Free The Honey Mummy (Folley & Mallory Adventure Book 3) by E. Catherine Tobler Page B

thought I was dreaming, but he was very real and quite here.”
    “And what did he want this time?” Auberon slid the pages back into the file. “If he was actually here.”
    “I believe he was actually here,” she said. She set her coffee cup carefully into its saucer and her eyes met Virgil’s.
    Virgil didn’t think he was going to like this one bit, that what she was about to say would involve rings and a quest, but when Eleanor began detailing what she had experienced—the brief, half-explanation of the corroded ring, the flight into the stars within Anubis’s hands—he didn’t know what to think. Had
Anubis
left her the ring? Surely an Egyptian god would not do something as foolish as ransacking the Mistral archive and setting a pile of books aflame.
    “He assured you that these rings were not like his own?” Virgil asked. Still, that cold hand closed around his throat. The idea that he would lose her was close, premonition or promise, he did not know. “And yet, said they would carry you.” The ring left in the archive was warm within his pocket, a hard little lump digging into his thigh. “Eleanor—”
    “Did you bring the ring with you, Virgil?”
    He was certain she already knew he had brought it; why leave it behind when it had so blatantly been left for her? He could only stare at her, giving no other answer, because it was beginning all over again. The fear that swallowed him—the idea of losing her when they had returned whole and well and agreed to a courtship—pushed the wolf against his heart, his throat, and made him jump to foolish conclusions.
    “Did you learn nothing from Irving?” he asked. “You said you had no desire to stay in that time, that the mother you knew had gone and that you were well and content to be in the here and now.”
    The look that crossed her face was one Virgil never wanted to see again. It wasn’t pain so much as it was disappointment. He knew how foolish the words were, but panic welled up inside of him. He could not fathom a life without her, a life where he once again sank into the hazy abyss opium afforded and denied what he actually was. His eyes flicked to Auberon, then back to Eleanor.
    If she meant to go, he could do nothing to stop her. Anubis could come and snatch her away at any moment, proven by this morning alone. Where might Anubis carry her, let alone the rings?
    He slid his hand into his pocket, fingers clasping the ring that was warm and rough. He set it upon the table then flicked it in her direction. It rolled unevenly, the corrosion having turned it into more of a oval than a smooth circle. When it came within her reach, Eleanor pressed her hand over it, to halt its wobbling progress. Her eyes held Virgil’s own for a long time before she pocketed the ring and rose from the table.
    “Gentlemen.”
    With that, she was gone and Virgil felt as though a Paris December blew through the dining room, rather than the warmth of an Alexandrian day.
    “I believe if you were intending to convey your unwavering trust in her unerring judgment,” Auberon said, sliding the file to the side as he took up his cooling coffee, “that could not have gone worse, my friend.”

Chapter Five

April 1887 – Cairo, Egypt
    Dear Miss Barclay,
    It was a pleasure to receive your letter from earlier this month. I am relieved to hear you are recovering, especially given the nature of your injury. I would appreciate a description of your mechanical arms, should you wish to take the time.
    I find it somewhat amusing that your own physician has asked you to approach me with questions, given he is in much closer proximity to you. Perhaps he believes we are closer than I will do my best to recall what you may need to know. If there are yet gaps in your recollection, you have only to ask.
    I was some distance behind you when the ground gave way. You did nothing other than walk across the street when then it crumbled beneath you. Given the way it shattered and your abrupt