Where the Library Hides

Inez, Whit, and Isadora arrive in Alexandria and check into Hotel Abbat. Inez sends a telegram to Farida to let her know where they are. Then, the trio argues about who should go to Lourdes’s supposed address. In the end, Isadora volunteers to stay behind to unpack.

Inez learns from the hotel attendant that the address is a bank near the Place des Counsels, an area heavily damaged by the British bombardment. She and Whit head there in disguise, Whit posing as her guard and Inez adopting Lourdes’s identity. Inside the bank, however, the bank employee assisting them becomes suspicious when Inez can’t provide the correct address tied to the account. Before the situation escalates, Whit knocks the man unconscious. While Inez distracts the others, he goes to find Lourdes’s file.

As they rush from the bank and head back to the hotel, Inez confronts Whit about their relationship. She tells him that while she may no longer be angry with him, she hasn’t forgiven him and never will. Before he can respond, they spot Lourdes across the street, heading toward the bank. However, a sharp whistle warns her off, and she vanishes.

Whit is convinced that Isadora was the one who warned Lourdes outside the bank and let her escape, but Inez defends her half-sister and suggests that Mr. Fincastle is more likely the culprit. Upon returning to the hotel, they find Isadora still unpacking their luggage. They recount their failure at the bank but plan to immediately confront Lourdes at the new address, fearing that she may flee again.

The trio heads out by carriage. However, Isadora is conflicted about seeing her mother again. She says the last time she saw her was when she and her father parted ways with Lourdes in London. Whit points out that she told them her parents were never apart, but Isadora deflects, and Inez is too caught up in her own emotions to notice.

They arrive at a modest, nondescript house that doesn’t reflect Lourdes’s usual lavish tastes. Whit picks the lock, and they search the house. They find a cluttered library filled with magical objects, journals, and letters. They begin to sift through the mess, and Inez takes the bottles of magic-touched medicine, an earring that amplifies sound, and a bracelet that warms the wearer. Before long, Mr. Sterling interrupts them, standing in the doorway with his pistol aimed at Inez.

Sterling orders his armed men to confiscate all the magical objects, journals, and clues that the trio gathered from Lourdes’s house. Whit and Isadora are forced to comply, while Inez secretly hides one of the magically shrunken bottles in the collar of her dress. Sterling then separates Inez from the others for a private conversation, pressing her again to join him. Inez refuses, declaring that she would rather die than help him. Sterling remains calm and promises that she’ll eventually change her mind. He then leads Inez back to the others, but not before giving her a magic-touched calling card. He promises that Lourdes won’t be able to resist it.

Sterling and his men leave the house, and Inez and Isadora return to the hotel. Whit follows Sterling through Alexandria to a hidden headquarters in Turkish Town. Hiding, Whit observes Sterling execute a young man in his employ who made a mistake. Once the lights inside all go out for the night, Whit sneaks into the building. He searches Sterling’s cluttered office but finds no clear proof of Sterling’s illegal activities. He then grabs the box containing Lourdes’s belongings and quietly escapes the building, planning to review its contents with Inez.

Inez receives a telegram from Farida saying that Ricardo and Abdullah are being poorly treated in prison. She, Whit, and Isadora dive into their investigation using the items from Lourdes’s home and Whit’s latest raid on Sterling’s headquarters. Inez discovers peculiar maps of Alexandria, including one featuring Pharos Island and sketches of Cerberus, the three-headed dog. Meanwhile, Whit uncovers drawings of the lighthouse of Alexandria and inscriptions in Greek, and they think that Lourdes and Mr. Fincastle might be excavating there.

Later that night, the trio goes to Pharos Island via rowboat. Upon reaching the lighthouse’s crumbling base, they explore the interior. Inez is drawn to a carved relief depicting Cerberus and the god Inez noticed before, whom Whit identifies as Serapis, the patron of Alexandria. Inez slips into another vision, in which Cleopatra travels through a secret underground canal system beneath Alexandria. When Inez shares this with the others, the group realizes that Cleopatra likely hid the Chrysopoeia along this network of tunnels. However, Isadora then points her gun at Inez.

Whit pulls Inez to safety as Isadora starts firing on them. After she corners them, Isadora reveals that she was working with Lourdes to sabotage their search. She deliberately led them into the ambush in Cairo and was the one who whistled the warning. She also admits that she always saw Inez as a rival for their mother’s love. When she tries to shoot again, Whit pushes Inez out of the way and is shot instead. Inez runs, fleeing up the deteriorating staircase of the ancient lighthouse, and Isadora chases and attacks. In the ensuing scuffle, Inez knocks the gun from Isadora’s hands. The steps crumble beneath them, and, though Inez holds on, Isadora falls to her death in the rubble below. Whit tries to convince Inez to let go of the crumbling staircase, promising to catch her and admitting that he loves her. She finally lets go, falling into his arms. They then escape as the lighthouse collapses around them. Back at the rowboat, Inez frantically rows them to shore as Whit deteriorates from the gunshot wound.

Back at the hotel, Inez anxiously paces outside the hotel room while a physician tends to Whit. While waiting for news on his condition, she realizes that Mr. Fincastle will seek revenge for Isadora’s death.

The physician emerges and tells Inez that he removed the bullet, but Whit’s condition is critical because of blood loss and infection. His survival depends on making it through the night. Inez must keep him hydrated and monitor his fever closely.

In the room, as Whit drifts in and out of consciousness, Inez tends to him with cold compresses, water, and constant reassurances throughout the night. She’s exhausted but refuses to release his hand. When he wakes, he laments the loss of the ink bottles her mother used for healing, and Inez remembers that she hid a bottle from Mr. Sterling. She pours the contents onto the wound. While it heals, she distracts him from the pain by asking why he saved her life. He admits that he has loved her for a long time and would do it again. Inez kisses his cheek, and he drifts back to sleep.

Inez wakes up beside Whit the next morning and sees the bullet wound has closed, leaving only a scar. After she orders a large breakfast for them, they discuss how to find the underground passageways beneath Alexandria and realize that Abdullah, with his extensive knowledge of ancient maps and history, could be the key. They use the magic-touched teacup to contact him and Ricardo. When they ask about the tunnels, Abdullah tells them that they’re Alexandria’s cisterns, part of the ancient water system designed by Alexander the Great. In addition, he mentions rumors of a secret library linked to the Serapeum, the temple of Serapis.

The physician returns, and while he checks on Whit, Inez waits outside. She reflects on her guilt over everything that happened and briefly considers using Mr. Sterling’s calling card to hand over the problem to him but instead decides to tear the card in half. When she returns to the hotel room, Whit tells her he loves her again, and they have sex.

The next day, Inez steps out to get them breakfast but is accosted by one of Mr. Sterling’s men. With a pistol pressed into her back, she’s forced to leave the hotel with him.