dazed.

Dr. Peters and her father both nodded. "Yes, you remember him. Amias explained the painting of the jinni to you last week."

Vera shook her head. "No, the young man I spoke to was named Kareem."

"You must be mistaken, Ms. Gray. Not to worry, there are many young men working here. It is an understandable mistake."

"Dr. Peters I'm quite sure his name was Kareem-" she began.

Her father interrupted her saying, "It isn't really important, Vera. Come see what we've found!"

Dread had begun to take root in her heart as he pulled her toward the table. Just as she suspected, it was Kareem who stood standing over a tracing of the markings. He looked up at her and smiled, but it was a bit off. He smiled too widely or perhaps it was the way he seemed more confident but she could tell something wasn't right.

"Ah, Vera! You're here finally," he said as he motioned her forward.

"Kareem?" she whispered, almost incapable of even forming the word around the panic clogging her throat.

"What? No," he said, laughing. "Don't you remember my name? It's Amias, forgetful girl."

She shook her head back and forth slowly as she tried to understand what was happening. His name was Kareem; she never forgot a name and face. It was one of the things she prided herself on: the fact that she rarely forgot anything after she learned it.

"No," she stated with confidence. "It's not."

His eyes narrowed on her and she felt the temperature in the tent drop several degrees. Her father was looking back and forth between them, finally realizing something was wrong.

"Vera, are you alright?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders to comfort her. She knew he was trying to be a good father, but on top of her current anxiety his arm on her shoulders felt suffocating.

"Yes," she found herself mumbling without ever taking her eyes off of Kareem. "I'm alright, Papa."

"Are you certain?" He tried turning her to face him but she refused to take her eyes off the man in front of her. It was some kind of trick, like what Amias had done to her books she was sure of it.

"I would like to talk to you outside," she said to Kareem. "Alone, please."

He smiled, or attempted a smile, and nodded. "Of course."

Once they were outside and away from prying ears and eyes, she grasped his sleeve and turned him around to face her.

"What are you doing? What is this some sort of sick joke?"

Kareem's face took on an expression of innocence that she knew was fake. "I'm not sure what you mean," he began, but she cut him off.

"Save the lies for them," she said motioning toward the tent. "I know this man's name is Kareem. What have you done to him?"

He glared at her and got so close to her she could see tiny flecks of red in his brown eyes. She tried to step away, but he grabbed her by the forearms and drug her back toward him.

"Don't you dare call me a liar!" he shouted at her. "Didn't I tell you I would take a different form? You seemed friendly with this vessel so I chose him. Now stop being so stubborn or people will get suspicious!"

Vera stared at him for nearly a full minute as she processed everything he had said.

"Vessel? What does that mean? Are you using Kareem as some sort of container to hold whatever it is you are?"

He grinned, looking almost proud. "Do you know you are one of the cleverest humans I've ever met? It takes most people ages to figure that out."

She felt nauseous. "What happens to Kareem, then? Is he even still in there with you?"

Amias rolled his eyes. "What does it matter? He was a bore anyway. So virtuous and respectable it was almost laughable."

She jerked out of his hold and shoved him away from her hard. "It matters to me! He was a good person! And, what, now you're just using him because you can?"

Cold settled around them like a fog and Vera could see her breath forming in front of her face.

"Be very careful how you speak to me, Vera," Amias whispered, trailing a finger down her cheek. "We may be friends, but Kareem means nothing to me. I could easily kill him if I wanted."

"S-so he is alive?" she managed to stutter out, despite her fear. "He's still in there with you?"

Amias was quiet for several moments before responding with a shrug. "You could say that."

"Then please let him go!" she pleaded. "He hasn't done anything to you!"

"First you don't like me in my true form, and then when I take a different form you're unhappy with that as well! You humans are so infuriating!"

Vera rubbed her eyes with her palms and tried not to cry. "This is wrong, what you're doing! Can't you see that? You don't just possess people because you can! Demons do that! Are you a demon?'

"I've told you before that I'm not. And besides, I'm not hurting this boy. After all is said and done he will be remembered for all the great things I did for him while I was in his body. That's some consolation, right?"

"No!" she shouted at him. "Get out of him or so help me-"

Amias growled, causing her to falter in her tirade. "Or what?" he snapped.

Vera's lip quivered and she gathered every last bit of bravery she had to say, "I'll find a way to stop you. I'll tell everyone what you are and that you're possessing Kareem."

He laughed at her. "And you think they will believe you? Don't you think that if I'm powerful enough to alter their memories of Kareem I could keep them from believing you? Don't try to threaten me, Vera. You'll only wind up making a fool of yourself."

Tears welled up behind her eyelids and she fought to keep them from spilling over. He watched her in fascination, as if he'd never seen anything like her.

"Are you going to cry?" he asked, tilting his head to the side like a curious puppy. "How very intriguing. I'm curious, are you crying because you are angry with me or because you are sad for the boy?"

She turned her face away. "I'm not crying. And I advise you to give Kareem his body back and stay away from me from now on, or you will be."

Amias laughed and crossed his arms. "And how do you plan on making me cry?"

"You're in Kareem's body, right?" she asked.

"Yes, so?"

Praying she was right about her theory, Vera pulled back with as much force as she could and punched him straight in the nose. Blood spurted from the wound and Amias fell to his knees.

She stood over him and smirked. "Then you can feel whatever he would feel." After a moment of guilt she said, "If you're in there and you can hear me, I'm sorry for punching you Kareem."

She started to walk away, but Amias grabbed her ankle and jerked her to the ground beneath him.

"If you ever strike me again, I will leave this boy's body and the bodies of everyone you care about strewn across the desert mangled and bloody," he whispered in her ear. "Do I make myself clear?"

She closed her eyes to keep from seeing the frightening look on his face and managed to nod once to show she understood. It took her several moments to realize he had gone – that he had just left her lying in the sand trembling.

...

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