by Blue Jones
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By Blue Jones
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Trapped in the Valley of the Kings
By Blue Jones
Rival archaeologists Will and Jude slept together a year ago, on the night of the Summer Solstice at a dig in Stonehenge. But they were both wearing masks, so Jude has no idea it was Will he slept with, and Will’s been harboring a powerful, one-sided crush ever since.
Now they’re in Egypt, competing to find the lost tomb of Queen Nefertiti. Jude falls through a crack in the cave floor, and when Will reluctantly climbs down to help him, they find themselves in Nefertiti’s tomb, surrounded by archaeological treasures—where they must spend Christmas stranded by a sandstorm.
Will a few sultry hours stripped almost bare from the heat and sharing a bottle of whiskey sort out who should get credit for the discovery—and the real reason for the tension between them?
WILL’S BOOTS sank into the sand with each step as he hurried up the hill to the cave. The mountains that formed the Valley of the Kings surrounded him, stretching up toward the milky-blue sky. The setting sun had turned the tips of the mountains red, but within the valley, everything was orange: the sand, the rocks, Will’s clothes. Already he was covered in sand, the breeze pelting him with it as he climbed higher.
The cave had been there thousands of years, but Will and his fellow archaeologists had only known of its existence for eight hours. They believed that the cave could lead to the final resting place of Queen Nefertiti: a tomb archaeologists had been seeking for the last hundred years. At least Will hoped she was in there. They just hadn’t found her yet. And they never would if the rest of Will’s team had anything to do with it. Will could barely believe their lack of enthusiasm. They were all relaxing back at their luxury hotel, stuffing their faces with a Christmas Eve dinner.
It was only a sandstorm. So what if the weather experts said it was shaping up to be the biggest one Egypt had seen in fifty years. It hadn’t arrived yet, and it might not even hit them. The officials had issued a warning recommending that everyone stay indoors indefinitely. And normally Will would take that seriously. But this was not a normal day. Or a normal discovery. This was remarkable. This could change Will’s career, archaeology, his life, the world. Not to get carried away by either the drama or the sandstorm’s ninety-mile-an-hour gales.
Talking of gales, it was getting a little windy. Will stopped climbing the hill and turned to look at the view behind him. He sometimes forgot where he was, focused only on the digging and dusting and discovering. He took a moment to look out over an infinity of sand. The dips, valleys, and hills could have almost passed for Mars, if it weren’t for the man-made paths meandering between them. The plain, desolate landscape hid so many secrets beneath it. Gold murals and colorful hieroglyphs inside dozens of beautiful tombs. And soon maybe one more, if the storm didn’t get here first. An ominous wall of yellow sand shifted on the horizon. He couldn’t look away. The storm had to be five hundred feet tall and was so wide he couldn’t see the edges. It was terrifying but beautiful. The sky got noticeably darker as the giant wall of sand crept closer and covered the sun. Will turned and ran, still awkwardly sinking into the sand with each step. He’d be safe in the cave. As long as he got there before the sandstorm hit.
WILL RAN a few steps into the cave before he paused to get his breath back. The cave had been exposed after a landslide started way up on the top of the mountain. Will’s team had checked out the damage from the landslide and discovered the cave just before news of the coming sandstorm hit; then they’d been forced to retreat due to the weather warning. Will had paced around his hotel room for a few hours, but he couldn’t wait any longer. He had to explore it today.
Will knew what might be waiting somewhere inside, and he was breathless with excitement. According to predictions that had involved dozens of scientists and numerous years of work, the entrance to Nefertiti’s tomb could be hidden in any corner of this cave. Will’s boots scuffed over the layer of sand that had already blown inside. The scattered sand gave way to bare, slippery rock as he stepped farther in. There was a strange, metallic taste to the air. This was the farthest he’d been, and he reached into his backpack for the flashlight he’d packed. He nearly dropped the bag when a noise sounded from the black depths of the cave ahead of him. He grabbed the flashlight quickly and switched it on, to find a slim, lean guy with long blond hair tied back in a messy knot standing with his back to him.
The guy turned in surprise at the sudden light, and Will found a familiar upturned nose covered in a spattering of faint freckles and a sensuous pink mouth.
“Jude? What the hell are you doing standing here in the dark?” asked Will, trying to get his panicked breathing under control.
“If you’d waited a few minutes, your eyes would have adjusted to the dark and you’d be able to see perfectly. If you had any patience, you’d know that.”
Will ignored the dig and tried not to acknowledge the hurt in his chest. There was not one bit of recognition in Jude’s eyes. Oh, he knew who Will was. But he clearly had no memory of what had happened the last time they saw each other.
“How do you even know about this place? We only found it this morning.”
“I heard it through the grapevine. Also known as your research assistant with the big mouth. Pretty much everyone knows about the cave by now.”
Will made a note to kill his research assistant later. Jude’s smile dropped after Will didn’t return it. “I originally had plans to spend Christmas in Athens, with….” Jude paused. “Well, let’s just say things changed and I flew here instead.”
Will hadn’t seen Jude since the dig at Stonehenge over a year ago. Had it been that long already? He certainly hadn’t missed Jude’s sad brown eyes, his stupid blond hair, and even stupider English accent one bit. A year was too soon.
Will clicked off his flashlight.
Just at that moment, a screech of wind whistled through the cave, making Will jump.
“It’s just the storm,” Jude said softly.
“I know what it is,” snapped Will. He wasn’t scared of the damn storm. He’d simply expected to be alone, and now he had this prize idiot to contend with. He wasn’t jumpy; he was just pissed.
The storm had well and truly arrived, the wind howled outside like a train, and sand was hitting them even at this distance from the entrance.
“We should be okay in here,” said Jude. “Even if we have to retreat back. In fact, I’ve already been farther in, and the cavern increases in height spectacularly. Come, look.”
Annoyed as Will was that Jude had gotten there before him, he was excited to see the rest of the cave. So he followed the smaller man. Jude was right, of course, about the darkness. Will’s eyes adjusted to the dark more and more every second. Jude’s blond hair led him like a beacon through the inky black.
“You know you shouldn’t be in here,” Will mumbled at Jude’s back.
“And you should?”
Will ignored him. “The cave hasn’t even been safety checked yet. You know we’re not allowed to start inspection until after that.”
Jude barked out a laugh, which echoed around the walls. “Since when do you care about health and safety?”
“I don’t need to. I can take care of myself.”
“Meaning I can’t? Get lost, Will.”
Will had the grace to feel a little guilty, but that was exactly what Will meant. Jude was at least a foot shorter than Will and muscular but slight. That was why Will had been able to lift Jude up like he weighed nothing. U
gh. Will shook his head violently to rid himself of that memory.
As they walked farther into the cave, the constant roar of the sandstorm grew quieter and became a distant rumble. They snaked between stalagmites and stalactites, some meeting in the middle to form uneven pillars. Will ran his fingers over the rough surface of a stalagmite the width of a man’s waist. “It’s a limestone cave. Must be a thermal spring under here. Which means we don’t know what condition the tomb will be in, if we find it.”
“Maybe. It’s still worth looking, though.”
“Obviously,” Will snapped.
“You don’t have to jump down my throat every time I speak.”
Will grunted.
“Why do you hate me so much, anyway?”
Before Will could answer, Jude disappeared. He literally ceased to exist. A loud cry came from somewhere below Will’s feet, and he grabbed his flashlight in a hurry for the second time that day. There was a roughly circular hole in the rock about a foot and a half wide.
“How the hell do you manage it? You walk right into drama wherever you go.” Will waited. “Jude?” There was no answer, and Will started to panic. “Are you okay?” Will’s voice cracked, and he wanted to kick himself for allowing his voice to sound so scared.
There were various groans and shifting sounds, then a short silence. “I think I sprained my ankle.”
“Can you stand?” Will called down the hole.
“Yeah.” Another pause. “It hurts, but I don’t think I’ve done any major damage.”
Will shone the flashlight at the hole. It really took some talent to fall through something so narrow.
“Are you gonna help me get out of here or what?”
“I thought you could take care of yourself,” Will responded.
“Oh, piss off.”
Will snorted a quiet laugh. “Hold on. I’m on my way down.”
“Don’t bother,” Jude called from obscurity. “I’d rather be left to bloody die.”
Will pulled a loop of blue nylon rope from his backpack and tied it around a thick nearby stalagmite, then yanked on it a couple of times to test the strength. “I’m going to drop down the flashlight, so you can shine it up here and I can use both hands to climb down this rope.”
Will squatted and shone the flashlight down at Jude, who turned away from the light and blocked his eyes with one hand. He looked okay, and the distance he’d fallen didn’t seem too far. Luckily for Jude. Will didn’t want to think about what he could be shining a light on if the fall had been one hundred feet. Or two hundred. Will flicked off the light and dropped the flashlight down the hole. “Got it?” he called into the darkness.
“Yes, thanks,” Jude answered quietly. “I am capable of catching. Despite your attempts to blind me.”
Will sighed and let down the remainder of the rope. He grabbed his backpack, hooked his feet onto the rope, and started his descent, holding his breath as he squeezed through the hole. Jude directed the light at Will’s hands, not once shining it in his eyes, although it would have been a fair retribution. Maybe Jude was using his brain and didn’t want a distracted two hundred pounds of muscle landing on his head. Or maybe he’d decided to be civil.
“You know, your rope skills are surprisingly good for someone so cumbersome.”
Nope, definitely not being civil. “Shut up, Jude.” Will grunted as he climbed down the rope.
He touched down onto the rocky surface Jude had collided with moments before, and breathed for the first time in what felt like several minutes. He winced at the thought of falling all the way from up there. “Did you land headfirst or assfirst? ’Cause either way you had some good padding.”
Jude surprised him by laughing. The sweet sound spread warmth through Will’s chest. Which was weird, because he’d been trying to hurt Jude’s feelings. Hadn’t he? After the warmth came a flood of shame. Why was he going out of his way to be mean to Jude? After the guy had already hurt himself and probably felt a little humiliated.
“Are you really okay?” Will asked softly.
Jude nodded. He pushed his blond hair out of his eyes and tucked it behind his ear in a gesture that was so familiar, and so Jude, that Will almost couldn’t speak. Will swallowed and looked away. He reached into his bag and looked for an elastic bandage in his mini–first aid kit. “Which leg?”
Jude held up one foot, and Will unlaced his boot and slipped it off, then his sock, and stuffed it inside the boot. He wrapped the bandage around Jude’s ankle and foot for him. “Should feel better after a couple of hours’ compression. We should ice it up, but that will have to wait until you get back to the hotel.”
Will straightened out the bandage carefully, and Jude touched his arm. “Thank you.”
Will cleared his throat and packed his kit away. “Now. How the hell are we getting you back up that rope?”
Jude swept the flashlight beam from where it was on the center of Will’s chest, along the rope and up to the hole he’d fallen through. It illuminated something entirely unexpected. The rock surface around the hole was smooth, cream colored, and covered with painted symbols in yellow, blue, and red. Wordlessly, Jude moved the flashlight over the cave, revealing that they were in a large chamber, every wall and the entire ceiling covered in intricate paintings and hieroglyphics.
“Oh, sweet Jesus, what the fuck?” Will blurted.
“Tell me about it,” said Jude. “But a bit less cursing if you don’t mind. Don’t want Queen Nefertiti to go through thousands of years of silence only to hear your foul mouth.”
“Sorry,” Will whispered, not sure whether he was apologizing to Jude or the spirit of an Egyptian queen.
Jude continued to reveal the chamber one sweep at a time, until the light fell upon a raised stone plinth in the center of the space, carved with intricate symbols and topped with a large, brightly painted wooden sarcophagus.
The sarcophagus was surrounded by baskets and beautifully decorated canopic jars, each topped with the head of a god and probably containing the queen’s heart and other organs.
“Is this really happening?” asked Jude.
Will took a few steps toward the sarcophagus, and Jude scrambled to get up and follow him but couldn’t get his footing. Will sighed and turned back to haul Jude up, and they slowly made their way there together, Jude hopping awkwardly on one foot, tightly grabbing Will around his waist.
“It’s so beautiful,” Jude whispered. And Will couldn’t disagree. Gold details painted on the wood glinted in the light and seemed to glow. If this really was Queen Nefertiti’s tomb, it was possibly the hugest archaeological discovery of their lifetime. Will felt like he was floating, witnessing this from somewhere else.
Jude took his arm from around Will’s waist and reached out to touch the sarcophagus, but Will grabbed his wrist. “We shouldn’t touch it. We don’t have gloves.”
“I know. But… I have to. Just one little touch.” Jude looked up at Will. Will knew it couldn’t be true, but it seemed like he could see the reds and golds of the opulent chamber reflecting in Jude’s blond hair and light brown eyes. He seemed to belong there. Will let go of Jude’s wrist.
“Touch away.”
Jude always was tactile, always casually able to touch people while he talked. He was a hugger too. The opposite of Will, who preferred people at a distance. Most people. One of Will’s main memories of the dig at Stonehenge was watching Jude with other people and feeling ridiculously envious every time they got a hug or a friendly rub on the arm.
Jude turned his shining eyes back toward Will. “We have to radio everyone to get down here.”
Will could still hear the constant rumble of the sandstorm outside. “That might have to wait a while.”
“Yeah, we should all stay under cover until the storm passes.”
That seemed like a very good idea. As strong as he might be, Will wasn’t sure he could climb a rope carrying Jude in a fireman’s lift without injuring him further. “If it means I don’t have to
heft your sorry carcass up that rope, then yes, I agree.”
Jude smiled, then ran one finger gently over the painted arm of the sarcophagus.
WILL WANTED to enjoy what they’d found. Wanted to photograph every inch of it and make copious notes. But it was impossible to concentrate. It was too hard being so close to Jude when Will knew what had happened between them last year, and Jude so obviously didn’t.
They’d all celebrated that night. The final day of the month-long dig at Stonehenge had coincided with summer solstice, and hundreds of people had turned up to party all night to acoustic guitar music and stay awake to watch the sun rise through the ancient stones. There was dancing, food, questionable substances for some, alcohol for others. And masquerade ball masks for everyone, which covered their faces from the nose up. The only part of the face left visible was the mouth. It was some kind of traditional druid thing. Or something the partygoers had made up. Will wasn’t sure. But he’d ended up wearing a mask of a grizzly bear all night and Jude an adorable white rabbit. Apparently the end of a dig made Jude frisky. Either that or he really liked grizzly bears. He’d kissed Will, then they’d ended up stumbling to the empty dig location, where Will had lifted Jude up and fucked him against the empty catering truck. Then they’d cuddled sleepily under a picnic blanket beneath the truck for a couple of wonderful hours.
Will had been too shy to stick around afterward and reticent to bring it up since. He’d slipped away before the masks came off. Jude was much too special to be interested in the real Will. He might even be disgusted to find out whom he’d slept with. Jude had always looked more like a beautiful rock star or a pre-Raphaelite artist’s muse than an archaeologist. And Will looked like… Will. He looked like what he was. An ex-quarterback with glasses, too many books, and no style.
A few weeks later, Will had heard Jude had a new boyfriend. So it wasn’t meant to be. Jude was never meant to know. It would always be Will’s sad little secret. Maybe doing something practical would take his mind off it. “You hungry?” Will asked.
