❝death is only the beginning.❞
Mara El-Masri's fascination with the long-ago world of ancient Egypt started with the stories her stepfather would tell her when she was a child. Her brother Talib El-Masri is missing, left after their mother's funera...
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THEY ARRIVED TO KARNAK AT MIDDAY, just as Mara had thought they would at the speed the dirigible was travelling. It was one of the historical sites in Egypt Mara had never had the pleasure of visiting in the near-decade she'd lived in the country, and this wasn't how she thought she would visit it for the first time. It had always been too far from where she lived in Cairo and she had always been too busy at the museum to travel for pleasure rather than for work or family emergencies (her honeymoon was the only exception).
There was something foreboding about it, seeing the ancient complex from above. It was probably just that the bracelet had shown Alex this temple, leading him to it as the first step on the journey to the lost oasis, but it seemed so much emptier than Mara had always assumed it would be. There were no tourists, no archaeologists. There was no one. But there was a stopped train.
"There's Karnak," Evy said anxiously as the dirigible came closer to the ground.
"Is that a train?" Jonathan questioned, the answer obvious but the question made to make sure the strangeness of it didn't go unnoticed.
"I didn't realize there were tracks here," Mara said.
Rick's mouth set into a thin line as he looked at it. "Imhotep."
"Travelling by train seems mundane for him," Jamil remarked.
"Yeah, but it's not just him. That woman, the curator, those other cultists," Rick said. He turned to one of the gun cases they'd brought with them, unfastening the straps and reaching for both the ammo and the weapon. Then he faced them again. "Okay. Ardeth and I are gonna check out the train."
"I want to go in the temple," Evy said. "There could be something there, if the bracelet brought him here."
"I will go with you," Jamil said, and Evy nodded.
The dirigible was close enough to the ground for Rick to jump off, followed shortly by Evy, Jamil, and Ardeth, the latter two with their own weapons. Rick and Ardeth ran to the train, Evy and Jamil to the temple. Jonathan turned to Mara and said, "And that leaves you and me waiting here. With Izzy."
Mara followed his narrowed eyesight to Izzy, who was looking at Jonathan the same. It seemed there was a mutual animosity between them that stemmed from that gold scepter. It was a little amusing, if Mara were being honest. She said, lowering her voice, "You really are desperate to get that scepter back, aren't you?"
"Oh, you have no idea," Jonathan said. Mara laughed to herself. He stepped closer to her. "All right, the first plan failed. Maybe I should negotiate with him."
