❝death is only the beginning.❞
Mara El-Masri's fascination with the long-ago world of ancient Egypt started with the stories her stepfather would tell her when she was a child. Her brother Talib El-Masri is missing, left after their mother's funera...
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☾ ☽
SARAH WAS DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL THAT VERY SAME EVENING, advised to rest for the remainder of the week in an effort to prevent any further episodes. No one was sure that would even work, as the exact cause of her seizure was still unknown, but she was also prescribed medication that, according to her doctor, had helped others like her with seizures. She'd have to take the medicine for an indefinite amount of time.
The night passed quietly. Mara didn't get very much sleep, too afraid that if Sarah was left alone long enough she would have another seizure when nobody was there to help her. She checked in on her several times throughout the night, just to make sure she was still breathing as she slept. Mara never wanted to let her out of her sight again.
She had nearly lost her two nights ago, her daughter. Finding her seizing in the kitchen, seeing her sedated in that hospital bed...she'd hardly been able to stop thinking about it. She remembered every scent, every sound, every detail of what happened and she couldn't stop herself from thinking 'what if?' What if they hadn't gotten to her in time? Sarah would have died. The thought of that, the thought of losing her forever, it paralyzed her. She never wanted to feel that way again.
"You're not going to the museum today, Aunt Mara?"
Mara glanced up from her journal and answered Alex's question, "No, I'm staying home with Sarah and Jonathan." She sat at the table in the kitchen, dressed for the day but in a fashion more casual than the clothes she usually wore to work, and was rereading some of her early research to see if she had missed any indication that Nefertiri's tomb was home to another. So far, she hadn't. "If you wait, Jonathan can take you to the museum after he drops off Philip and the girls at school."
"Actually, Dad's coming by to pick me up. He rented a car. He should be here in a few minutes, I was going to wait outside for him," Alex said. A wise thing for Rick to do, Mara thought, if he and Evy were going to be staying in Cairo for a while. Mara nodded. Alex looked oddly hesitant, like there was something he wanted to tell her, but instead he just put on a tense smile and said, "Bye," before heading out the door, hardly giving her any time to say the same.
Mara frowned lightly. That was unusual. But things in the house had been unusual, so it was probably nothing to worry about. If it was, Rick would surely figure out something was wrong with Alex and get him to confess whatever it was. So she turned back to her journal, flipping to the next page. And just like on all the others, on this one there was no indication of Khafre being in Nefertiri's tomb.
Instead of a voice, the sound of soft footsteps interrupted her again. This time it was Sarah coming into the kitchen, still looking tired. Mara closed her journal when she saw her and smiled at her, greeting, "Sarah, I didn't expect you to be awake yet."
