by Linsey Hall
The strain of trying to manipulate the unfamiliar magic broke sweat across my skin. I’d been practicing my new power, but hadn’t made much progress. I felt only emptiness within, an uncomfortable feeling of nothingness that rolled in my stomach like hunger and queasiness combined.
I gave up and shouted, “Del! Use your phantom power!”
“Right! Of course!” Her bright gaze drifted back to the golden sphinx. “Just a bit distracted, is all.”
“Come on!”
She shook her head violently as if to clear it. Though my FireSoul liked gold, Del’s looooved it. It was a dangerous, but unavoidable, weakness.
Del’s magic surged on the air, her signature distinct. The scent of fresh laundry and the feel of soft grass beneath my feet were a delight compared to the hot, hard grip of the sphinx.
Her skin shimmered as she turned a transparent blue, and her black hair became a silvery indigo. When she’d gone full phantom-ghosty, she slipped from the sphinx’s grip and landed on the sand.
The sphinx roared, the noise pounding my eardrums. I winced.
He swatted at Del with his free paw, but it sailed right through her.
Del drew her sword. The blade flared a fiery cobalt. Whenever Del was in phantom form, the objects she touched took on the properties of a phantom.
“Get ready to run!” She turned corporeal for a second, swinging her now solid steel blade at the sphinx’s haunches.
It bounced off with a clang and she cursed. The sphinx batted her away with a paw, clearly more annoyed than angry. She landed on her butt in the sand.
“I don’t think I can get you out of this, Cass,” Del said.
Damn.
“We’re just visiting,” I said. “How do we pass?”
The sphinx looked at me, his massive nose level with mine.
“A riddle,” he said.
Of course.
“It accepts the blind and grants them sight.”
Uhhh… My brain blanked. I glanced at Del. She shrugged.
“Can I get a clue?” I asked.
“No.”
“Phone a friend?”
The sphinx shook me. “Wrong!”
“A moment! Just a moment!” I shouted.
He stopped shaking. I pressed my fingertips to the golden charm hanging at my throat, igniting the magic that fueled the communications spell.
“Nix?” I said. “You there?”
“Yeah. What do you need?”
“Thank magic.” Nix was Del’s and my other half—other third?—and she was my phone-a-friend when on tomb-raiding jobs. Riddles were surprisingly common, and I was awful at them. Normally, I worked alone so I needed the help, though Del had come along on this job because I could no longer use my dragon sense to find things, and I needed her to use hers to lead us to the dampening charm.
“Got a riddle for you,” I said as the sphinx glowered. His fist tightened on my ribs, and I saw stars. When it loosened a bit, I gasped out the riddle to Nix.
“Takes the blind and grants them sight?” Nix asked. “Oh jeez, that’s tough. Let me Google it.”
The clickity-click of her keyboard keys sounded through the charm. The sphinx shook me.
“Hurry up, Nix!” I shouted. My ribs felt like they were grinding together.
“Hang on, hang on, I’ll get it!”
I wished we weren’t treasure hunters who had to rely on Google, but there you had it. It was the modern age. What job didn’t rely on Google?
The sphinx tightened his grip slightly. “Answer!”
“Nix!”
“Uh, uh.” The keyboard clickity-clicked. “School! It’s a school!”
“School!” I shouted. “A school takes the blind and makes them see! It, uh, gives them knowledge to understand and see the world around them.” Right? For magic’s sake, I hoped it was right.
“Correct.” The sphinx nodded.
I sagged in relief. “So I’m good? You’ll let us pass?”
“Yes. But you must find your own way into the temple.”
“Fair enough.” I’d hoped he’d tell us how to get in, but as long as he wouldn’t eat me, I’d be happy.
“But hurry. I grow hungry.”
I nodded frantically and saluted. “Aye-aye.”
The sphinx’s grip loosened, and I slipped right out, my way no doubt hastened by the sweat slicking my skin. When I tumbled to the sand, the stuff stuck to every inch of exposed skin and snuck inside my clothes.
I clambered to my feet, wishing I were incorporeal like Del, and then struggled onto Aladdin. All while still covered in sand.
Life without my powers sucked.
Del climbed onto her camel, who I’d dubbed Jasmine because she had nicer eyelashes than Aladdin, and we flicked the reins, the camel version of cranking the key in the ignition.
“Come on, Aladdin!” I shouted.
Aladdin picked up the pace, galloping across the sand toward the pyramid in the distance. I bent low over his back, trying not to bounce off. My camel-riding skills were seriously rusty, and his gait wasn’t exactly smooth. More drunken horse than racehorse.
I glanced back over my shoulder to see the sphinx watching us, but he hadn’t followed. When I turned back, we were nearly to the pyramid. It was massive, the stones in far better condition than if this had been a human-built pyramid. Spells protected it, slowing decay and destruction.
We pulled Aladdin and Jasmine to a stop at the base of the pyramid. I hopped off, then pulled a big water bottle from the saddlebag. Del did the same. I unscrewed the top and held the bottle up for Aladdin.
He plucked it right out of my hand and held it in his front teeth, then tipped his head back and drank. His floppy lips quivered in delight.
“Looks like you’ve got that under control.” I patted him on the shoulder. “Be back in a bit. Don’t litter.”
I turned to see Jasmine snatch the water bottle out of Del’s hand.
“I like these camels.” Del grinned as she slung her bag crosswise over her back and turned to face the pyramid. “Let’s find a way in.”
“This has got to be the front since it was the side the sphinx was guarding, but I don’t see an entrance.” The side of the pyramid was smooth and sloped, not the stepped construction of the Mayan pyramids in Mexico.
“There.” Del pointed to a spot about ten feet above our heads. “See the indented spot? About the size of a door?”
“Yeah.” I squinted. “There’s no lever or any other way to trigger the door.”
“Nope,” Del said. “Probably only accessible if you know the right spell.”
No wonder the sphinx had let us go so easily. There was no easy way in. I glanced back over my head at the sphinx.
His head swung to look at me, as if he sensed my gaze. He stood and began to slink toward us, his gait now predatory. Stalking.
I turned back to Del, my heart suddenly pounding. “He’s coming to eat us.”
She looked warily at the sphinx. “Yeah? But he let us go.”
“It was all a game.” Which I should have guessed. “He’d known we couldn’t get in and had planned to chomp us all along, but he wanted to play with his prey first.”
Del nodded, her wide gaze stuck on the sphinx. “He is a cat. And he looks hungry.”
I frowned as I studied the door above. “There might be an escape lever inside. Something to trigger it from within.”
“Of course. Only accessible to those worthy enough to get in in the first place.”
They’d never expected a supernatural like Del to show up one day. She was one of a kind, the only person I’d ever heard of who walked the line between life and death. Half phantom, half human. And she was the ace up our sleeve. “You’re going to have to pull your phantom trick, Del.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I got it.”
Little notches in the sloped stone wall caught my eye. I pointed them out to Del. “There. That’s how we climb. You go first.”
I followed Del up t
he wall, my belly flat against the stone and my fingertips clinging to the little indents. Sweat dripped down my spine as we scaled the side of the pyramid. Every time I glanced over my shoulder, the sphinx lurked closer.
One time, he was licking his golden chops. My heart raced, and sweat rolled down my spine. Even my FireSoul didn’t want to spend eternity in a golden sphinx’s belly.
When she reached the indent, Del’s magic surged as she turned into a phantom and slipped through the wall.
The desert was suddenly a lot quieter without her. I could hear the wind whipping my hair away from my face and feel the sun pounding on the back of my neck.
A quick look over my shoulder revealed the sphinx only a couple dozen yards away. He was close enough for me to make out the details of his face, and boy, were his fangs long.
“Come on, Del,” I muttered.
A grinding noise sounded, and I turned away from the sphinx. The indented entrance stone was moving backwards, disappearing into the pyramid.
I scrambled up to the ledge as the stone slid toward the right, into an indent in the wall. A dark corridor stretched ahead, a cool gust of wind blowing out. It smelled dusty and old, and I wondered how long it had been since someone had come in here.
Probably millennia. Ever since the original builders had died out.
I shivered, but not from cold.
It was eerie.
The stone disappeared entirely into the wall on my right, revealing Del, who was once again corporeal. I walked farther into the tunnel, glancing back to see an enormous golden eye staring in from the exit.
I waved at the sphinx, who growled, then turned to Del and raised my hand. The magic in my lightstone ring flared to life, shedding a golden glow over the dark tunnel. It sloped down, into the depths of the massive structure.
“Ready?” Del asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Del turned to start down the corridor as my light glinted off a razor wire stretched at neck level right ahead of her.
“Stop!” I lunged for her and grabbed the bag strapped to her back, dragging her to a halt. She stopped abruptly.
“Razor wire.” I raised my light to shine on it, but the wire was imperceptible again. It was only visible in the perfect light from the perfect angle. I pulled Righty, one of my trusty daggers, from my thigh sheath and held it out, waving it slowly till it tapped against the wire. “Thin enough you can’t see it most times. I got lucky with the lightstone.”
“Yeah.” A shuddery breath escaped Del. “I forgot about those. I’ve read how the Egyptians liked them for booby-traps, but completely forgot.”
“It’s cool. You don’t do this as much as me. Too busy killing demons.”
“True. But I’m glad you’ve got my back,” Del said.
Most of the time, Del was a bounty hunter who worked on commission for the Order of the Magica, the government body overseeing all magic users. They’d toss her in jail if they knew she was a FireSoul, totally uncaring that she’d never use her abilities to kill and steal another Magica’s powers. Getting tossed in the Prison for Magical Miscreants was pretty much all our worst nightmares.
Fortunately, the Order didn’t bother communicating directly with lowly bounty hunters. She never had to come into direct contact with them.
“I’ll lead.” I shined my light ahead and held Righty out at neck level, hoping it would catch on a wire before it could slit my throat.
It caught on three, and I was grateful as hell each time. As we walked, we passed by walls painted with tall, elegant figures. This would have been a burial place for a king or queen, the paintings telling the story of their life. Every now and then, statues stood lined up along the wall, ancient figures who’d been guarding this passage for millennia.
I’d have liked to have spent more time looking, but I wanted to get my hands on the dampener charm and see if it worked to suppress my nullifying powers enough that my normal gifts could be used.
We came to a split in the path, one leading down and the other continuing up.
“What do you think?” I asked Del. I wished I could use my own dragon sense to determine the way, but that wasn’t an option until I got the charm.
She closed her eyes, and her magic swelled on the air, the scent of clean cotton driving away the dusty aroma.
“Both could possibly work, but I think up,” she said.
“Up,” I said. “More important royalty were buried higher in the pyramid, so I bet it’s the shorter route.”
“Agreed.”
We veered right and started up the sloped path. After a few yards, the ground ahead turned white.
“Weird,” I said. A thick powder coated the entire path for the next several yards.
Del grabbed my shoulder, and I jerked to a halt.
“Retreat,” she whispered. “Don’t breathe.”
The seriousness in her voice froze my muscles. I stopped breathing and stepped back. We turned and hurried away.
When we reached the crossroads where we’d split off, I gasped in a breath and asked, “What was that?”
“Hematite powder. It’s super tiny granules but super sharp. If it gets into our lungs, it’ll kill us slowly.”
“Ouch.” Slow death was a big no-go area in my life plan. “Okay. Let’s go down and see if we can get around.”
We followed the sloped path down, checking out two false chambers on the way. Both had contained boxes full of treasure, but not the dampener charm. I’d seen diagrams of pyramids in which there were chambers deep under the desert. I was starting to lose track of how deep we’d gotten, but it felt like we’d left reality behind. It was deadly silent, dark, and the place shimmered with all kinds of threatening magic.
The air became more stale and the feel of the magic stronger as we descended. Supernaturals could usually only feel other living supernaturals’ signatures. But this place was different, and in all likelihood, haunted.
“I think the booby traps are about to get a lot harder,” I muttered.
“Yep.”
A moment later, the path opened up into a room. It was mostly empty with the exception of a statue of a seated god. The body was human, the head that of a jackal.
“Anubis,” Del said. “God of the dead.”
Around him, the walls were decorated with hieroglyphs. Every inch of stone was carved to tell a story that I couldn’t interpret.
“The door will be behind Anubis,” I guessed.
We approached slowly, our footsteps silent on the stone floor. I kept my gaze trained on Anubis’s face, waiting for any sign of life. Just because he was stone now didn’t mean he wouldn’t hop up and curse us.
I was so intent on his face that I almost missed the hieroglyph to the left side of his head starting to glow. It looked like a bird, which could mean just about anything. The symbol shined bright, then peeled itself away from the wall.
It shot toward us, quick as flame, and I threw myself to the side, pushing Del out of the way. As it flew by, the magic smelled like decay. Sick and dark.
“Curses!” I said. “Don’t let them hit you.”
There was no way to fight cursed hieroglyphs. Swords would do nothing, and neither of us had any kind of manipulation magic. If that would even work. If they hit us, they’d impart whatever curse they carried.
I did not want one of those.
Another glowing hieroglyph shot from the wall. I lunged left, avoiding it by a hair’s breadth.
Shit, shit, shit.
I called upon my nullification power, praying that it would work. Disempowering the magic that fueled the hieroglyphs was our only hope.
Normally, my innate magic felt distinct—the burn of flame or the chill of ice. But the nullification power felt like nothing. I reached for it anyway, praying I could get ahold of it and actually use it to my advantage.
On a stretch of mad luck, the nullification power surged, making my insides hollow out. I envisioned the cursed hieroglyphs falling to the ground an
d disappearing.
Two of them did just that, their glowing forms fizzling out as my nullification power dampened their magic. The dampening charm we were looking for was similar to my new power. But I hoped to use it against my new power.
Del looked around warily. “I think you’ve done it.”
“Yeah. Don’t know why it worked this time when it didn’t with the sphinx.”
“Practice, maybe.”
I glanced around warily, in case any other curses decided to jump off the wall. “I don’t think so. I never feel like I’m in control. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.” And I’d never been very successful with the few times I’d tried to practice.
“Well, whatever it is, let’s get out of here before you can’t hold them at bay.”
“Agreed.”
We walked to Anubis and peered around the back of his stone chair. There was a small passage. The exit was so easy. There wasn’t even a door. I swallowed hard, shivering.
“If it’s this easy to get out, those curses we dodged were definitely deadly,” I said. They’d planned to drop us in our tracks before we could even hope to get through this unguarded exit.
“Yep.” Del ducked and went through.
I followed, holding my light out ahead.
The passage on the other side was narrower than the one we’d been traveling down, but we could at least stand upright.
“It leads up,” Del said.
I raised my ring to reveal the path that tilted sharply upward. “We’re getting close.”
I led the way up the path, keeping my light and my blade raised high to find any razor wires.
“Watch the ground at my feet,” I said, thinking back to a time five years ago when Del and I had been raiding a tomb in Southeast Asia. I hadn’t watched the ground ahead and had almost fallen into a pit of spiders. Del had caught me just in time, but I didn’t want to count on her doing it again.
Fortunately, she didn’t find any trap holes, and I didn’t fall into any. By the time we reached the room at the end of the hall, I was vibrating with the tension of waiting for the next booby-trap.
“This is weird,” Del said.
I looked at the piles of wood that were laid out neatly on the floor. Coils of rope were piled next to the wood. The walls were decorated with carved reliefs and hieroglyphs, but no door.
