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As the three of them descended down into Ramses VI tomb no flashlights were needed because the pathway was lit. Murals and hieroglyphics covered the ceilings and every inch of wall space. It didn’t matter that in places they were discolored, faded and crumbling. The fact that most of it had withstood time was a testament of itself. Archaeologists had taken great care to preserve what was left of the mighty Pharoah’s tomb, despite the grave robbers that had looted and plundered the space of any treasures. It was hard not to be struck by how amazing the tomb was, to still be intact after all this time.
She was fascinated with it all and wished again she was here as a tourist and not hunting for an ancient book, but the descent didn’t quell her anxiety about the fact that they were in a grave, a very large grave.
Can’t believe these guys used to bury their whole households with them.
She shuddered. Only narcissists and tyrants would want to make sure they were being waited on hand and foot in the afterlife.
The long walk down to the burial chamber finally ended. “Let’s separate and look around. See if we find anything.” Mathilda’s suggestion was met with agreement from her and Max. Each of them went in different directions.
It has to be here somewhere.
The closer she walked to the back of the chamber the more she felt a pull nearly identical to the magnetic pull she’d felt at the ruins in Greece. The book had to be here somewhere. There wasn’t a ton of space where something could be hidden, unless... she looked around at the walls. Maybe there was a lever or button that if pushed or pulled would reveal a hiding space. She just had to locate it. For a second she hesitated, fingerprints on these ancient walls might not be good. Unfortunately, she couldn’t worry about that right now. She had to find that book. Plus, she wanted to get out of this place. People were buried down here and it was kind of giving her the creeps.
She worked her way around the room pressing here and there and looking for any areas where there might be notches or open spaces. Twenty minutes later, she pushed on a piece of wall and fell forward into another chamber. This room was dark. She pulled the flashlight from her waistband. When she shined the light around, she saw that the room was no bigger than a closet. Maybe there was once treasure stored here, but no longer was that the case. Cobwebs filled the corners and she nearly choked on the dust that clogged the air.
She braced herself on her arms to push herself to her feet and part of the floor rolled out from under her. A scream was about to erupt from her throat when she thought she was about to fall into a hole, but it was merely a hidey-hole of sorts. Something was wrapped in a tarp and laid in the space that was about a foot deep. All she could do was stare at it for several moments in shocked silence. With trembling fingers she reached down to retrieve it. The tarp fell away as she picked up the heavy object and revealed the edge of an old, worn leather bound tome. She coughed when a dust cloud rose up smacking her in the face. Sputtering, she waved her hand in front of her face trying to clear the dust away.
Once she was no longer choking she removed the rest of the tarp and saw the book had writing on the cover. She couldn’t read the title because it was written in Greek, but she knew in her heart of hearts that what she held was The Book of Prophecy. Along with the Greek title was a keyhole. Her finger traced over the irregular looking keyhole. Where was the key? She leaned over and looked back into the hole she’d just removed the book from. When her eyes didn’t instantly land on something she put her free hand in the hole and felt around. Nothing. She would take the victory for the day. They had the book. She could worry about the key later.
Mathilda was going to be so happy she’d been right. Her face was going to light up when she saw the book.
Willow stood and held it tightly to her chest as she left the chamber, but more dust swirled in the air around her. Coughing, she walked the path back to find Max and Mathilda. She put her hand in Eli’s jacket pocket searching for tissue to cover her nose. Something dropped against the ground and made a clinking noise when she pulled out the tissues. When she looked down she realized it must have come from Eli’s jacket pocket. She bent to pick it up and saw it was part of a locket. The moment her fingers touched the golden piece of the locket, the inner voice that always sounded before she had a vision spoke, ‘Show me.’
The elements swirled and moved around her and then she stood in Killian’s throne room. She’d been in here too many times in her dreams not to know exactly where she was. Who owned the locket and how had Eli come to have it?
She focused back on what was going on in the room. Killian sat on his throne and Katana had just walked into the room. It struck her that this time she could actually hear. Katana’s footsteps echoed off the marble floor as she approached.
Was it possible the more often she experienced these visions, all of her senses would be used or would it be a random occurrence for her to hear visions? There was still so much to learn.
Katana stopped and knelt before Killian.
“You have failed.” His voice was cold and unforgiving.
“I didn’t, the witch betrayed us.” Katana said equally as cold. She was not frightened of Killian’s wrath in the least. She was upset. This was good news though, if the witch that had been working with them betrayed them, then maybe this meant he or she had a change of heart.
“Do you want me to find her and bring her to you?” Katana looked fierce. Willow loathed that Katana was merely an extension of Killian. She was always willing and ready to do anything for Killian.
“Yes, bring Morgana to me.”
The moment she heard Killian say Morgana’s name she came out of her trance with a jolt of shock. Her breathing was erratic and bordered on hyperventilating for the several seconds afterwards. She was horrified and about to call for help when her vision adjusted. Whatever she was about to say died on her lips as she took in the scene before her.
Morgana stood in the center of the tomb looking like an evil sorceress instead of the cute, agreeable sprite she’d come to think of her as. How she’d managed to hide the naked malevolent look that now gleamed in her eyes for all these years Willow didn’t know. Here was the real psychopath. Something twisted in her gut to know that Morgana had betrayed them all.
Those thoughts were short lived when she realized Morgana wasn’t alone. Morgana was using magic to keep Mathilda held aloft against the wall. The girl had no control over her own body. She was positioned like Jesus hanging on the cross. Tears trickled down her face.
Max was in the corner. “Max.” She rushed forward clutching the book when she realized he was hurt.
“Uh uh. Stay where you are. He’s fine for now.” Even Morgana’s voice sounded different: darker, edgier, full of malice.
“He’s hurt.” The silver net she’d seen that day at Samson’s supernatural weapon warehouse had Max penned to the ground. He was in his human form, but he was naked. At some point he must have changed into his wolf form, but when the silver started burning his skin he changed back.
He whimpered like a dog and she knew he was in pain.
“Just please, let me...” She tried to get to him again, when Morgana pulled a customized gun from her bag and fired a shot at Max. The gunshot had no sound. There must have been some sort of silencer on the gun. The shot hit him in the shoulder. He howled and yelped in distress. She didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know they were silver bullets.
“Now are we going to have any more problems with you listening to my instructions?” She put the gun away and eyed Willow.
All Willow could do was shake her head no. She took a step back and stumbled, resulting in her landing on her butt in the dirt. She still held the heavy book in her hands.
“Eli! Eli!” She knew they were somewhere in another tomb, but she had to try and call for help. When that didn’t seem to be working she tried to call out to him telepathically. ‘ELI! ELI!’ No response. Something was wrong.
Morgana gave her a knowing smile and shook her head. “He’s not coming.”
“What did you do to Eli?” She wasn’t just scared anymore. She was angry.
If this bitch hurt Eli I’m going to kill her.
“Ulrik! Ulrik!” She scooted back across the floor. One of them would would hear and come help her.
“He’s not going to hear you either.” Morgana’s statement held such a note of triumphant satisfaction Willow felt her stomach drop. Dread clawed at her insides.
She already knew the answer, but she asked anyway. “Why?”
“He’s dead.” Morgana’s maniacal smile chilled her to the bone.
In that moment she thought of Anippe and what Ulrik had been planning. Did that mean Eli was dead too? She willed the tears away as her body shook with fury. Right now she preferred the anger and rage that was coursing through her veins to the bottomless pit of despair that she wanted to disappear into if Eli was in fact dead.
If only Morgana didn’t have Mathilda she could try and fight her and hope that Phaedra or Gamal, someone, anyone would find them soon.
“Why did you have to kill him?” She managed to say through clenched teeth.
“Just another thing that Killian will thank me for. Ulrik’s been on his shit list ever since he disappeared. Plus, he’d become suspicious of me in Greece. Constantly sniffing around. First with Mathilda...”
“What? What about Mathilda?” Willow looked at the young girl who was frightened and penned to the wall.”
“Oh.” Morgana looked amused. “Well I just have to tell someone this story because it’s just too good. That morning of Mathilda and Zoriana’s big blow up in the woods, I’d left to go “gather” materials for a spell.” She put air quotes around the word gather. “I’d really headed out so I could report back to Killian, but then Mathilda who’d been running away from her fight with mommy caught me communicating with him. You see with magic, I’d been able to devise a way to talk to Killian without him being able to detect our location so he couldn’t try and get around me without giving me what he promised.” Morgana was so pleased with herself. Willow was waiting on her to physically pat herself on the back for a job well done.
“Anyways, what was I saying? Oh yeah, Mathilda... I couldn’t let her go running back to camp and rat me out, so I put her to sleep. Since she was already fighting with Mommy Dearest it made it easy to keep their feud going without too many questions being asked. Good thing I already had a forget potion on hand. A good healthy dose of that would have lasted a while before I had to give her another. Then I brewed a potion that would keep her angry and alienated from the person she cared about most in this world.”
Willow noticed something flicker in Morgana’s eyes when she referenced Mathilda and Zoriana’s close relationship. Was it envy or jealousy she saw? She wasn’t sure. Eli had said Morgana was an orphan. Had she known her mother at all?
“Administered every few days, it kept her right where I wanted her: by my side where I could keep a constant watch on her to make sure the potion wouldn’t wear off without anyone being the wiser. It’s natural after a horrible fight with her mom she would seek solace with me, her makeshift big sister. This way she couldn’t go running and spilling her guts.” Hopefully, the longer Morgana spent sharing her plans the quicker someone would find them. When she chanced a quick glance at Max, she saw the shallow breaths that made his chest rise and fall. Good. He was hanging on despite the silver that was burning his skin and poisoning his blood.
“The other day when Ulrik asked her about her eyes, I knew he recognized the potion from the effects it has on you after you’ve drank it. It was only a matter of time before he divulged what he suspected. Just happened to work out that we would find the book before he could actually get around to telling on me.” Morgana was like a cat with a bowl of cream she was so ecstatic over her plans coming together.
“That’s why I tried to kill him on the battlefield, but wasn’t able to finish the job because I had to take care of Katana. She was going to ruin everything. Once I sent her and the other vampires on the way, the sooner I could find this book that meant so much to Killian and he’d reward me with what I wanted. If Katana got you or the book before I did, the deal was off the table. I couldn’t have that.”
A chill ran down her spine at Morgana’s words, she was so cool and calculating. Her mind still couldn’t fathom that for years she’d played this role and fooled them all, but why? Why did she wait so long?
“I just don’t understand why you did any of this. Why did you betray us?” It was hard to keep the hurt from showing.
There was no remorse or sorrow when she stared into Morgana’s eyes. “Story for another time. You’ll know all my reasons soon enough. Now give me the book.”
“I can’t do that.”
Morgana’s answer was to use her magic to choke Mathilda. With her arms still penned to the wall, she couldn’t clutch at her throat like most people would when they were choking. Her body twitched and spasmed trying desperately to fill her lungs with oxygen. Drool ran down the side of her mouth. A tear fell down Willow’s face as she watched the girl’s eyes roll into the back of her head.
“Okay. Stop.” She let out a breath. Her shoulders slumped. “I’ll give you the book. Just please stop hurting her.” Willow awkwardly scrambled to her feet, maintaining her hold on the book. Morgana’s smile pissed her off.
“And since there’s no one here to stop me I’ll take you and the book to Killian.”
The smug expression taunted Willow. Why wasn’t there something she could do? She felt so helpless. If she tried to fight, Morgana might kill one or both of them. She couldn’t take that risk.
“Fine.” The defeat she felt carved out her insides. “Let them go and you can take me.”
Morgana eyed her. “Not both of them.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt either of them.”
“Yes, but I didn’t say I would let them both out of their traps. Once you get over here and hand me the book, then I’ll let Mathilda go. She can help Max once we’re gone.”
Damn it. Why does she have to be so smart?
She was thinking of everything. Guess you didn’t get to be an evil genius if you didn’t think ten steps ahead of everyone else. “As soon as I hand you the book, you let her down.”
“Yeah, we agreed on this already. Let’s go before one of the others finds us.” Impatience seeped into her tone.
Willow’s steps dragged as she walked the distance to Morgana. Her eyes went to Mathilda’s face and she offered up a silent apology to the girl that she couldn’t have done more.
“Don’t Willow.” Max’s weak plea made her want to cry.
“I don’t have a choice. I won’t let you guys get killed because of me.” A sob choked her when she reached Morgana. “Let her go.”
“Book first.”
She had no more leverage, no more cards to play, nothing up her sleeve. With deep reluctance and regret she handed Morgana the book. She hadn’t expected her to keep her word but Mathilda fell to the ground the minute she relinquished the book. Morgana was about to grab her so they could teleport out of the tomb when Morgana cried out and stumbled to the side. Blood stained her shirt on the side.
“Run Willow!”
Willow took a few steps back from Morgana. “I’m not leaving without you guys.” She called to Mathilda. Voices could be heard coming from the entrance. Morgana recovered quickly from the injury Mathilda inflicted. She heard the voices too.
What happened next seemed to occur in slow motion and sped up all at once. There was no way she could have stopped Morgana and then she disappeared, taking The Book of Prophecy with her.