It definitely wasn’t the first time Ren turned a corner to find Alex hugging his mom. Back when Alex was a sick only-child and Dr. Bauer was a hardworking single mom, they often hugged before going their separate ways. Toward the end of his life — his first life — they’d hugged a little longer, never quite sure if they’d see each other again.

Ren gave them their space as they hugged hard, with their eyes closed to the world. She was pretty sure they didn’t even realize she was there. They were lost in the reunion and defenseless. And suddenly she felt intensely protective of them. Her left hand drifted toward her amulet. She would watch the hostile world for them.

But as she turned one way and then another, she couldn’t help but think of her own parents. She remembered her own good-bye hugs at the airport. It felt so long ago now. Too long. Her watchful eyes began to brim with tears, and as protective as she felt, she couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit jealous, too.

And so when Todtman pivoted around the corner on the tip of his cane, she didn’t try to stop him. She knew him well enough by now to know what he would do.

The old curator took in the moment at a glance, paused barely half a beat, and said, “Maggie!”

Dr. Bauer gave her son one more squeeze and closed her eyes a little tighter, as if trying to lock in the moment. Then she opened them and looked over her son’s shoulder.

“Guten Tag, Ernst,” she said, and then, more softly, “Hello, Ren. It’s good to see you.”

Ren felt her ears get hot — embarrassed to be caught staring — and offered a quick wave.

“The Order is on its way,” said Todtman, by way of hello. “They may already be here.”

Maggie sighed heavily and nodded. Then she released her son and looked down at him. Alex looked up at her, his arms still held out for a hug that was now over. “Did you do that sand devil?” she said, eyeing the scarab that had once been hers.

Alex nodded.

She reached down and ruffled his hair, something Ren had seen her do a hundred times. “I knew you’d be good with the Returner,” she said. “I’m glad it has kept you safe.”

“How did you know it would work for me?” said Alex.

“You got your hands on it once when you were very young — and you blew out the windows in the apartment.”

“Maggie!” Todtman repeated. “Are the Spells unguarded?”

She looked up at him and nodded. So she does have them, thought Ren. “Yes,” Dr. Bauer said, her voice hardening as she spoke. “We need to get them out of here. I’m not ready yet.”

“Ready for what?” said Ren as they all turned to follow Dr. Bauer down the next alley.

She didn’t answer.

Alex rushed to catch up with his mom. “I missed you,” he said, so softly that it was nearly drowned out by the steady beat of their footsteps.

And that she did answer. “Oh, Alex, I so wish you hadn’t found me yet — but I missed you, too. I left little signs to let you know I was still thinking about you.” Ren’s mind flashed back to the Valley of the Kings, to an old name penciled into a sun-scorched logbook. “Because the truth is, I missed you every moment of the day.”

She led them through the little village, leaving her head uncovered. The time for hiding was over. What they needed now was escape.

Alex felt a stinging bite on the soft flesh of his neck and slapped down hard. “Oh no,” he said before he even saw the flattened sand fly on his palm. The flies were back.

“What they see, The Order sees,” said Todtman, waving at the buzzing cloud.

They were approaching a row of three mud-brick huts on the very edge of the village. The walls were thick, painted a fading blue, and the heavy wooden shutters were closed.

“They’ll see,” said Alex. “I can create some wind. Maybe —”

“It’s okay,” said his mom. “Let them.”

She pulled open the door of the first hut. “Inside,” she said quickly, before turning to her son. “Keep them out, Alex.”

He nodded and grabbed the scarab. A quick gust scattered their tiny pursuers as the friends — and family — piled inside and quickly closed the door.

“Uh, Mom,” Alex said into the hot, heavy darkness inside. “Do you want it back? Your scarab?”

A gas lantern sparked to life and the growing flame revealed a quick smile on her face. “Not now, honeybear,” she said. “But hurry.”

Alex had always been embarrassed by his mom’s pet names for him, but right now “honeybear” sounded pretty sweet. And then she threw back a dusty old rug that was very nearly the only furnishing in the hut. In the light of the lantern, Alex saw a door in the floor.

“What’s —” began Ren, but Dr. Bauer was already kneeling down and pulling the trapdoor up and back.

“Stay quiet and follow me,” she said.

Alex heard Todtman throw the steel bolt behind them, locking the heavy wooden door from the inside. The next thing Alex knew, he was following his mom down a rusty old ladder into darkness. Sandy clay hardened into sandstone as they climbed twelve feet straight down. The ladder ended. Alex was surprised to find himself in a tunnel nearly high enough to stand in. Stooping slightly, he followed the glow of his mom’s lantern forward.

He heard Todtman slam the trapdoor behind them. Flecks of sand and clay rained down on Alex’s head as the others waddled forward like ducklings in the dark. The tunnel seemed none too stable, but Alex felt safer and more at ease than he had in weeks.

Twenty-odd yards later, they arrived at a second ladder. The second hut, Alex realized. His mom ignored this ladder, shimmying around it in the narrow tunnel and continuing on.

Finally, they reached the third ladder and ascended toward the third and final hut. “How did you dig all of this?” he huffed at his mom’s back as they climbed.

“Most of the work was done a long time ago,” she answered. “These huts were built over an old dig site here.”

“When you were in school?” said Alex.

“Yes. We left them here as a way to ensure our claim of the site.”

She threw back the trapdoor above them. By the time Alex climbed out, the room was already beginning to glow with the soft light of a larger lantern hanging from the ceiling.

The others emerged from the ground like desert gophers and Alex began to look around the hut’s one shadowy room. There was a desk, a cot, a pitcher of water, an old trunk, and a backpack leaning against the wall. He didn’t see the Spells, but he felt them. His heart was racing and his head was buzzing. Pinpoints and whirls of light played at the edges of his vision.

“Is this what it feels like when you drink those huge coffees?” he asked.

Now and then the swirling lights coalesced into a hieroglyphic symbol. A glowing ankh, the loop-topped cross that meant life, formed in front of Alex. It seemed so real that he reached out for it, but there was nothing there.

“What are you doing?” said Ren.

“You didn’t see that?”

“See what?”

“The Lost Spells gave you life,” said his mom, once again kneeling down. “You are reacting to them.”

She opened the lid of the old trunk and took out a square of black leather. Through the swirls, Alex recognized it as a briefcase his mom used to bring to work for important meetings. She lifted it free and carried it across the room. As she placed it down on the desk and clicked both brass clasps open — tik! tik! — Alex felt the sudden need to sit down. He looked around for a chair. There was only one, and it was tucked under the desk.

His mom opened the briefcase and Alex peered inside through a Milky Way’s worth of stars. He saw a thin sheet of linen, covered in more hieroglyphs.

“Are those the Lost Spells?” asked Ren.

“No,” said Dr. Bauer. “These are the protective spells concealing them. Hiding their signal while I … studied them.”

“You have been looking for a way to undo the damage,” said Todtman, suddenly understanding. “To close the doorways without …”

They both turned their eyes to Alex and saw him swaying like a sapling in a windstorm.

“Yes,” she said. “I have been looking for some way to undo the damage the Spells have caused without undoing the magic that healed my son. But now I have run out of time.” She took one more look at Alex, whose buzzing brain was able to form only one simple thought: Why does she look so sad?

“Watch him, please,” she said.

And then she lifted the cloth.

Alex saw a slice of yellow light spread outward like a slow smile.

And then he fainted, dead away.