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Book: The Honey Mummy (Folley & Mallory Adventure Book 3) by E. Catherine Tobler
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Authors: E. Catherine Tobler
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to judge them, he had not flinched or grown angry. It was so now, too, as he watched her. His velvet ears flicked as he regarded her.
Daughter
.
He did not speak the word so much as he thought it. Eleanor’s eyes slid shut, because the voice was like nothing she had known; when he wasn’t ordering her to do something in a rough purr, the voice was equal parts pleasure and aggravation. Tonight, it was as if a thousand beetles had taken up inside her mind, scrambling one over the other. She pushed them back, for they only called to the jackal inside her, made that part of her even more restless. She opened her eyes to look at him, then forced herself to move toward the tea tray. She picked it up and carried it to the table near the sofa. It gave her something to do, something to busy her hands with.
“Anubis.”
Anubis did not immediately follow, but looked instead at the four rings within their box. Eleanor’s breath hitched and she poured two cups of tea—two, though the idea of Anubis drinking from a china cup struck her as terribly unlikely. Still, she let the tea sit, curious if he would pay it any attention. For now, his fingers whispered over the rings.
These are not so splendid as my own, but this one—
He pressed a finger to the corroded iron ring and his mouth parted in a hiss. The sight of his gleaming fangs only made Eleanor want to slip from her human form even more.
This
.
Eleanor abandoned the tea, to join Anubis before the rings. “Tell me, what of it?”
Anubis’s hand closed abruptly around Eleanor’s throat; he did not squeeze, only held her this way as the hotel around them vanished. Eleanor could not say where they were—everything melted into darkness, even the rings. The floor dribbled out from under their feet and she became aware of a great and powerful rush of air; the air was warm, Egyptian night enfolding them, as they moved toward lights that flourished overhead.
These lights were suddenly all around them, as if bubbles in water, hot and streaming blue-white fire against the velvet blackness. Eleanor could not take a breath, but found she did not need to; if she stayed calm and kept the jackal down, she found she could breathe, could even move within the cage of Anubis’s fingers.
She turned within that hold to regard the broad expanse of space that spread around them. The world curved beneath them, gleaming gold where the sun had begun to rise. The light fragmented across the Mediterranean and down the Nile, like a fuse being lit, like the world was soon to explode. She picked out Giza from high above and watched the pyramids spin as Anubis guided them ever up.
Eleanor looked up to the stars they rushed through, not certain what Anubis was showing her. From this angle, she recognized no specific stars—astronomy was not a thing she had studied with any depth, though she knew the Egyptians had. She knew Eratosthenes, and Ptolmey, and his brilliant book
Almagest
, but she did not know—
As quickly as they had risen, they began to fall. Eleanor clung to Anubis now, and was certain she was screaming, but beyond the rush of stars and air, she could not hear herself. Warmth enclosed her and she fancied that she was falling apart, little pieces of her trailing through the sky. From the ground, she perceived herself in Anubis’s grasp, the bright explosion of light and heat they made as they crossed the night sky.
Comet, she thought, then discarded it. Comets didn’t enter the atmosphere. But—
“Meteor.”
It came out as a whisper, her throat strained and charred. At her side on the sofa, Anubis pressed a tea cup between her hands. The china cup still radiated heat from the freshly poured tea. Eleanor drank it down, finding it blissfully cold compared to the heat of the stars, the heat of reentry—
She looked around the hotel room, uncertain as to how they had returned. Had they left at all? She expected a sooty smudge to mark the ceiling, expected the windows to be blown
Daughter
.
He did not speak the word so much as he thought it. Eleanor’s eyes slid shut, because the voice was like nothing she had known; when he wasn’t ordering her to do something in a rough purr, the voice was equal parts pleasure and aggravation. Tonight, it was as if a thousand beetles had taken up inside her mind, scrambling one over the other. She pushed them back, for they only called to the jackal inside her, made that part of her even more restless. She opened her eyes to look at him, then forced herself to move toward the tea tray. She picked it up and carried it to the table near the sofa. It gave her something to do, something to busy her hands with.
“Anubis.”
Anubis did not immediately follow, but looked instead at the four rings within their box. Eleanor’s breath hitched and she poured two cups of tea—two, though the idea of Anubis drinking from a china cup struck her as terribly unlikely. Still, she let the tea sit, curious if he would pay it any attention. For now, his fingers whispered over the rings.
These are not so splendid as my own, but this one—
He pressed a finger to the corroded iron ring and his mouth parted in a hiss. The sight of his gleaming fangs only made Eleanor want to slip from her human form even more.
This
.
Eleanor abandoned the tea, to join Anubis before the rings. “Tell me, what of it?”
Anubis’s hand closed abruptly around Eleanor’s throat; he did not squeeze, only held her this way as the hotel around them vanished. Eleanor could not say where they were—everything melted into darkness, even the rings. The floor dribbled out from under their feet and she became aware of a great and powerful rush of air; the air was warm, Egyptian night enfolding them, as they moved toward lights that flourished overhead.
These lights were suddenly all around them, as if bubbles in water, hot and streaming blue-white fire against the velvet blackness. Eleanor could not take a breath, but found she did not need to; if she stayed calm and kept the jackal down, she found she could breathe, could even move within the cage of Anubis’s fingers.
She turned within that hold to regard the broad expanse of space that spread around them. The world curved beneath them, gleaming gold where the sun had begun to rise. The light fragmented across the Mediterranean and down the Nile, like a fuse being lit, like the world was soon to explode. She picked out Giza from high above and watched the pyramids spin as Anubis guided them ever up.
Eleanor looked up to the stars they rushed through, not certain what Anubis was showing her. From this angle, she recognized no specific stars—astronomy was not a thing she had studied with any depth, though she knew the Egyptians had. She knew Eratosthenes, and Ptolmey, and his brilliant book
Almagest
, but she did not know—
As quickly as they had risen, they began to fall. Eleanor clung to Anubis now, and was certain she was screaming, but beyond the rush of stars and air, she could not hear herself. Warmth enclosed her and she fancied that she was falling apart, little pieces of her trailing through the sky. From the ground, she perceived herself in Anubis’s grasp, the bright explosion of light and heat they made as they crossed the night sky.
Comet, she thought, then discarded it. Comets didn’t enter the atmosphere. But—
“Meteor.”
It came out as a whisper, her throat strained and charred. At her side on the sofa, Anubis pressed a tea cup between her hands. The china cup still radiated heat from the freshly poured tea. Eleanor drank it down, finding it blissfully cold compared to the heat of the stars, the heat of reentry—
She looked around the hotel room, uncertain as to how they had returned. Had they left at all? She expected a sooty smudge to mark the ceiling, expected the windows to be blown
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