I nodded again, simply because if he believed that, then I would too. I didn't know if Auguste was gone or not. If Ezra was. I just wanted them to be here. It was the prickling wrongness of one of them being away amplified to a wound.
"Come on. I told Amon and Booker I would find you. They'll start to worry," Jonathon said, but he didn't move away from me for several more moments and I wasn't in any rush to move.
I wasn't quite anything at all it seemed, just trapped in a strange horrible day. One that I wanted to end and reset back to the night when I'd had them all together.
Jonathon moved and I followed like an echo, down the hall to the stairs, around and around until we were back in the bright open entrance of Amon's home. The orchids in pots were as vivid and fragrant as they had been a little more than a day ago, and I had a funny violent impulse to knock one over, spoil the perfection of the room as much as my pretty perfect world had been marred.
Amon doesn't deserve that. Neither do the orchids, I thought, holding my breath and looking away.
Booker stepped into my side, his arm heavy and reassuring over my shoulder, too much of the smoke smell on his ruined clothing but not enough to make me want to turn away.
In the doorway, Amon stood with an unfamiliar woman. She was tall with golden skin and glossy black hair like Amon's. In fact, she looked a lot like Amon, from the color and tilt of her eyes to the slight shimmer on her skin.
"Magdalena Mortimer, my sister-kind, Khepri," Amon said, bowing to both women.
Khepri was dressed similarly to Amon, in long pale pants with a flowing blue tunic almost like a dress on top, a white silk scarf with gold embroidery wrapped around her long throat. She stepped up to Magdalena, lifting the other woman's dirty hand with her perfectly impeccable one, and bent to rest her forehead against Magdalena's knuckles.
"My deepest condolences for this injury and the loss your house has suffered." Khepri's voice was low and melodic, and I watched as Magdalena's cheeks turned faintly pink, the first sign of life on her after the trials of the fire. "I regret not arriving soon enough to offer my protection before the attack, but I swear Birsha's hands will never reach so far again. He has much to answer for."
"I called Khepri here to assist you in guarding your ladies and clients, if you are amenable. Birsha has never moved against my kind. It is his one rare moment of wisdom," Amon said, eyes darkening and body tensing. "I will seek him out myself for this offense, but I thought one of my kind might assist in keeping you hidden."
"I…" Magdalena trailed off in stunned silence, glancing between the two sphinxes, one of whom was still holding her hand, and then over briefly to me. "I accept, of course. Most gratefully, Khepri."
Amon hummed in agreement and then crossed the open room to me, searching my eyes for a moment before leaning in to kiss my forehead. "We'll leave them to their discussion."
"Wait, brother. I would like to meet her," Khepri called as Amon tried to turn us for the stairs.
Amon frowned and growled a little, throwing over his shoulder, "We're very weary, Khep."
"He wrote poems of you, little one," Khepri said, leaning to catch my eye over Amon's shoulder. I stared blankly back at her before I realized the wicked glint in her eyes was her teasing like a sibling might have.
"Good poems?" I asked, stepping around Amon as he huffed.
Khepri feigned serious thought, elegant fingers resting on her chin for a moment. "Adequate." She smiled, the warmth reaching her eyes, and met me in the middle of the room. Her stare was every bit as hypnotizing as Amon’s, and I realized she must've been reading me as he had done with Mary. "Yes. I do see why he is so drawn to your shine, little star."
"Khepri," Amon snapped from behind me.
"Can you see Auguste and Ezra?" I asked, my eyes growing wide, looking back at an equally stunned Amon and then again to Khepri.
She hummed and shook her head slowly. "They are undecided. You may lose him," she said, but it wasn't her voice at all.
Magdalena gasped and I blinked, remembering the eerie phrase she'd said to me the day Amon had discovered me with Ezra. I thought she'd meant Amon but—
"Or perhaps you may not," Khepri said, wincing. "They are not lost now. Only out of the sun's reach."
A wounded note rose up from my throat, my chest aching again, and I took one quick step for the door, ready to rush out and run all the way back to the ruins of Rooksgrave to reach them, even if I had to dig them out with my bare hands. A thick arm banded around my waist, lifting me from the floor before I got another step farther.
"Daylight," Booker reminded gently.
I sagged in his hold, nodding reluctantly. Daylight. The vampires couldn't be rescued until it was safe for them to come out. And Ezra… If I was lucky, if he was lucky, he was with Auguste, who would keep him safe.
"To bed, Esther," Booker said, not waiting for my agreement as he turned and carted me up the stairs, Amon and Jonathon following at his back.
"We can go back tomorrow. Work on the tunnel entrance," Amon said. He was dirty and ruffled, so unlike himself. There was age in his posture, hunched and tired, and in Jonathon's as well. His eyes flicked up to mine, face stern and chin lifting. "We won't fail you, my star."
"You haven't failed me, Amon," I said, unable to add to the words. "Can I come tomorrow?"
I expected them to refuse immediately as they had tonight, but Amon only let out a weary sigh.
"It might be cool tomorrow?" Jonathon said with a glance at our sphinx.
"Khepri or I might protect you from burns," Amon said with a nod. "I would rather have you with us."
I sighed, sinking into Booker's arms at his words, my eyes sliding shut and forehead cooling against Booker's jaw.
"We can take turns keeping her company when we need rest," Jonathon murmured.
My body bobbed gently with every step up, every foot down the hall.
"She might find things of value in the house," Amon agreed, their voices growing distant.
"Sleep, friend," Booker whispered in my ear, a little tug from his end of the tether as if he were dragging me into his own steady mind.
It must've worked because I was lost before they set me down in the bed.