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“I always was good with the mind,” she said, apologetically.
“How good?” Zheng said.
/> Epilogue
Dory, Cairo
“Our host is very strange,” Louis-Cesare said, sliding into the bath alongside me.
“Tell me about it.”
We were back at “work” in Egypt, finishing out our time here while our team geared up for the next adventure. I was glad for the brief break, which both of us needed. And also glad to be with vamps who didn’t scowl when they saw me.
I could get used to that.
But there were still . . . let’s call them peculiarities . . . about this place. I guessed every court had its quirks, and all things considered, this one was way less weird than our own. But it was still weird.
Take tonight, for instance.
Hassani had invited us to his study after dinner, to watch him burn some old bag. He’d been cackling the whole time, like a mad thing, like he had the day he’d burned the great snakeskin. Hassani, I was starting to think, maybe needed a vacation, too.
Maha had been there, as well, I had no idea why. But after all the leather pieces were curled up and black, and half the bag was simply powder on the desk, Hassani had looked at her. “Are they?”
She’d nodded. “Still there, all of them. The man, the creatures, and . . . him. They will always be there.”
“Eternity,” Hassani had said obliquely. “But perhaps not the way he’d envisioned it.”
She had stepped closer to him. “Do you want me to—”
“Not now. Take it from me tomorrow, as we discussed. For tonight . . . I wish to remember.”
She had bowed silently and left.
I’d noticed a small pot on the floor, the one I’d seen glowing with blue light the last time I was in these rooms. Its cover was off now, and it was empty. Hassani saw me looking and smiled.
“Another problem solved. Amazing how things dovetail, isn’t it?”
“A problem?”
“The col de mort, as you call it, did not work on our friend Sokkwi. It killed him, but he has died many times. The wood, I am afraid, was no different to him than any other stab wound.”
“You mean, he could come back?” I said, already halfway out of my chair.
Hassani made a calming motion. “He could have. Not now.” He chuckled again and swept the ashes of the little bag into a garbage can by his desk.
“Why not now?”
“Oh, let’s just say, I sent him off to enjoy his endless rebirths with someone who could appreciate his unusual talent.”
And then he’d cackled again.
Louis-Cesare and I had gotten out of there as soon as possible, because seriously? Diplomacy has limits. Although, I thought now, relaxing back into my husband’s arms, it had its perks, too.
“I’m getting one of these pool tubs when we get back,” I told him.
“And put it where?” he murmured, against my hair. “It would be more than half as large as your room at Claire’s.”
I sighed. I didn’t want to do this now. I didn’t want to do anything now, except appropriate honeymoon activities.
