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“Well done, Stuffy,” she declared approvingly. “Now that’s settled, I’m off to bed. The rest of you had better get some sleep as well if you want to keep up with Aai. She is an unholy terror once she gets a plan in her head.”

“I think I could sleep for a month,” Neil moaned.

“I’m giving you seven hours,” Constance replied.

His eyes widened. “Seven hours? What happens after seven hours?”

Constance flashed him a smile like a knife blade. “I suppose you’ll find out, won’t you?”

Ellie wondered if Constance’s wake-up plan might involve Neil’s socks and some degree of combustion. It warmed her to see her brother and her friend getting back to their usual affectionate repartee.

Even if there did seem to be something a little more in the looks they kept casting at each other… not that either of them would admit it.

At least, notyet.

The notion left Ellie feeling a little uneasy… but not entirely so.

Constance gave Neil a wave—and shot Ellie a knowing look—before darting into the haramlek, the quarter of the house where she and Ellie had their rooms.

“Goodnight, Neil,” Ellie said, kissing her brother’s cheek.

“You too, Peanut,” he replied, hugging her back.

He started down the hall to the guest wing, where he and Adam were staying. He turned back with a puzzled look.

“Aren’t you coming?” he asked Adam.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Adam assured him. “You go on.”

Neil’s gaze shifted to where Ellie stood beside his friend. He swallowed thickly.

“Right,” he muttered to himself. “Just… heading on, then.”

He hurried around the corner and out of view.

Adam smiled down at her, his eyes bright with a hint of mischief. “All in all, I think that went pretty well. Found the staff. Saved the tomb. Even got your brother to loosen up a little bit. And I mostly managed to keep my shirt on.”

“You needn’t be too proud of that last bit,” Ellie grumbled.

“Saying you don’t mind the view?” Adam returned with a note of self-satisfaction.

“I think you are perfectly well aware of my thoughts on the view,” Ellie returned.

She realized they had come to stand on the same balcony where she had lingered a few nights before when Adam had regaled her with his best iambic pentameter. Memories of how a few moments later, he had tossed her up against the wall and kissed her positively senseless set her pulse knocking a little harder.

Just like before, the gently lamplit garden below them was empty, quiet save for the chirp of a night bird and the soft rush of the fountain.

“Of course, it is worth noting that we have been more or less coerced into going to India.” Ellie looked up at him worriedly. “I am fairly certain if you go to India, you aren’t going to have a position as Assistant Surveyor General for the colony of British Honduras waiting for you when you get back.”

“Probably not,” Adam agreed.

Ellie felt a little dart of guilt. “Adam, I…”

“No,” he cut in gently. “You don’t even have to start down that road. I don’t know if I could’ve gone back to that job, even if we weren’t being blackmailed into going after some apocalyptic piece of Hindu mythology.”

“Whyever not?” Ellie asked, confused.

He sighed, looking out over the courtyard—and perhaps beyond it, to where the lights of the city gave way to the vast, starlit sprawl of the unknown. “I don’t know what I’m meant to be doing with my life, Ellie. And that restless feeling has been itching at my brain since long before you dropped off a balcony into my lap. I know what my dad would have to say about it,” he added dryly. “But I’m choosing not to listen to that anymore. Leaves me wondering what should go in its place.” He glanced down at her. “I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on that.”