Khepri was outside too, and Magdalena followed with us, gathering together on the stairs. Auguste had a black umbrella and a pair of spectacles with jet black lenses, but he kept tipping the lip of the umbrella back, grinning as the sun hit his face again. Amon was dressed warmly, three large trunks of his own belongings stacked at the foot of the steps.
"Good luck on the hunt, brother," Khepri said, shaking Amon's hand, a dark carriage rolling slowly forward, led by a disguised brownie and five black horses.
"Keep them safe," Amon added, glancing past me, through the door to the young women and creatures inside. "A good secret is a blessing to guard."
"Indeed," Khepri said, nodding, eyeing Magdalena with what I was sure was some form of hunger.
"You're going to be all right?" I asked Magdalena, that same sense of calm about leaving with my men now twisting with the tangled funny bone feeling of saying goodbye to my friend.
"Business as usual, darling," Magdalena said, her head tipping as she amended. "Well, even more carefully than usual now. But yes, I'll be all right."
I passed my bag to Amon, who handed it over to the carriage driver, and then met Magdalena in another hug.
"Thank you for everything," I whispered, blinking through sweetly stinging tears.
"We'll meet again," she said simply, and I resisted the urge to ask if she meant that as a friend, or if she really knew it already, as she'd known I might lose Auguste and Ezra. I stepped back and she nodded, serene smile in place. "Don't forget to read the cards. They cooperate better when you give them regular attention."
Auguste and Jonathon were shepherding me into the carriage before I could ask for further explanation.
"Goodbye!" I called, hanging from the door for a moment, grabbing one last look at Magdalena Mortimer, dark hair braided over her shoulder, wrapped in a new bright robe in front of the shining Star Manor, before sinking back into my seat, the horses jolting forward with a cluck. "Can we…can we drive past Rooksgrave?"
Amon frowned, but he nodded. "We shouldn't stop though, I think. Just in case."
"We don't need to stop," I said. "I just want to say goodbye to it too."
The drive to the dark eerie house was shorter when we were all together and safe, and I was cuddled comfortably between Amon and Ezra, losing track of the familiar turns of the hills, when Auguste sat up and nodded to the window.
"Almost there," he said.
The others made room for me and Booker to lean in at the window, watching the shadow of Rooksgrave Manor rise up on the road. The smoke had evaporated, and now there was only a mist drifting through the broken walls and windows, floating up from the loch. Black spires stretched like claws into the sky, but they looked fragile now. It wasn't the solid massive beast I'd met on my first day, but it was still an imposing sight, now full of the ghosts of what it had been before the fire.
"Will you miss it?" I whispered to Booker.
"Yes," he said, as we rolled slowly by. "But only a little."
I sighed and nodded, and then settled back into my seat, Amon knocking on the roof. The horses sped up, and Rooksgrave faded into the distance.