“Work that out yourself, did you?” I asked.
He looked away, and immediately I felt bad.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “It’s just...what are we going to do?”
“Rescue Dad. What else can we do?” He picked up his wand and turned it in his fingers. “Do you think he really meant to...you know, bring Mom back?”
I wanted to say yes. More than anything, I wanted to believe that was possible. But I found myself shaking my head. Something about it didn’t seem right. “Iskandar told me something about Mum,” I said. “She was a diviner. She could see the future. He said she made him rethink some old ideas.”
It was my first chance to tell Carter about my conversation with the old magician, so I gave him the details.
Carter knit his eyebrows. “You think that has something to do with why Mom died—she saw something in the future?”
“I don’t know.” I tried to think back to when I was six, but my memory was frustratingly fuzzy. “When they took us to England the last time, did she and Dad seemed like they were in a hurry—like they were doing something really important?”
“Definitely.”
“Would you say freeing Bast was really important? I mean—I love her, of course—but worth dying for important?”
Carter hesitated. “Probably not.”
“Well, there you are. I think Dad and Mum were up to something bigger, something they didn’t complete. Possibly that’s what Dad was after at the British Museum—completing the task, whatever it was. Making things right. And this whole business about our family going back a billion years to some god-hosting pharaohs—why didn’t anyone tell us? Why didn’t Dad?”
Carter didn’t answer for a long time.
“Maybe Dad was protecting us,” he said. “The House of Life doesn’t trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn’t, like, trigger each other’s magic.”
“Bloody awful reason to keep us apart,” I muttered.
Carter looked at me strangely, and I realized what I’d said might have been construed as a compliment.
“I just mean they should’ve been honest,” I rushed on. “Not that I wanted more time with my annoying brother, of course.”
He nodded seriously. “Of course.”
We sat listening to the magic hum of the obelisk. I tried to remember the last time Carter and I had simply spent time like this together, talking.
“Is your, um...” I tapped the side of my head. “Your friend being any help?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “Yours?”
I shook my head. “Carter, are you scared?”
“A little.” He dug his wand into the carpet. “No, a lot.”
I looked at the blue book we’d stolen—pages full of wonderful secrets I couldn’t read. “What if we can’t do it?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “That book about mastering the element of cheese would’ve been more helpful.”
“Or summoning fruit bats.”
“Please, not the fruit bats.”
We shared a weary smile, and it felt rather good. But it changed nothing. We were still in serious trouble with no clear plan.
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” he suggested. “You used a lot of energy today. I’ll keep watch until Bast gets back.”
He actually sounded concerned for me. How cute.