by Anna Hackett
“Fine. But then we really need to make a plan on how to get out of here.”
They wandered through the rocks again and both ended up at the base of the god’s statue.
“He got a pretty raw deal,” Dec said.
“He did,” Layne agreed. “A protector who was then blamed for evil that wasn’t his doing.”
Dec turned and saw her looking at him. “We’re talking about a god, not me.”
She smiled, then looked up. He saw the birds had reappeared.
“How the hell do you guys live out here?” He had a better view of them now as they circled the statue. “Rush, these guys really look like swiftlets. I saw them recently in the jungle on a job in Asia.”
“They can’t be jungle birds, Declan.”
He shook his head. “They’re cave birds. The shorter legs are for clinging to cave walls and the shorter beak is for catching insects. They also have a form of echolocation.”
“Like bats?” She scanned around. “I don’t see any caves around here.”
The birds dipped behind the statue and Dec and Layne followed them.
They were gone.
Dec strode forward, frowning. “Look, there’s another set-animal and bird symbol on the ground here.”
Layne stepped up beside him.
The ground beneath them dropped an inch.
Dec froze and Layne did the same. Beneath them, the ground rumbled and vibrated.
“What the hell? Rush—?” Dec was reaching for her when the sand and rock beneath his feet crumpled and disappeared.
He fell straight down. He heard Layne scream.
He looked up and saw her falling with him.
They fell downward, rock walls rushing past them. His heart hammered in his chest, the air rushing at his face.
A moment later, Dec splashed into water.
***
Layne hit the water and went under. Water filled her mouth and she kicked. Air. She needed air.
Her head broke the surface and she coughed. The water was fast-flowing, the current strong, and she felt herself being swept along.
“Layne!”
Declan’s roar echoed around her. She spotted him, floating down the underground river ahead of her. “Declan! I’m here.”
The hole they’d fallen through disappeared as the underground river snaked through a winding tunnel. Damn, the flow was strong, and even if she could fight it, where could she go? The tunnel was wide, the rock walls smooth and striated. She just prayed it didn’t get so small that there was no air gap.
“Don’t fight the water,” he called out. “Keep your head above the surface, and go with it.” He was powering through the water, trying to reach her.
She held out her hand. Their fingers brushed, but she couldn’t quite reach him. The darkness was growing as they moved deeper into the tunnel.
Her fingers brushed his again.
“Hold on, Rush. Don’t panic. We’ll have to ride this out to the end.”
She swallowed. What if there was no end?
The darkness grew deeper, and soon she couldn’t see him anymore. She could barely make out the rock walls rushing past. “Declan?”
“I’m here.” Then she heard him curse.
“Declan?”
He didn’t answer.
A second later, she felt the water drop away beneath her and she was falling.
An underground waterfall!
Layne screamed. Water filled her mouth and she kicked her arms and legs.
She rammed into the rock wall, pain flaring in her side. But she was still falling, water streaming down over her.
She hit rocks again, and this time, her head slammed into something hard.
She blinked, fighting to stay conscious.
Then the blackness dragged her under and there was nothing.
***
Dec came to flat on his face. His legs were in water but his upper body was resting on sand.
He pushed up onto his hands and knees, coughing up water. What the hell? Had his SEAL team’s mission gone bad? Or was he on vacation and had drank too much tequila?
He rolled over and sat, trying to get his bearings. Then his gut cramped. He wasn’t on some beach. Above him, a huge cavern rose up, light filtering in from somewhere high above. At the bottom was a large, placid pool of water.
Layne!
It all hit him in a rush. The fall, the underground river, the waterfall. He leaped to his feet, looking around frantically. Where was she?
He splashed along the edge of the pool. For the first time in a long time, he prayed. Let her be okay.
He found his waterlogged backpack but there was no sign of anyone else. He kept looking, refusing to give up.
Then he glimpsed a flash of something pale over by the rock wall in the water.
He splashed through the knee-deep water. No. She was facedown, hanging in the water. Her scarf was long gone and her dark hair drifted around her like a cloud.
“God, no.” He grabbed her, turning her over. She was pale, still.
He hefted her into his arms and charged up the sandy edge. He dropped to his knees and laid her down.
“Layne! Layne, wake up dammit.” He pressed a hand to her chest.
She wasn’t breathing.
A panic like he’d never known moved through him. “Come on, Rush, don’t you dare give up on me.”
He pressed his mouth to hers and breathed into her. He kept up the resuscitation, waiting, hoping she’d open her eyes.
He pulled back, dragging in a breath. “Come on! You can’t leave me. I can’t lose you.”
He leaned back down, continuing to breathe for her.
Suddenly, her body spasmed. Dec pulled back and she started coughing.
Thank God. Panicked relief made him feel lightheaded. He rolled her onto her side, holding her tight as she coughed and water poured out of her.
When she was done, she blinked. “Declan?” she said weakly.
He pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her.
“Hey.” She nestled into him, her palm pressing to his chest. Right over his hammering heart.
“You were facedown in the water. Lifeless. God, Layne.” His voice cracked.
“Shh. I’m fine.” She leaned over and scooped up some of the water from the pool. She rinsed out her mouth. Then she turned back to him and pressed light kisses to his jaw.
“I…God, I was so afraid.”
She kept kissing him, along his jaw, his cheeks, his forehead. “I’m fine.”
He held her tight and breathed her in. He stroked her wet hair. The rise and fall of her chest against his was the thing that soothed him most. “Let me check you over for any other injuries.”
She sat still while he did. She had a lump on her head, but her pupils seemed fine. Battered, bruised, but alive.
Then he felt her go stiff in his arms.
“What?” He pulled back. She was looking over his shoulder.
“Look at the walls, Declan.”
He turned and spotted the cave paintings.
“They’re prehistoric.” She pushed to her feet.
Declan stood beside her, waiting to see if she was steady on her feet. She was limping a little, but her entire focus was on the art covering the rock walls. “Take it easy,” he warned.
She waved her hand but didn’t even look at him. “I will.”
He shook his head with a smile. Nothing could keep his girl down for long.
His girl? He blinked, shocked at the thought. Then she moved, and his focus returned to making sure she was okay.
She walked along the wall. “These are thousands of years old, Declan. Thousands of years before Egyptian civilization. Simply stunning.”
The figures were simple, but almost elegant in their design. There were images of people and lots of animals. The paint ranged from a deep orange to a very dark red, with a few streaks of white here and there.
He spotted giraffes, elephants, and many beasts he
couldn’t identify. The humans were just as intriguing. He leaned closer. Some were drawn horizontally, almost as though they were swimming.
“These are all reminiscent of other cave art found close to the border with Libya.” Her gaze traced along them, her face alive. “The Cave of Swimmers and the Cave of Beasts are the most well-known. The Cave of Swimmers has always been confounding. Why would people be swimming in the desert?” She glanced over at the large pool of water nearby. “Maybe they were swimming underground?”
“I guess it isn’t too surprising,” Declan added. “Considering the Great Man-Made River Project.”
She spun, frowning. “The what?”
“Libya started a project in the eighties to supply water to parts of the Sahara. Underground, all through this area, is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer. It’s the world’s largest known fossil aquifer system. Libya started extracting water from it in the nineties.”
“My God.” She turned to look at the paintings again. “There was water here all along.”
“I’m not sure anyone anticipated this.”
They walked deeper into the tunnel and Dec clicked on his flashlight.
“This is just amazing,” she said. “But this art is very early. Far earlier than the Egyptians.”
“But it must be linked,” he said. “It must be a precursor to the Egyptian civilization.”
“Probably.” Then she frowned. She studied the art on one side of the tunnel, then the other. “Look at this.”
Right there on the wall was an entire pack of set-animals.
She studied them more closely. “I don’t think these paintings are prehistoric. They are just made to look prehistoric.” Her face lit up. “I think it’s another clue from the Zerzurans.”
“Why? Why did this priest of Seth leave these clues to their secret oasis?”
“I think they did it for other followers of Seth who were looking for a place where they and their god wouldn’t be persecuted by the followers of Osiris and Horus.”
“So it was kind of like a test, a trial?”
“Exactly.” She held one finger up, following the paintings along the wall. “Egyptians liked that kind of thing. The Book of the Dead, and its precursors, listed spells that a dead soul needed to pass through the trials of the underworld. Only the true and honorable could make it through.”
“Can the Book of the Dead help us get through these tunnels?” Dec asked.
She shook her head. “I think it was too late in the timeline. I suspect Zerzura has been here a very long time. For now, I think we look for the set-animals in the paintings and see where they lead us.”
Dec loved watching her work. She muttered to herself, her gaze narrowed as she studied all the cave paintings.
They started farther into the tunnels. Sometimes the set-animals were obvious, other times, they were hidden amongst other beasts and harder to spot.
Then the artwork changed and turned more colorful.
“They aren’t hiding anymore,” Layne said. “The artwork here is definitely classic ancient Egyptian.”
“Look.” Dec nudged her over to the left-hand wall.
“Hieroglyphs. You who seek Zerzura must be fearless like our Protector Seth and brave Apep’s realm.” She pulled back. “Uh-oh.”
“What? Who’s Apep?”
“He was the enemy of the sun god, Ra, and also known as the God of Chaos. He attacked Ra’s solar boat.”
“Why am I getting the feeling you aren’t telling me everything?”
“Apep was—” she grimaced “—a giant snake.”
Dec groaned. “You’re kidding me.”
“I’m sure there aren’t any giant snakes out here.”
Dec made a sound. “The way things have been going, I won’t hold my breath.”
“Come on, you’re the big, bad Navy SEAL.”
He mock-glowered at her and they kept moving.
“Seth protected Ra by spearing Apep,” she said. “That was Seth’s first role in mythology, as a protector.”
They reached a place where the tunnel speared off in three different directions. “Which way, Rush?”
She studied the glyphs and paintings. “Right.”
The tunnels became a maze. As Layne deciphered and picked the tunnels, Dec hoped they didn’t have to get out in a hurry. He pulled out his knife and made a small scratch on the wall.
They kept moving through the never-ending maze.
Layne studied the wall again. “There’s the set-animal.”
Dec spotted something else. “Layne?”
She spun. “What is it?”
He pointed. “See this scratch? I left it there. Earlier.”
“That can’t be.” Her brow scrunched. “And what do you mean, you left it there? Are you scratching historical cave paintings?”
“Layne, it’s not touching the painting. But I left that scratch. We’ve passed here before.”
Her face went pale. “We’re going in circles.”
Chapter Thirteen
“The key has to be here somewhere.” Layne pressed her fingers to the stone wall, careful not to touch the paint.
“Layne. Take a break.”
“No, I have to find the key. The clue that’ll send us in the right direction.”
Hands descended on her shoulders, kneaded. “Get some rest, Rush. You’re pushing too hard. We’ve been going in circles for over an hour.”
She let him nudge her down and she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. “We’re so close, Declan.”
“Break.” He shoved something at her.
She took the nutrition bar and opened it. It tasted pretty bland and chewy. “I’m missing something. The set-animal symbols are there, but they keep leading us in a circle.”
“Break, Rush. Switch it off for a bit.”
She huffed out a breath. He leaned back against the wall beside her, his legs outstretched. She was caught for a second by the triangle of bronze chest bared at the top of his shirt. God, he’d turned her into a quivering mass of need. She’d never felt like this before.
Declan glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late. We’ll need to get some rest.”
She nodded. “Do you think Anders is following us?”
“Yes.”
“Logan and your brother?”
“They’ll be looking for us. And I have my tracker.” He lifted his wrist.
“The signal will get through the rock and sand?”
His jaw tightened. “They’ll find us. Logan isn’t the kind who gives up easily. Even when it’s a lost cause. He’s like a bear—he’ll just keep charging. It’s his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. And Cal…well, he’s never given up on me, ever.”
“You love them.”
Declan’s brows raised. “If you mean in a manly, brotherly kind of way, yeah. I’m close to Cal, and I think of Logan the same way.” A tiny smile on his lips. “Logan’s saved my ass more times than I can count.”
“I assume you’ve returned the favor.”
Another quirk of Declan’s lips. “Maybe.”
Layne nibbled on her bar. “What if we can’t find it?”
“Zerzura?”
She nodded.
“Well, life goes on, Rush. If at first you don’t succeed, you work out where you went wrong, and you try again.”
“And you keep trying…with Anders. You keep trying to stop him.”
“Yeah.” A scowl.
She hated seeing that dark look settle over him, the storms boiling in his eyes.
Layne shifted into his lap, settling her knees on either side of his hips.
He lifted his head. “What are you doing?”
She fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, slipping them open. “You told me to take a break.”
“So I did.” He leaned back, his hands settling on her hips.
“I do like the way you’re made, Declan. All lean, hard muscle.” She spread his shirt open and ran her hands up his chest. She l
oved the way her touch made him suck in a breath. Layne leaned forward and kissed him.
“God, Layne.” He dragged his mouth from her and pressed his lips to the side of her neck.
She arched back, feeling heat arrowing through her. She ground against him and felt the hard bulge of his cock pressing against where she was hot and achy.
“I want you.” His hands started tearing at her tank. He helped her slide it over her head. “I always want you. Can’t seem to get enough.”
“Good,” she panted.
They tore at each other’s clothes and moments later, she sank down on his cock.
Declan groaned. “Ride me, Rush. Make me lose my mind.”
***
Dec leaned back against the wall, holding Layne in his arms as she slept.
He felt pretty damn good.
He’d dozed through the night and while the rock beneath him wasn’t comfy, the woman in his arms felt perfect. He realized now he’d spent a hell of a lot of time avoiding this. He’d avoided relationships and just had one-night stands. He’d rarely spent the entire night with a woman. He’d never cuddled, never stroked a woman’s hair, or listened to her breathing.
Hell, he’d never wanted to do any of that before.
Before Layne.
She just burned with life, with passion, and he wanted to feel that every day. Wanted to see her smile, wanted to kiss her every day.
He went rigid. Oh, no. He pulled air into his tight chest. He was falling in love with her.
He closed his eyes, felt her heart beating against his and the warm puff of her breath on his chest. He’d gone and done the one thing he thought he was incapable of.
Soon she stirred and lifted her head. “What time is it?”
“Early.”
She sat up, pushing her hair back. “Thanks for being my comfy bed.” She frowned at him. “Did you get some sleep?”
“A little.”
“God, I shouldn’t have been lying on you and—”
“Rush.” He gripped her chin. “I got some sleep. Now, how about a kiss?”
She touched her tongue to her lip. “We both know if I kiss you, it’ll turn into something else, and we’ll get naked and have sex.”
Amusement hit him. “And your point?”
She waved a hand at him. “You’re just too masculine and virile. Stop it.”
