“And all our lost loved ones return to us,” Sky said. “And we also, lost in the netherworlds of our grieving and self-doubt, return to life with them when we remember our true identities as incarnations of the deity. We are Nut, the firmament, stretched above in her dress of stars; we are Geb, the earth god, lying below the blue arc of her belly, absorbing her light; we are their children—wild Set, beautiful Nephthys, Isis who is love, and Osiris who is king and their son, Horus, the divine child who will be raped and blinded by his uncle. Awaken with Osiris to your true selves! Dance and awaken!”

They all began to undulate. Sky moved Izzy liked a puppet, turning her body this way and that. “She dances to the four directions, calling the parts of Osiris back to her. Priest, king, artist, wise man, lover, father, husband, brother. And as she gathers the parts of Osiris, so we gather the parts of ourselves together and find the goddess and god within ourselves!”

Jeb gestured for everyone to come closer. Then he took hold of Ever’s shoulders and steered him toward Sky.

“Lie down,” Sky said.

Ever looked at her. He knelt, then sat, then extended his legs and lay on his back. He was fucked up, as fucked up as Izzy. What had they been given? What hallucinogen? What aphrodisiac? The lotus tea? What—Sky gestured for Izzy to come and lie on top of him, and Izzy did as she was told.

“Ever,” Izzy said. Beneath his clothing and his skin, she could feel his flesh, his muscles, the weight of his bones.

“What’s happening?” he slurred behind the mask. She realized now, the whiteness of his face—it was a mask. “We need to leave.”

“What?”

“—to leave,” Ever said again.

“Did they give you something?” she managed.

“Just juice—”

“We can’t drive,” Izzy said, suddenly lucid.

“Have to leave,” he said a third time.

“But we can’t—”

“What did they do?”

“Drugged.”

The company spoke: “Isis lays herself upon Osiris, brow to brow, heart to heart, limb to limb. He receives her breath into his mouth, into his lungs.”

“Resurrect the God!” said Jeb.

“Resurrect the God!” said Sky.

“Osiris, awaken!” they said together. “Isis and Osiris are reunited!”

Izzy saw Jeb hand a silver ankh to Sky. She held it aloft. “Here is the sacred key that allows passage between the two worlds.”

Jeb began to walk around the room, tearing pieces of bread from a large round loaf wrapped in blue cloth. “Partake of the wheat of Osiris.”

Sky sprinkled water from a glass bowl on the foreheads of the now-kneeling company. “Partake of the water of Isis. Isis has brought Osiris back from the dead once again. The cycle continues.”

The sobbing Izzy heard? It had emerged from her own chest and the depths of her throat.