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She slipped the arcanum back into the cigar tube, returning it to her pocket—and then reached out to take hold of Adam’s hand.
He flashed her a look of surprise but allowed her to turn his palm until it caught the pale light washing down from the crescent moon. She traced her finger gently along the straight red line that marred his palm.
She could remember the sound of his blood softly splattering against the stones and the quick, panicked fear that had tightened her chest at how easily it might have been so muchworse.
“I’m afraid this is going to leave a scar,” Ellie observed quietly.
“I’ll add it to the collection,” Adam returned with a note of wry humor.
She let her thumb graze over his work-roughened skin. “It cut right through your life line—if one were to give any credence to that sort of superstitious nonsense,” she added curtly.
“That sounds about right,” Adam replied easily.
Ellie frowned. “It does?”
“Changed my life, didn’t it?”
“What—getting your hand sliced open?” she countered crossly.
His other hand rose to her chin, gently turning her face up to look at him. His gaze was steady through the gloom. “Finding you, Princess.”
The words shivered through her—and then Ellie startled at the scuff of leather on stone from behind.
Adam surged to his feet with a deceptive ease, his hand going to the hilt of his machete. Ellie more awkwardly whirled to see an absurdly good-looking Bedouin slip around the corner with the silent grace of a desert fox—prodding a pair of shadowy captives ahead of him with the point of his scimitar.
“Spies,” Mustafa said in richly accented tones that flowed from his lips like water. “English.”
The cloud passed, and moonlight spilled once more over the ridge—revealing the faces of Mustafa’s prisoners.
“Neil!?” Ellie gasped.
“Peanut?” her brother blurted back, blinking with surprise through the round frames of his spectacles.
He let out anoomphas Ellie crashed into him, squeezing him around the ribs.
“You’re all right!” she exclaimed, breathless with the relief that washed over her.
His arms came around her and tightened. His cheek pressed against her hair.
“I’m all right,” he assured her quietly.
“And you, too,” Ellie added, releasing her brother and reaching for Constance.
“Don’t tell me you were worried!” Constance scolded, squeezing her back. “Stuffy and I had the situation fully under control the entire time.”
Neil’s face blanched. “I wouldn’t say that’s quite…”
He bit back the rest as Constance shot him a warning look.
Adam joined them.
“Bates,” Neil said awkwardly, facing him.
“Fairfax,” Adam replied—and then yanked him into a hug. “Damned good to see you in one piece.”
“Rather glad of that myself,” Neil confessed tightly. “It’s very good to see you as well—all of you.” He cast a meaningful look at Sayyid, who had come to his feet beside them, and his face fell into lines of pained dismay. “I owe you all the most abject—”
“Yes, yes.” Constance cut him off with a wave of her hand. “There will be plenty of time for groveling later. I want to know how the three of you managed to escape Julian’s thugs in Hatshepsut’s temple!”
