by Martha Carr
Lily pulled the protective box out of her backpack. “Why don’t we get the egg and run away, so we don’t have to find out the answers? The platform’s magical, too. It might call the egg back after a while if no one has it.”
“Maybe. I think we’ll go with your grabbing and running idea for now.” Shay stepped toward the egg and stopped about a yard away. “Just have to figure out how to get it in the box.”
The teen removed the lid and moved toward it. “Maybe if I knock it with the lid.”
Shay’s heart rate kicked up. “No,” she snapped. She took a deep breath. “Pretty sure if you’re touching it, even through something else, you’ll end up a pool. I’ve grown attached to you, kid. Don’t melt yourself.”
The cavern shuddered wildly, and the egg fell from the platform and hit the floor.
The tomb raider winced, half-expecting it to explode in a wave of powerful magic, but instead, it rolled along the floor toward the fake wall.
“Get it,” Shay shouted, her heart galloping.
Lily leaped in front of it and slammed the box into its path, her hand still on the bottom. The lid skittered across the dirt, dust, and rocks on the cave floor. The egg rolled straight toward it. A foot, then six inches, then an inch.
“Let go, Lily.”
The girl yelped and released her grip on the box. The egg rolled inside, the force of the collision knocking the box upright.
They both stared down at the box that now contained the deadly artifact, then they exchanged glances.
Shay shrugged. “Sometimes you just get lucky.” She grabbed the lid from the ground and knelt by the box.
Lily hissed and shook her head.
Shay silenced her with a raised palm. “If this is gonna work, I should be able to put this on without melting.”
The girl nodded. “That’s a big if.”
“See anything? A little future insight would be nice about now.”
Lily sighed and shook her head.
Shay swallowed and slowly lowered the lid toward the box, her heart thundering. She was placing a lot of faith in a box she’d only tested against a few types of physical and magical damage. Her hand inched down, and she took a deep breath.
Fuck, James. I chewed you out about your dumbass pay-per-view stunt, but here I am risking melting.
“Fuck it!” Shay screamed and slammed the lid down.
She stared at Lily, and the girl stared back. Neither dared move or breathe. The seconds ticked by until Shay realized something more than a little important. She hadn’t melted. At least she thought she hadn’t.
The tomb raider grabbed the box and lifted it. “Did I melt?”
Lily shook her head. “You don’t look like you melted.”
Shay laughed. She set the box down and then pulled off her backpack so she could put the box in the top of it before zipping it shut.
“Always a good day when you don’t melt.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I say every night before I go to sleep.”
“Now let’s get the hell out of here.”
The two stepped through the illusionary wall, right into a pack of six large men in parkas.
Shay groaned. “They came into the cave?”
One of the men grinned. “Give us the egg, and there won’t be any trouble.”
Another tremor shook the cave.
None of the men had guns out, which killed Shay’s immediate instinct to gun them all down.
These assholes do a lot of work for the British government, and if I waste them in front of Lily, I might be pushing her down the path I was on. I should try to beat their asses down without killing them, as long as they don’t push me too far.
Shay shook her head. “Not gonna happen, assholes. Don’t make this difficult. No one has to get hurt.”
The man frowned and looked at Lily. “You brought a kid? What the hell?”
“I’m a kid who can kick your ass,” the girl spat back.
When the cave shook again, Shay sprang forward and delivered a quick roundhouse kick to the nearest tomb raider. His head snapped back, and he slammed into the wall.
Two of the other men grabbed for the tomb raider, and she jumped backward and spun to deliver an elbow to the face of one of the men before kicking another man into the wall.
“Bloody hell,” one of three remaining men shouted. He yanked a contact Taser out of a pocket.
Lily slapped it out of his hand, grabbed it with her other hand before it hit the ground, and planted it in his neck. He twitched and jerked as the Taser crackled.
“Come on,” Shay shouted. She sprinted forward, and Lily rushed after her.
The two conscious tomb raiders didn’t pursue them. Instead, they knelt to check on their fallen friends.
You care more about your friends than the artifact. You’re all right. Too bad we had to beat your asses.
She was glad to escape. The bulky parkas their opponents were wearing might not be armor, but they did deny Shay access to body targets that would have made taking them down in a non-lethal manner easier.
Not killing people is a lot fucking harder than just killing them.
Shay and Lily continued charging for the cave entrance. The pair just needed to get to their vehicle.
The cave started getting lighter even as it shook. They were close to the entrance, and no one was closing on them from the rear.
Looks like we’re home free.
The tomb raider and her protégé ran past the silver pools and out of the cave. Two steps out of the cave, a large group of men rushed at them from either side of the cave entrance.
“Shit,” Shay hissed.
The deep snow slowed Shay’s pivot, and one of the men slammed into her. Both went to the ground, but a quick throat punch had the man gasping and rolling off her.
“It’s free,” one of the men shouted, and pointed.
Shay jerked her head that way. Her zipper had come undone, and the box had fallen out. The lid was askew, and the egg lay loose in the snow.
The Hollingsworth tomb raider charged through the snow, a huge grin on his face.
“Don’t touch it,” one of the other men shouted.
The idiot ignored them and snatched up the egg with his gloved hands. He grinned and held it above him like a trophy. “Yeah, bonus time.”
His good mood lasted all of two seconds. He twitched and screamed. Argent lines shot all over his skin and clothes in an instant, and a moment later, a mass of thick silver liquid roughly in the shape of a man hung in the air where the tomb raider had once stood.
Shay blinked, the horror of seeing a man melt piercing even her jaded heart.
The egg fell toward the ground, and a blur ran past her. Lily, protective box in hand, jumped underneath the egg, catching it in the box.
She stared at it, panting. No one else said a word. The other Hollingsworth tomb raiders continued to stare at the silver pool in the snow that had once been their teammate.
The teen stood slowly and grabbed the lid off the ground. She set it back on the box and backed away from the men.
One of the Hollingsworth men looked up at Shay and shook his head. “Just go already. Shit.”
Shay gave him a quick nod and jogged off with Lily toward the SUV at the bottom of the incline. After about fifty yards, she glanced over her shoulder. The men hadn’t moved.
She could understand what they were feeling, even if they were enemies.
That could have been Lily.
6
Spending hours holding a box containing a human-liquifying artifact didn’t do wonders for Shay’s nerves. Even a stone-cold tomb raider could be rattled, and seeing a man taken out in a moment had accomplished just that.
Pain suffused her neck and shoulders, and she hadn’t spoken much to Lily on the plane back or on the ride back to the tunnels.
It wasn’t that hard. Both of them were exhausted from the travel and the tomb raid, and neither wanted to spend time chatting abou
t watching a man being melted by an artifact.
At least it’ll be a good payday. She should seriously think about moving her friends out of those tunnels.
Shay even allowed herself a long nap on the flight back, while Lily decided to take in the latest Caleb Rodriguez film. She almost wanted to laugh. There was something bizarre about going on a dangerous tomb raid just to get on a plane and watch a movie about a fictional tomb raider.
Maybe by watching the movie, she could put what had happened out of her mind. In the end, Caleb always gets the artifact, and the bad guys get what was coming to them.
Are those Hollingsworth assholes the bad guys? I didn’t have any more right to that egg than they did, and they didn’t go out of their way to kill us. They could have pulled guns and not a Taser. Maybe the good guy died, and the bad girl got away with the loot.
The tomb raider stopped her car when she and Lily arrived at one of the ten-foot-diameter pipes leading into the nuclear shelter and blew out a breath. “I got you home in one piece. You all right? I know that was a harder one than usual.”
Lily shrugged. “Not saying I wasn’t spooked, but I’ll be okay. Maybe it’s a bitch thing to say, but it’s not like I knew the guy, and it’s not the first person I’ve seen killed.”
Shay chuckled. “True enough.”
The teen glanced into the back seat. They’d secured the box and the lid in the back. “I can’t help but wonder…”
“Wonder what?”
Lily sighed. “What do you even do with something like that? It’s kind of elaborate if it’s just about killing people.”
Shay shrugged. “Good question. I honestly don’t know. I’m guessing someone wants the power stored in that thing. For what? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they want to power something even freakier.”
Lily shook her head. “You told me before, and my dad mentioned to me how artifacts can respond to what people want to do with them. Like, you have to be careful with how you use them. Not use them for the wrong stuff.”
“Yeah. What about it?”
Lily nodded toward the box. “Maybe that’s the end result of using something for evil. Maybe they used it all for the wrong stuff, and now it’s an egg of evil.”
Shay shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t know if the tsar’s wife was evil, or maybe she was trying to prepare something for revenge. Considering what happened I wouldn’t be surprised, nor would I blame her.”
Lily sighed and opened the door. “I need a little time to process everything. I probably won’t stop by for a while.”
“It’s okay. Take all the time you need. You know where to find me.” Shay forced a grin. “And I’m sure Harry’s eager to see you and know you didn’t get scratched.”
The teen’s cheeks reddened, and she stepped out of the car. “Um, yeah, I’m sure he is.”
“Okay, then, see you around. It was good to have you on the job again. Next time, I’ll try to take us somewhere tropical.” The tomb raider stared at the girl for a moment.
Lily gave her a sad smile, and with a final wave, she marched toward the pipe.
Should have offered to let her stay in the warehouse. After the shit I made her see, it’s the least I can do. But now that she’s here, there’s no way she’s gonna want to leave. I’m still new in her life, not like all these kids who have had her back for years.
Maybe that was some harsh shit, but it’s a good thing. She needs to see the kinds of dangers you might run into during a tomb raid. It’s not just invisible ghosts and witches. Some things are far freakier, and the earlier she learns that, the better.
Shay took a deep breath and pulled the car back onto the road. Twenty million dollars was a lot of money. All she needed to do was hand over the artifact, and she’d score her biggest payday yet.
She could even have Peyton contact the buyer and demand additional money for the protection box unless the client somehow had their own method for safely containing the egg. Assuming a client wasn’t an idiot wasn’t usually a good plan. Lots of rich fools paid a lot of money for artifacts they couldn’t hope to understand or control.
Wonder if those Hollingsworth guys had a plan. The other guys seemed to get that they shouldn’t touch it, but no one had anything that looked like an artifact. Were they just banking on me having a plan?
She shook her head. It didn’t matter. Even if her time away from professional killing and her exposure to Alison and James had dulled her old ruthlessness, she didn’t have the time or energy to worry about competing tomb raiders. If the men had demonstrated any lethal intent at all, she would have killed them without hesitation. She wasn’t even sure if she’d have spared their lives if Lily hadn’t been there with her.
Is it so much worse to get melted than have your throat cut or be shot? Dead is dead, in the end.
After a few seconds, Shay barked out a laugh. No. Being melted was definitely worse than being shot.
For the moment, she needed to just get the damned artifact contained. All her efforts at upgrading Warehouse Five seemed prescient now. The box containing the deadly egg had an appointment with her automated storage vault.
She’d driven twenty miles brooding about the artifact when her phone rang with a call from Peyton.
Shay answered it on speakerphone. “I just got done dropping Lily off. She’s a little spooked with how things went down, but she’ll be okay.”
Peyton sighed. “I want to apologize again.”
Shay snorted. “It’s not your fault.”
“I feel like crap that those guys got the drop on you. Not only did I let tomb raiders jump you, but I also let Hollingsworth of all people jump you.” He groaned.
“So? Until someone invents a super-drone that can’t be jammed, there will be times you won’t be able to have my back. We both need to plan for that. Maybe someday we’ll get lucky and find a magical cell phone, but for now, we have to work with what we’ve got. When you can help me, you can help me, and when you can’t, you can’t. Anyway, it’s not like they won. We got away with the egg. And they lost a guy.” Shay allowed a little hope to creep into her voice. “The point is, I didn’t get hurt, Lily didn’t get hurt, and I got the artifact. That’s a win however you want to look at it.”
Peyton’s swallowing was audible over the line.
Shay frowned. “Why are you so nervous?”
“How do you know I’m nervous?” Tension pitched his voice higher.
The tomb raider rolled her eyes. Peyton was great at many things, but she doubted he’d ever cultivate the true hardness necessary for the world they inhabited.
“You sound nervous, Peyton. You don’t have a poker face or a poker voice.” Shay did a quick mirror check, more paranoid than normal because of the artifact in a box in her backseat. “Which means you have bad news to deliver to me, and not just annoying shit. When it’s that kind of thing, you just tell some stupid joke. So, someone’s got you seriously spooked?” The tomb raider frowned. “Is James telling you to keep something from me again?”
“I wish it were just that, but no, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
Peyton took a deep breath. “Correk just called me.”
“What the hell? He called you directly?”
“Yeah. He said he couldn’t get you, and he told me to tell you when I got in touch with you that he wants to meet at the Leanan Sídhe now, and he said to bring the egg. He specifically said, ‘Tell her to bring the Necessaire Egg.’ He also kind of threatened us. Said there would be consequences if you didn’t.”
Shay gritted her teeth. “How the hell did he know about the egg? I didn’t even have any missed calls from him.”
“Well, he is a pretty powerful elf. I’m guessing he used a spell rather than a phone. I don’t know. Is this really a guy you can risk pissing off?”
The steering wheel creaked under her tightening grip. “Fuck it. Fuck him.”
“Huh?”
Shay accelerated. A little speeding would
n’t hurt now.
“I don’t care if he’s Correk. I’ve been thinking a lot about that egg, and how I wanted to handle it.”
“I thought you said you had a system set up at Warehouse Five to handle it.”
“That’s not what I mean. After what I saw, no one should get their hands on this thing, so I’m gonna put it somewhere that’s safe. And, yeah, that’s Warehouse Five, and not in the hands of some Light Elf with delusions of fucking grandeur about how he’s the magical FBI for the whole damned world.”
“That sounds good and all,” Peyton began, “but can’t he magically track it or something? You’ve done a good job of hiding the warehouse from me, but I rely on technology, not magic.”
Shay changed lanes and zoomed past a Currus. The magical autonomous taxis always vaguely annoyed her.
I’m too much of a control freak to give up my control to some spell.
“Don’t worry about Correk tracking shit,” Shay explained. “I recently upgraded Warehouse Five, including paying for serious magical scrying protection. Half the reason I was so interested in this job was that I spent a lot of money on those upgrades, both technological and magical.”
“Okay, fair enough. What about the client, and the twenty million? If anything, it sounds like you need it more than you normally do.”
The tomb raider snorted. “Fuck the client. Nothing good will come of anyone having this thing. I’m not letting this shit back into circulation, even if I piss off Correk and the client.”
“I can understand that.” Peyton blew out a breath. “You’re going to take a hit to your rep, though, and what should I tell the client?”
“You tell the client we lost it. I’ll survive the hit to my rep. It’s not the first time Aletheia has failed, and I’m guessing if what happened to the Hollingsworth guy gets out, a lot of people won’t even want to try to find the egg.”
The hacker whistled. “I’m surprised.”
“By what?”
“It’s just hard to figure you out sometimes. I think we’re good friends, but someone makes a casual joke, and you pull out your gun. Then I think I don’t know you at all.”
