Page 59 of Bound By Wishes

My nerves were getting the better of me. Aside from the excursions with my father, I had rarely been allowed in the field by the museum, and that lack of experience gnawed at my confidence. What if I couldn’t do this? What if I got Malik and myself killed?

Malik bent down, holding his torch close to my foot. A large beetle scurried out from beneath it, its shell glinting in the flickering light. I exhaled, relieved that the crunch had been nothing more than a pesky insect rather than a deadly booby trap.

“How is it still alive?” Malik asked as he followed the scampering insect with his torchlight.

I glanced down at the floor and noticed thousands of raised indentations, each intricately shaped like beetles, lining the stone surface.

The beetle scampered across the floor, its glossy dark exoskeleton gleaming under our torchlight. Its body was oval and armored, a deep black with subtle hints of metallic green and gold that shimmered as it moved. The beetle's legs were spiny, ending in sharp, claw-like tips that clicked against the stony surface. Malik shifted beside me, and the beetle froze. It turned toward us, its pincers ticking softly and its antennae waving through the air as if it were studying us.

“What kind of beetle is that?” I asked.

“What does it look like?” I startled when Ranen’s deep voice rumbled in my head. It always annoyed me when he did that, but for once I was thankful for his presence.

“It's big and black with unusually sharp mandibles,” I answered him. “And it catches the light like a black pearl.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Malik asked, raising his torch. “I can see it as clearly as you.”

I angled my body toward him. “I’m not talking to you,” I clarified. “As my genie, Ranen can communicate with me telepathically. I was talking to him.”

“Now that’s freaky,” Malik said, his upper lip curling with unease.

“That sounds like a Khepri scarab,” Ranen's voice echoed in my mind. “They burrow under a prey’s skin and consume them from the inside out.” He continued, his tone turning grim, “I’ve been bitten by one before. I had to use a sharp knife to cut it out before it did too much damage. It was not a pleasant experience.”

“What?” I squeaked as the scarab started hurtling toward us.

“What?” Malik glanced around, as he picked up on the terror in my tone. “What did he say?”

I glanced behind us and noticed several of the same cocoons clustered along the ground, with even more ahead. One by one, they began to shatter, releasing the Khepri scarabs. Their dark iridescent shells glinted as they emerged, and their sharp mandibles clicked eagerly, as if hungry for our flesh.

“Run!” I yelled, grabbing Malik by the shirt sleeve and pulling him through the emerging bugs. Their tiny legs clicked menacingly as they began to swarm, heightening our desperate dash through the darkness.

“Why are we running from bugs?” Malik bellowed from behind me.

“They’re flesh-eating scarabs that burrow under your skin and eat you from the inside out!” I shouted back, horror lacing my tone.

Malik glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening in panic as he saw how close the swarm was. With a startled yelp, he kicked into high gear, sprinting past me as if driven by pure adrenaline.

The angry buzz of the beetles reverberated through the tunnels, echoing off the stone walls. My heart raced as I felt the vibrations resonate in my chest. I could almost feel their tiny legs skittering over my body and their sharp mandibles tearing into my skin.

“There!” Malik shouted, pointing to a ravine that cleaved the stony ground in two. The gaping chasmappeared like a dark wound in the earth, offering an escape from the relentless horde of beetles.

“It’s too wide,” I shouted breathlessly. “We’re not going to make it.”

“You either jump or stay here and get eaten alive by bugs!” Malik yelled over the deafening hiss of beetles.

“You can do it, sayyida,” Ranen purred in my mind. “I will not lose you to a mass of insects.”

I picked up speed, adrenaline surging through me as I braced for the death-defying jump. My heart pounded in my chest, and I focused on the edge of the ravine, preparing for the leap that could mean the difference between escape and a grisly end.

Malik soared through the air, his slender athletic frame making the jump look simple. He landed safely on the other side.

I leaped after him, my feet leaving solid ground. The moment I was airborne, I realized my jump was too short. A scream ripped from my throat as my hands barely managed to grasp the edge of the ravine. The stones dug into my palms, cutting and scraping as I struggled to hold on. The weight of my body threatened to pull me into the bottomless darkness below.

“Caleena,” Ranen roared in my mind and the walls around us trembled. The ground shuddered, and a rumble resonated through the tunnel, as if the mines themselves were responding to his cry.

Tears of desperation leaked from my eyes as Malik hit the ground hard, his hands shooting out to grab both of my wrists. “I got you!” he shouted as he struggled to pull me up.

Once I was safely over the ledge, Malik cradled meagainst his chest, wrapping his arms around me protectively. I stayed there, nestled in his embrace, until my galloping heartbeat began to slow, and the terror of the near fall gradually gave way to relief.

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