Page 90 of The Demon Crown

Swallowing hard, she stared down into the basin and then got off the nuckelavee. It had been causing her trouble the entire day, but now the beast wished to run. And if that was the way of it, then... She’d let it.

“Off with you,” she said before it raced away. Like lightning across the sands, one moment it was there, and in the next, it was gone.

That should have been her first clue that something wasn’t right.

Instead, she gave Altan one more steadying look and smiled. “Let’s at least keep everyone up here? I’ll go down and get it. It’s got to be buried right at the base of all this, wouldn’t you think?”

“You’re the tomb raider, love.”

“Then I have a hunch it’s right where I think it is.” She hoped, at least. Climbing back out of this bowl in the desert was going to be a real pain in the ass.

Sliding on her butt, she let the sand do the work and send her deep into the depression. There were a few skeletons on the way down, large beasts with horns as long as she was tall, a few of the sand cats with tusks the same width as her wrist. Even an ancient-looking beast with a thick plated skull that would have been useful for head butting its enemies. More skeletons than she would see in a regular tomb.

Landing on the bottom, she rolled into a crouch and waited. No traps? Nothing that rumbled with her weight. Strange, yes, but not something she hadn’t seen before. Maybe this wouldn’t be like the other tombs. Maybe this was just the last known place where people had seen the lamp.

Then she cast her gaze around herself and saw the lamp. Right in the center of the strange hollow was a metal handle. It wasn’t large, just about the same size as she’d expect a regular lamp to be. A thin metal circle, likely with a cage beneath it where one would place a candle.

For the first time, she wondered if she should have researched this item a little more. Of course, she hadn’t gotten the chance to second guess herself. She’d been so angry that she’d wanted something to work off her tension, and now they were all here. All of them.

Glancing up at the edge of the dunes that surrounded her, she could see her people’s worried expressions. This was why she never brought them. They would stare at her like their lives would change forever if something went wrong, and she couldn’t take it. Varya didn’t want to make them watch her die, just in case she maybe did.

“You have no care or regard for your own life!”His words played in her thoughts before she hissed out an angry breath.

She didn’t care what he thought of her. Greed didn’t get to live in her head, even if he was an ass who refused to get out.

Creeping over the sands, carefully watching where each foot stepped, she made her way to the lamp. And nothing happened, which only made her heart race even more. This wasn’t right. There should be a trap, a fight, a guardian...

The sands rolled around her, the dunes suddenly moving as though something deep inside them had awoken and she realized, “Fuck. A guardian.”

Of course, there was something here to protect the magical artifact that hadn’t been seen in such a long time that no one even remembered what it did. All around her, the sands moved. The dunes shifted, raining sand down into the deep gully. Something moved in a giant circle and then she saw the flicker of golden scales. Gold, red, orange, and black, all twisting together just like the creature she’d seen before.

The one that had been there when the Horde had thought to take what they assumed was theirs. The one that had made even the Horde scream in fear. It was here.

The massive snake burst its head out from the sands and she stared into its terrifying black eyes. Nothing could be this big. Was she hallucinating? Was there was some kind of poisonous gas down in this maddening pit? But then it opened its mouth and hissed, fangs as long as she was tall, dripping venom that sizzled in the sand and burned so hot it turned the granules to glass.

And she knew this wasn’t something her mind had cooked up. The monster was right in front of her, and if she didn’t move…

The snake hissed, long and loud, then its hood stood up all around its head. A cobra. A massive fucking cobra that weaved back and forth, staring down at her like she was a mouse someone had thrown into its cage.

Oh, she was dead. She was so dead and all her people were up there, screaming for her to move. Some of them had scattered, racing away while the rest were still there, suddenly off their mounts, on their hands and knees, shouting for her to come to them.

But she couldn’t lead the snake to them. She wouldn’t be the reason they died, too.

Lunging, she hooked her fingers through the lamp’s top and then rolled. The snake hissed again, the sound rumbling through the sand just before it struck. She raced out of the way before those massive fangs dug into the same place she’d been standing. The beast grumbled in anger, then shook its head while sand sprayed out of its mouth.

The lamp swung in her hand, useless, dead weight she should just let go of, but what if it still had power?

“Varya!” Altan shouted. “The dunes!”

Right. She had to get out of this bowl or the snake would eventually catch her. Unfortunately, it had already started descending, more and more of its long mass was revealed as it pushed itself through the sand. And she stared around her, realizing there was almost no way out. Its scales were a giant circle, wrapping around her more than once, twice, perhaps three times.

The snake’s hood shook, and it was so large that the sound rolled through the air like thunder. Its scales tightened around her, writhing and moving ever closer and she just... froze.

“Varya!” Altan shouted again, before backing away as the massive cobra turned its attention to him.

She hadn’t thought... Well, she supposed she had. Wasn’t Greed right, after all? She’d sought death her entire life and now that it had come for her, she didn’t want to see it after all. What a fool she’d been.

Damn. She hadn’t thought this was how she’d go, but here they were.

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