“The remains?” Hudson offered and shuddered.
“Oh, yours didn’t come back to life?” asked Sebastian. “That’s a relief.” He didn’t think he could take two. He wasn’t even coping with one.
“Well, I mean, sort of,” said Hudson. “Not actual life, but sort of... What do you mean:yours?You had a mummy? What did your mummy do?”
“Came back to life. Ripped some people in half. Wore a dead body like a skin suit. Tried to kill us. Still wants to kill us.”
“Ooh! Was it Anuket?” demanded Yazmin, clapping her hands excitedly, which was not the reaction Sebastian would haveexpected.
“She’s good,” said Sebastian, blinking in shock.
“She really is,” agreed Hudson, looking puzzled. “How’d you know?”
“Remember when we got separated? Well, when I was hiding from the warlocks, there was this absolutely fascinating statue of Isis, which obviously was completely common for funerary accouterment and to be expected considering the rest of the artifacts we found. However, the inscription was extremely unusual, and I wish I’d more time to study it, but I had to attack some warlocks just then.”
“As one does,” interjected Sebastian. He was beginning to like Yazmin.
“Precisely,” agreed Yazmin, completely missing Sebastian’s sarcasm. “Fortunately, I had a broom handle handy. And then, of course, there was, you know...”
“Yeah,” agreed Hudson, nodding. “The running and screaming.”
“So I never got back around to it,” said Yazmin. “But it mentioned Anuket, and if their artifacts are related to our artifacts, which we thought they were, based on theshenuand the scarab amulet you mentioned, then it might make sense.”
It was complete gibberish. She might as well have been speaking in tongues. But what Sebastian got was that not only was Yazmin going to help figure out their mummy situation, she was already ahead of them.
“But,” said Hudson, “I have questions.”
Of course, he did. Like Sebastian didn’t have questions. In fact, all he had were questions.
“First of all—”
The door banged open, cutting Hudson off, and Killian entered in wolf form. He stopped, panting. Sebastian could see that he had a roll of clothes tied around his neck. Foam fleckedhis muzzle. Wherever he’d been, he’d been running a long time. Killian shook and transformed.
“Oh, uh, naked,” said Yazmin spinning around and grabbing onto Hudson’s shirt. “Uh, bits,” she said to Hudson, looking horrified. Sebastian didn’t know how to explain to her that wolves really couldn’t be bothered with clothes a lot of the time. If she was sticking around she would probably have to get used to bits.
“Bastian, Huds, you’re here. Are we too late? Where is Pellos?”
“Alex is with him at the hospital. He got out of his second surgery an hour ago. It’s not... They say if he makes it through tomorrow, then maybe he’s got a chance. Alex is losing it.”
Killian was yanking off the clothes he had tied around his neck. Bundled up in the pants were a small box and a scroll that he handed to Sebastian.
“Donotdrop those,” he ordered, sounding grim. “I had to run from Italy. The goddamn library door opened on the wrong side of the border,” he said, pulling on his pants. “Apparently, its definition of Greece is not current.”
“You got into the library?” demanded Yazmin spinning back around, hands clasping eagerly in front of her. Naked apparently only mattered if libraries weren’t involved. “The really real Library of Alexandria?”
“Yes. Who are you?” Killian didn’t look pleased to be questioned by a human.
“She’s Hudson’s Egyptologist,” said Sebastian.
“I...” Killian looked like he was going to say something dismissive, and Sebastian needed to move him into being on the same page. Yazmin was helping, and she was Hudson’s. Killian needed to accept that fast.
“We need her,” said Sebastian firmly.
“OK. Uh...” Killian blinked and refocused. “We have to go to the hospital. We need the entire pack to make this work, and Ihope... Well, I hope there’s enough of the cure for all of us.”
“Make what work?” demanded Hudson, glancing quickly at Yazmin. She gave him a hopeful look in return.
“We can turn Pellos,” said Killian. “We can make him a werewolf. We can save him.”
Sebastian let out a hard gasp of air as if he’d been punched. He felt such a strong wave of relief that he thought he might puke.
“It worked?” demanded Hudson. “Alex and I thought they might have the records, but there was no guarantee.”
For a moment, Killian looked bone weary and achingly sad. “It worked,” he said. “There were… complications, but I got what we need, and I believe we can do it.”
Something had broken in Killian, Sebastian could see it, and it scared him, but he could only focus on one crisis at a time. Save Pellos first. Then he could worry about the rest. Work the resources. Make plans. They could do it. One foot in front of the other. For the first time since the gunshot had echoed across the house, Sebastian felt more than fear. He felt a sliver of hope.
“Then why are we still standing here?” demanded Sebastian. “Whatever we need to do, let’s do it.”
The Rejects Pack would do what they had always done—stick together. That’s how they survived.
