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CHAPTER

23

ROBYN KNEW THE WISE THING to do was search for a way out, but she could have stayed in the secondary antechamber, as Alex had coined it, for hours on end. Looking at the artifacts instilled a sense of calm in her somehow, as if their lives weren’t in danger.

As she moved through the second corridor, her legs felt heavy and unwilling to move. She was in good physical shape and worked out five times a week—if she could at all help it—so it wasn’t all the exercise. It had to be fear. Logically, they still might not make it out of here alive.

But she had to be positive and envision herself and the others finding a way out. From there, she’d picture how they’d return and start cataloging the find. Not that she, Matthew, and Cal could stay long enough to see it all through. Tut’s tomb had taken years to catalog. And who knew how much more there was to find here? Her mind went to Julian, her boss from the museum. There was no way she could stay past the month. As it was, he was probably trying to reach her. She obviously had a good reason for being unreachable, but she just hoped he’d understand. He was a good man overall, but he detested excuses, no matter the packaging.

Cal would be hopping on a plane to get back to Sophie after a month, for sure. Matthew might stay longer. In fact, Matthew had a reason to stay besides the discovery: Alex.

Their attraction was blatantly obvious. And what was all that about a bit ago? The hug, the apology, and Matthew’s quick correction when Alex had asked if they were together… Robyn had pushed down her emotional response at the time, but his rush to clear the air had been hurtful. He’d acted as if she was the last person he’d be seeing, as if he was superior to her, as if the idea of dating her again was unimaginable.

Still, she wondered if Matthew had picked up on the fact that something was going on behind the scenes with Alex and Jasper. He’d have to be blind not to. The tension had risen up so quickly between them. The source of their conflict had to rest closely beneath the surface. Did it have something to do with Jasper’s seeming dislike of Cal? Was there a hidden agenda to this expedition? Would it hurt Matthew? Then again, Robyn could be getting carried away, building on her earlier reservations about why Alex had called on Matthew. She’d already had a team in place and a grandiose prospect. Sure, Matthew was an experienced adventurer, but was that the only thing that had gotten him the invite to join the expedition?

Maybe Robyn had just grown skeptical and suspicious. After all, this line of work came with its share of double crosses. But she’d set aside all this mental banter for now, though, because they needed to work as a team. And the only way she could do that would be by giving them the benefit of the doubt.

As she trudged on, she was happy that she hadn’t seen any snakes for a while.

No one was saying a word. They must have been doing a lot of thinking, too.

She took in the walls, noticing the smooth stone bricks that bore no hieroglyphics. No other rooms had yet come off the corridor, nor had it fed into one. But given the burning in her thighs, she’d say the corridor ran uphill.

Flashes lit up the space, assaulting her vision like bolts of lightning, even though the source came from behind her. Cal was snapping pictures again.

At least there was someone she could count on in this world. Cal was like the brother she’d never had, one of the good guys. He loved Sophie fiercely and loyally, and coming on this trip, leaving things how they were at home, must have been tearing him up inside. She could sense it coming off him at times, but he was doing a good job masking his emotions behind his camera.

“Did you find anything else in the hieroglyphics back there, Jasper?” Alex asked without turning around.

“Well, I didn’t finish uncovering all of it, but there was a curse called down on any who disturbed the tomb.”

“But no name,” Alex mumbled.

“A curse?” Cal’s voice cracked. “See, I told you! I swear that shit is real.”

“Just like leprechauns at the end of the rainbow,” Jasper said drily. It was obvious he had no concern for Cal’s feelings.

“I’ve got your back, Cal,” Robyn said, finding herself coming to his defense, despite having teased him about his belief in curses just that morning. “The underworld will have to come through me.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” Cal paused. “Oh, maybe because you have no experience with such things.”

“How would you know?” She was being silly, the madness of being down here getting to her.

Camera flashes bounced off the walls.

“What could you possibly be taking pictures of?” Jasper asked.

“None of your—”

“There’s another room,” Alex cried out with excitement.

Robyn watched as the light from Alex’s headlamp expanded ahead. She turned to look over her shoulder and was met with a blinding explosion of light.

“Cal!” She couldn’t see anything but dark circles.

“Everything all right back there?” Alex asked.

“We’re fine,” Robyn mumbled.

Blind maybe, but fine.

“I flashed her.” Cal snickered, and Robyn stopped walking so that he ran right into her back.

“My, a party’s going on and I’m missing it.” Alex laughed and stepped out of view.

“I just meant—” Cal’s words died on his lips when Robyn glowered at him over her shoulder. He cleared his throat. “Nothing.”

Robyn resumed walking, although she could only make out light and shadows. She stepped out of the corridor, joining Alex in a room that was much larger than the secondary antechamber. And it contained a lot more treasure. She was certain her mouth was gaping open. As her vision cleared, she took in the sights before her. More artifacts were stacked around the room, and they went as high as the ceiling in some places. She guessed it was eight feet tall.

Cal came in after Robyn, followed by Matthew and Jasper. Their combined headlamps made everything easier to discern: couches, statues, beds, chests, models of ships, golden trinkets, swaths of fabric, arrows, and the list went on. She walked around the room, so tempted to put her hands on everything, but she wouldn’t want the oils from her skin to ruin or soil the artifacts. Still, she couldn’t fully resist and swiped away a thick coating of sand from the arm of a chair.

“It’s gold,” she exclaimed and noticed Matthew smiling. “Well, technically, it’s gilded wood, but—”

“You touched it,” Alex said. It wasn’t as much a statement as it was an accusation.

Robyn felt the back of her neck stiffen. “I do have experience working with precious antiquities.”

“I don’t mean to insult you, but—”

Robyn stood her ground. “I understand and respect how valuable these artifacts are.”

“Fine, but please, don’t touch anything else.”

Robyn caught Matthew’s eye, but he gave no indication that he was about to come to her defense. She felt her cheeks heat.

Sure, take her side…

Robyn jutted out her chin, took a deep breath, and turned away from him.

Cal was back to snapping pictures, and even though there was so much here to photograph, part of her couldn’t help but think he was getting more shots of sand right now. She could only imagine how breathtaking everything would be once they got the rest of Alex’s crew down here and started cataloging everything.

Robyn walked clockwise around the room. She took in all the jewels, fine garments, and gilded statues. Being here was like living in the photographs she’d seen of King Tut’s tomb. Remarkable and equally unbelievable.

She came to a doorway, the light from her miner hat delivering some good news. “I found another corridor.”

“Please tell me it will lead us out of here,” Cal said.

Alex came hustling over. She took the first step inside when Matthew called out from the other side of the treasure room, “I think I found the burial chamber.”

Robyn’s breath hitched, and Alex’s movements halted. It was clear she was as conflicted as Robyn was. She’d love to have the assurance of a way out, but at the same time, Matthew was talking about a burial chamber.

Robyn turned to look at Matthew, but she couldn’t see him past the piles of artifacts in the room.

“Where are you?” she asked while moving to the opposite end of the room in the general direction of where his voice had come from.

“I’m behind the statue with the cow’s head.” He stepped out into a bit of a clearing and waved his arms as if he were flagging down a cab or trying to draw attention to himself in a crowd. Between that and the boyish grin on his face, Robyn found herself smiling.

“What makes you think—” Alex stopped talking, and Robyn understood why.

Both of them had rounded a statue of the cow-headed Hathor at the same time and had come face-to-face with two other statues, which were representations of a pharaoh, likely the one whose tomb they were in. They stood floor-to-ceiling on either side of a doorway—guarding said doorway.

Robyn started laughing, and Alex joined her. Jasper and Cal stood next to Matthew, and the three men were looking at them with amusement.

“We did it.” Alex turned to Robyn. “And that means that this here—” she pointed to the floor “—is likely the main antechamber. The first one we entered was either the secondary one, as I suspected, or an annex if we’re basing it on the layout of—”

“Tut’s tomb,” Robyn finished.

Alex nodded with a smile. “That’s right.”

“So now that we’ve found the tomb, will we live to tell about it?” Cal lowered his camera, a grim foreboding gripping his features.

Robyn went over to her friend and nodded. “We have to stay positive.”

“Easier said than done, don’t you think?” Cal served back, the strength of his emotions telling her he was thinking about Sophie.

“We’ll all walk away from this,” she assured him, but as they met each other’s gaze, she found herself withdrawing. She was in no position to make any such claim, but she had to stay positive for him, for Matthew, for Alex, even for Jasper. “We still have another corridor to explore. Let’s see if it leads to a way out of here.”

“If it does, it’s probably buried beneath tens of feet of sand,” Cal mumbled.

And blocked by a stone seal like in most tombs, she thought, but she wasn’t going to say that out loud.