Subhas stepped closer.“I don’t need daggers if I have guns.”
“I’m also trained in the Japanese art of jiu jitsu.”Constance flashed him a dangerous smile.“I could show you, if you like.”
“I’ll pass,” Subhas retorted.
Frustrated, Constance jabbed an angry finger at Neil.“What if he can see ghosts?”
“What?!”Neil blurted out, horrified.
Adam cocked a questioning eyebrow.Ellie frowned.
Was this some gambit Constance had cooked up to try to get herself onto Subhas’s expedition?If it was, it seemed quite far-fetched.
Except that Neil had suddenly gone very, very still.
A dart of unease shivered up Ellie’s spine.
Constance was defiant.“You heard the sitar player in the garden at Nandapur—don’t even try to pretend that you didn’t!And you saw a Moghul prince in the window of the Lal Bagh in Puri.”
Neil forced out an unconvincing chuckle.“But that’s… I mean, that was obviously just…”
Constance crossed her arms, waiting.
“I was imagining things!”Neil protested.
“Imagining things that actually happened?”Constance pushed back relentlessly.
Neil pressed his fingers to his temples.“No!It wasn’t like that.”
“I was right there, Stuffy.I don’t know why you’re even trying to deny it.I’m almost certain you did it in Egypt as well with that Eighth Nome official in the rock cut tomb.”
Adam shot a questioning look at Ellie, but she was just as bewildered by the exchange as he was.
“That’s not what happened!”Neil’s voice held a note of panic.
“Are you calling me a liar?”Constance challenged.
“Of course not!”
“Well, if I’m not a liar…” Constance began.
“It’s not ghosts!”Neil burst out.
“What else could it be, Stuffy?!”
“Time!”Neil blurted—and then clamped his mouth shut as though horrified by what had just come out of it.
He spun on his heel and walked away from them.
Constance stared after him, wide-eyed.Subhas watched with an air of bewildered amusement.
Neil dropped down to sit on the porch of one of the houses, putting his head in his hands.
Ellie walked over to join him.
“Time?”she asked carefully.
Neil drew in a slow, uneven breath.“Sometimes… occasionally… I seem to be able to… see through time.”
