Blood Will Tell (Warriors of Ankh #1) by Samantha Young Page B

and a beautiful daughter, Merneith. Merneith loved her brother with a jealous intensity and was happy when their father told them they were to be married. N-”
    “ Married!” Noah gasped, pulling away to stare at her in horror. “Isn’t that illegal?”
    She rolled her eyes at him. “Noah, I really must insist you stop interrupting.”
    “ But married-”
    “ Yes, it is illegal today, but back then it was the done thing. May I continue?”
    He frowned, seeming unsure, and then he nodded firmly. “You may.”
    Scoffing at him Emma tweaked his nose teasingly and picked up where she had left off. “Merneith was blissfully happy with her husband until one terrible day she discovered that Djet had been meeting in secret with the beautiful Seshemetka, and even worse that he loved her. Merneith was heartbroken. Worse still, after his father’s death and his own ascendance to Pharaoh, Djet publicly made Seshemetka his beloved. For years Merneith harboured hatred against them both, all the while proving herself a devout worshipper of the gods. When Merneith gave birth to their son, Den, however, the hatred became a paranoia and an obsession. Determined Den would be pharaoh, she watched vigilantly, waiting for the announcement of Seshmetka’s inevitable pregnancy. When it became apparent that Seshemetka was going to have a child, Merneith began to plot. Seshemetka had spent so little time worshipping, Merneith was sure the gods would favour her over Seshmetka. She began scrawling hidden symbols of the evil serpent of Apophis – serpent of the underworld and god of darkness – in Seshemetka’s chamber. Finally, on the night of her plan, she painted the serpent onto Seshemetka’s skin whilst she slept. Merneith then went to the goddess Bat, the goddess of the cosmos and most importantly, the goddess of the soul. She showed Bat Seshmetka’s painted body and informed the goddess that Seshmetka was trying to destroy Egypt through Djet; Djet who was so obsessed with Seshmetka that he could love no other and would listen to no other opinion than his beloved’s. Bat watched the trio over the coming weeks and soon grew convinced that Merneith spoke the truth, and that Seshmetka’s hold over the Pharaoh was a danger to Egypt and its people. Bat took it upon herself to protect Egypt – who loved Djet blindly and completely, believing him a living god - from the darkness he had been touched by, by granting her deserving servant, Merneith, with the power to take and control souls, so she could suck the soul from Seshmetka that so addicted Djet and have him love Merneith as devoutly in her stead. But that taste of power was not enough for Merneith. She wanted more. A hunger for souls grew within her until it could only be satisfied by more souls. She broke her sacred promise to Bat and began to steal souls. Their essence made her stronger, made her immortal. Worse… the children she bore may have been mortal but they were born with her affliction, with her hunger for souls. When the gods became aware of her crime, of the new race of monster she had borne, Merneith fled Egypt, sending her children to the opposite ends of the earth. The race of soul eaters began to grow at an alarming rate.
    The goddess Neith, enraged that a Queen who bore her name had played the gods fools, gifted some of her truest worshippers with supernatural strength, making them the fiercest warriors to walk earth in order to hunt and destroy Merneith and her children. They are called the Warriors of Neith. For centuries the warriors, mortal men and women with supreme strength, chased Merneith across the lands of ancient. But none could kill her. Repentant of her own part, Bat offered her essence into the womb of a female warrior who gave birth to a new race of warrior – the race of Ankh. These men and women are immortal warriors, powerful kindred, far more so than the Neith. Sadly, only so few are born every century to aid their mortal brethren, the