My head grows light at the implication. “Oh my God, it worked.”
Cec squeezes the back of my chair. “Somebody tell me what the bloody hell happened.”
When I turn to gauge Bes’s reaction, I’m surprised to find there’s a kind of halo around him. Just like when I took the first blood oath.What could this possibly be?
I recall reading about something called auras not long ago. Originally a concept of Hinduism, it was repurposed—as all non-Western things inevitably are—by the Church. And that’s what I’m seeing now: Bes’s aura. It pulses with dark blue almost purple smoke, cut through with strands of deep red and white. Anders is an even mix of orange and yellow with hints of light blue and dark red. And Cec is bold red with sparks of yellow.
All three boys have thin threads of black in their auras.
Anders answers Cec. “She’s invisible.”
Bes brushes what he must think is my shoulder but is dangerously close to my breast.
“I can still feel her.”
I let out a shaky breath.And I, you.
“And she can still hear you,” I say instead, wondering if they’re able to hearme.
The two of them who can see flinch back. Anders mutters, “This is madness.”
Cec huffs, muttering, “Now you lot know how I feel all the bloody time.”
Watching them talk about me as if I’m not here, I begin to wonder if I do in fact exist, in the technical sense. Something about this doesn’t feel right. It’s almost as if I’m dead.No, not dead—like I never existed at all.
Not wishing to suffer an existential crisis, I say the phrase again and am thankful when my physical form reappears. I remove it from my neck and set it down on the table as if it burned me.
“That was…” I begin.
“Madness?” Anders repeats.
“A good bit of fun?” Cec guesses.
“Fantastic,” Bes breathes.
I look up at Bes and grin. “Exactly.”
“Anders.” I regard him, and he looks as if he’s seen a ghost, and that ghost is me. “Are there any texts in the Archives on the Amulet of Amun?”
He clears his throat, searching for his composure. “Not that I could find based on the Archive records, but I’ll track down Egyptian writing from the time period.”
I wave him off. “That’s alright, I’ll comb through what we have here.”
“How can you still want toreadafter what happened?” Cec whines.
I chuckle. “Relax, you’re just hungry. All of you are. Go on without me; I’ll be there in a bit.”
Cec happily hurries away—I can’t imagine he’s too affected by what happened, considering he couldn’t witness any of it—and Anders gives me a loaded look as he follows. Bes places a hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll bring us some sustenance.”
I glance up at him. “You’re staying?”
“Of course.” A side of his lips tip up. “Can’t let you take all the glory, can I?”
When he leaves, I drag the closest book directly in front of me. But the moment I try to read a single word, my vision blurs. I dig my knuckles into my eyes and keep them there.
I can’t believe the Amulet of Amun actually makes you invisible. I should be less shocked, given what I’ve learned since coming here. Yet, each time something spectacular happens, I’m proved how wrong I’ve been all this time.
