Page 146 of Cherish

As the firststars begin appearing in the night sky, we take off toward Egypt, and I hope Remy’s pin is in the right location.

Although we have a couple of missteps along the way, we make it to Alexandria, Egypt, around three in the morning. It’s the downside of traveling by portal and dragon, but since we’re about to ask the Curator for a really big favor, arriving at their place at three in the morning seems like a particularly bad idea.

Instead, we stop at an all-night café by the beach, and those of us who eat food fuel up on Egyptian bread, cheese, and stuffed vegetables—mashi, they call it. It’s delicious, and it hits the spot. But I can’t help thinking that we need to say to hell with social niceties. We need to go see the Curatornow. Who cares if it’s the middle of the night when someone isdying?

On that note, I resist the urge to text Lorelei again. She texted earlier that Mekhi was still holding his own, but something in the brevity of her texts hasn’t been sitting well with me.

I glance at my cell phone yet again and convince myself that Mekhi will be okay for a few more hours.Please, I beg the universe as I read over his response to the text I sent when we first got to Kansas.Please let him hang on just a little while longer.

With nothing else to do after our middle-of-the-night breakfast, we wander down to the breakwater that runs along the length of the harbor in Alexandria.

It’s a beautiful view, and the area is surprisingly busy considering the hour. Apparently, Alexandria is like New York in that it’s a city that never sleeps.

Still, it’s nice to walk along the harbor and gaze out at the Mediterranean. It’s fun to think about what it looked like a couple of thousand years ago, when the Lighthouse at Alexandria was still standing on the Island of Pharos. Now there’s a giant citadel there—also cool, but not as cool as the lighthouse.

Then again, maybe I just have a soft spot for them.

At one point, we all come to a natural stop, finding places to rest and wait along the breakwater. Hudson sinks down onto an open space on the wall and gestures for me to join him. When I do, he wraps an arm around my waist and murmurs, “Rest,” as he pulls me closer to him. For the first time since we’ve been back from the Shadow Realm, his phone is in his pocket. I lean into him—he feels so good, it’s impossible to resist.

After the long flight here and everything that came before it, part of me is amazed I’m not dragging more than I am. Still, the second I drop my head onto his shoulder, I pass out.

I wake up what must be about an hour later to the sound of the call to prayer ringing through the air around me. It’s beautiful, rhythmic and melodious, as it goes out from what feels like one end of the city to the other.

“Hey there,” Hudson murmurs, stroking a hand down my cheek.

I turn my face into his hand, press my lips to his palm. He smiles down at me in the early-morning light, and for a second, it’s just the two of us. No quest, no fear, no Circle just waiting to close in on us when we’re least expecting it. It’s just him and me and this one perfect moment.

I press another kiss into his hand, then turn my face to watch as dawn paints the sky over the harbor a brilliant combination of fiery oranges and reds and yellows. The colors reflect off the water, turning the whole area into a blazing inferno.

“I love you,” I whisper, because no matter what is going on—no matter how frustrated or annoyed or worried I am about what is going on inside him—that will always be true.

“I loveyou,” he answers, his bright blue eyes blazing as fiercely as the sky around us.

I want to stay like this forever, want to say to hell with all our responsibilities—and, more importantly, all the political machinations that come with who we are. When we’re just us, just Hudson and Grace, everything is as close to perfect as it can be when two headstrong people are mated. It’s when all the other stuff gets added in that things get really difficult.

But that’s who we are. Who we’ll always be, whether I want it to be different or not. The good, the bad, and sometimes the royally fucked.

Some of my thoughts must show on my face, because Hudson’s eyes turn cloudy. “You okay?” he asks, sliding his thumb across my lower lip in a gesture that always makes me melt.

Since today is no exception, I just nod and close my eyes, hoping that he’ll go on touching me forever. Or at least for a little while longer.

But Eden chooses that moment to say, “We should probably get going.”

“Yeah,” Jaxon agrees, standing and stretching. “We should head out before the city really gets up and moving again.”

I know he’s right, but disappointment still slides through me as I move away from Hudson. A quick glance at him, though, tells me he’s already pulled out his phone and is moving on.

As I reach for my own phone, I tell myself not to blame him for that. Every single one of us is looking up something right now. Including me, though after confirming I have no new texts from Artelya or Lorelei, I’m just pulling up the directions to the Serapeum of Alexandria that Heather looked up for me while we were at the café.

On the plus side, it isn’t far from where we are, which is why we decided to spend the predawn hours here instead of trying to fly through the very crowded city as it begins to stir for the day.

Five minutes on Google in the café taught me that the Serapeum was a temple built to honor Serapis, who at one point was the guardian of the city. But more important to our purposes, I think, is the fact that at the time it was built, the Serapeum was referred to as the daughter of the Library of Alexandria.

It was a satellite building, housing much of the Library’s overflow, and unlike with the Library, the Serapeum never burned.

It’s destroyed now, I realize as we land several feet from the one remaining column on the site, and my stomach sinks.

Aside from some wall ruins and the catacombs that lay beneath the ground we’re standing on, nothing remains. The Egyptians have used part of the site, away from the ruins, to put in a cemetery. But otherwise, there’s nothing here.

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