Page 69 of Gambling with Time

What felt like hours later, Brook led us to the portal room. It had been nice to visit with her for a while, but I was anxious to face Osiris. She pushed open the door to the large room. I’d been here a few times, but the four pillars of marble in the center with the symbols that matched her stone tablet were always a sight to see. Rome had definitely gained some insight from the Fae when they built theirs.

She strode confidently across the space. Her fingers lighting up the first one, a low song filled the room as she moved to the second and then third. When she stood in front of the fourth, she looked at me.

“When you finish, come back to the portal room you arrive in. We will check for you and bring you back.”

I nodded. If we could get back to Egypt after traveling to their Underworld we would, if we couldn’t, we might have bigger problems. Was this a well thought out plan? Probably not. We knew how to get there, and we knew what we needed to do once we arrived. But as far as leaving… we’d figure it out.

My mother’s mantra echoed in my head, and I paused. ‘If you don’t have a plan, then you plan to fail.’ That wasn’t the case. But what if the words were right?

“Wait,” I said as she lifted her hand to finish opening the portal. My heart pounded in my chest at the thought of being stuck. I turned to face the guys. “What if we can’t get out?”

Bellamy stepped forward first. He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “The issue isn’t getting out, it’s getting in. We have two that can portal, and I can open them with a mirror. I’m sure there are surfaces that could work even if they don’t have mirrors.”

He was right. I was just anxious, and it was doing strange things to me. He pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, and I wrapped my arms around him, taking every bit of comfort he was offering. At least I would have the four of them by my side. I wouldn’t want to face this with anyone else.

“Are we good now?” Brook asked as I pulled away and faced her.

“Yeah,” I said.

She traced one last symbol, and a portal shimmered in the middle of the four pillars, swirling larger and larger as we watched. “Take care of my best friend,” she ordered the guys as I hugged her.

“I love you,” I said and smacked a kiss to her cheek. She smiled as my guys disappeared into the portal one at a time. With one last thank you, I followed.

The stone room was covered in sandy dust. It honestly looked like the inside of one of those pyramid tomes without the carvings on the walls. We walked slowly down a similar, long hallway and up some man-made wooden steps, if they could be called that. Voices reached us, and we paused looking at each other.

The excited words weren’t all in English but enough were for us to hear people talking about being inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. A metal grate blocked our way as we reached the noise.

Alastor peered out of it. He glanced back at us. “It looks like people exploring on their own.”

“Is that loose?” I asked.

He curled his fingers into it to test it and nodded his head yes.

“Just wait until the area clears out,” Raiden said. “We don’t want to end up in some prison for trespassing.”

“Or I could send a spirit to clear it faster,” he replied.

“Please, I can’t handle this cramped space,” Lex said from behind me. I reached back and laced my fingers with his clammy ones. He was feeling some sort of fear, that was for sure.

Shrieks of terror filled the area just beyond the grate, and I could hear people fleeing. Soon, silence fell and Alastor popped it out of place. It led to another sort of stairway. On each side, there was one leading up, and then a single one leading down. The way up appeared empty, so we turned toward the cramped looking downward climb.

Hunched over, we traveled down the narrow stairway. It opened up at the bottom, and we found other people, some pointing in our direction speaking in another language. I assumed they weren’t talking about us but about the spirit that had scared them. When we passed, they ignored us.

We followed others and found our way out. And I was pretty certain that making it back to that portal room wouldn’t happen even if we needed it. Ducking back into that grate without people seeing us was luck we probably wouldn’t have.

The air was hot and the sky a bright, cloudless blue that I had only seen in pictures. If we were tourists, I’d enjoy the sights, but we had to find a way to the lake and find a boat before sundown.

* * *

After finding our way to the lake, we stood staring at the small water area. We could see the other side. My stomach sank; this lake didn’t look like it could handle big boats. A few families played in the water, while others sand-boarded, and the roar of dune buggies could be heard from where we were.

I shared a look with Bellamy, and he scratched at the back of his neck. His tail flicked out behind him.

People stared at him openly, but that happened so often that I was basically used to it. Most believed he was in make-up because there wasn’t really a creature that had blue skin, a tail, fangs, and horns. He also looked and talked like a man. Humans had always been like that, explaining away the unexplained to protect their narrow view of the world. If it didn’t fit in the hole, they shaped it until it did.

Lex cleared his throat and pulled out the book. He flipped to the section that had led us here. “It explains how to get there, almost like a map. Do you see a waterfall?” He looked up and studied the area. It was sand and water, maybe some brush and small trees.

“My bet would be over there where people are jumping,” Raiden said dryly, gesturing at the rocky formations that were part of the ledge to a lower area. It was obvious, and I wanted to laugh. Did anxiety and stress make you blind?

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