— CHAPTER 1 —

When I was initially invited to Cairo, Egypt, I hadn’t expected to come face to face with a mythological monster.
“She’s a Harpy,” insisted Rehema.
It was the third time she had repeated it. I heard the words, but they refused to settle into my brain. Harpy?
My colleague and friend Doctor Rehema Nader raised her hands in a defensive motion. “I know, I know. I can already tell by the look on your face, you think I’ve lost my mind.”
“Well, you have been a bit stressed out organizing the upcoming Gala,” I said in response.
Rehema didn’t reply as she carefully adjusted the lighting over the exam table so I could see every detail of the mummified corpse in the harsh light.
My next words died on my lips as I stared down.
“Now you see, Kristi, why I wanted you to come here. Pictures wouldn’t have done this justice.”
“Why? How?” I choked out as my eyes ran up and down the length of her not really my mind reeling. “You’re right, if you told me this over the phone, I would believe you, but I’d never imagine anything like this,” I said. “Who was she?”
“According to the inscriptions of her sarcophagus and the papyri that we’ve been able to cipher so far, her name was Okypete, and she was a priestess of a goddess called Britomartis and was a refugee living in the temple of Aten. But the funny thing is, she was a Minoan. On her sarcophagus, it described her as a close confidant of the great king Zeus....”