Page 41 (1/2)

"You don’t look like an Alpha at all!"

"Exactly Look at Lady Kingair and Lord Maccon--clearly being Alpha plays hell with one’s wardrobe!"

Professor Lyall stepped in again "Stop it, both of you Channing, you will have to takeit takes to control wolf form, let alone master a second one Give the pup a chance"

"Why should I?" The white as petulant

"Because I said so And because he et off on the wrong paould you?"

"As if Lord Maccon would allow any such thing"

"Lord Maccon is in Egypt You take your orders from me"

Biffy had never heard Lyall sound so forceful before He rather liked it It worked, for Channing backed down He illing to fight Biffy, but not Lyall; that was clear

"Such an unpleasant fellow, and so attractive; it makes it that ht

"Now, don’t you worry about Channing You’ll be able to handle him eventually Attractive, is he?"

"Not so ht answer"

So time to realize it was her Only then did she stop, turn, and charge across the balloon to Zayed

"Go back down! We o down in daylight"

Alexia gripped his arm desperately "But you must! Please, you must"

He shook her off "Sorry, lady, there is only up now He is dead anyway"

Alexia staggered back as though physically struck "Please, don’t say such a thing! I beg you"

Zayed only looked at her calmly "Lady, no one could survive that fall Find yourself a newYou breed well"

"He isn’t just any rab at his hands She had no idea how the balloon worked but she illing to try

Madaently off of Zayed "Come away, Alexia, please"

Alexia shook Genevieve off and stu her neck to see, but they were rising fast Soon they would hit the aether currents and then there really would be no going back

She saw Conall lying in the sand She saw the gastropod give up chasing the balloon and stop next to her husband The men in white jumped down and surrounded his broken form

Alexia opened her parasol Perhaps it would help if she jumped; perhaps somehoould catch the air and slow her fall

She clie of the basket, parasol open

Madame Lefoux tackled her and yanked her back inside the basket

"Don’t be an io back for hiainst her friend

Zayed left off supervision of the balloon to co her "Lady, don’t die Goldenrod wouldn’t like it"

The Frenchworabbed Alexia by the face, one hand to each cheek, forcing her to look deep into her green eyes "He’s dead Even if the fall didn’t get him, he was badly wounded, and there was that shot froun No mortal could survive both It’d be hard for a olf to survive such a thing and he’s no olf anymore"

"But I never told him I loved hi securing her to reality but Genevieve’s green eyes

Genevieve wrapped her ar"

Alexia refused to believe he was gone Not her big strong mountain of a man Not her Conall The desert warht and cheerful The sensation of repulsion had lifted at last But she was cold; her face felt sunken in against the hollows of her cheeks, and her ainst her freezing cheek "Ma that her parasol ht allow her to ju like she was splitting in half, like her soul, if she had had one, was being wrenched down through her feet, a tendril, a tether to theat all

The balloon jerked, catching first the southern current that had brought them to Luxor, and then after a few her western current, one that, Alexia vaguely heard him say to Genevieve, would connect theh they spoke directly above her head, Genevieve still holding her close, Prudence still cuddled up against her, the little girl’s eyes huge and dark and worried on herfar away

Alexia let it She let the nu

Five days later, in the darkness several hours before dawn, they landed in Alexandria

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Truth Behind the Octopus

Everything was still chaos around her, but Lady Alexia Maccon sailed through it all on a sea of profound nue The French inventor told the acting troupe about Lord Maccon’s death She explained what had happened using scientifically precise language She also informed them that they had failed to find Primrose