He curled the ring finger down…
“Wait,” said the doctor.
Two.
A beat of silence passed.
“This isn’t the true Ring,” said the doctor, his voice rising. “You would betray your own like this, Patriarch? For these people?”
“I rather like them,” said Hypnos.
He looked over his shoulder then, the barest of smiles lifting his mouth.
“But then—” Roux-Joubert said.
Enrique scrambled at the dirt, clearing the space.
“Now, Laila!”
She pitched forward, slamming the Horus Eye into the mold. Bright light flashed all around them. The blue light of the rising Fragment started to fade. Little by little, whatever energy had seeped into the catacombs now folded in on itself, like something slipping into ice only for the ice to re-form and wipe away any proof.
The doctor growled, but the moment the Horus Eye touched the ground, he recoiled. As if he couldn’t touch it.
And then, standing at the top of the terraced steps came a low, hair-raising growl: The Sphinx had arrived.
“My Lord,” called Roux-Joubert from the floor. “Please.”
The doctor drew back his foot.
“You led us into atrap.”
“I c-can’t live like this much longer.”
“Then perhaps you shall not live long at all,” said the doctor. He raised one hand, and the uninjured members of the Fallen House fled through the Tezcat, disappearing into the night. Now, the Babel Fragment had fallen back to rest… two frail lights emerged from the ground. One was the Ring of the Fallen House. The other, the Ringof House Kore. The doctor tried to grab both, but then hissed out as if in pain. He dropped the Ring of House Kore to the ground, then shoved the other onto his hand before fleeing through the Tezcat.
Now, the room was nearly empty. The four of them were still huddled together. A handful of unconscious members of the Fallen House dotted the floor. Blood seeped from the sprawled-out body of Roux-Joubert’s accomplice, his blade-brim hat flung out beside him. Roux-Joubert coughed, covering his mouth with stained hands. All around them, the bones of the catacombs crumpled to the ground, zipping back into the niches they had lived in for centuries…
Enrique swayed where he stood, feeling the rush of a thousand people coming around him. The din and shouts of members of the Houses. The mirror seamed up. But beyond the handful of unconscious members, there was nothing left of the Fallen House.
Beside him, he heard Laila let out a cry. Only then did he turn and see Hypnos sprawled out, the cold lights of the catacombs playing across his skin.
32
SÉVERIN
Séverin didn’t move until he felt Tristan’s hand clapping his shoulder.
“We’re alive.”
The same could not be said for everyone, though. The Fallen House may have disappeared once more through the Tezcat, but they had left people behind. Soon, they would be uncloaked, their identities known and their location recorded. Séverin looked up to the line of Sphinxes prowling down the terraces… their eyes recording all they saw around them. Soon, the whole Order would know who had betrayed them.
Across from him, Hypnos stirred, groaning.
“I’mdead,” he moaned.
Laila was the first one to rush to him, propping up his head on her lap.
“Well now, this is just proof. An angel stares upon my lifeless form,” said Hypnos, flinging his arm over his forehead.
