The Belial Ring (The Belial Series 3) (26 page)

Side by side, she and Jake
walked. Laney struggled to feel some sign of recognition. Helen of Troy had been here. Shouldn’t she feel something?

Laney
strained to feel some connection to that old life, something that would prove to her that what Victoria had said was true. But the only memories she could come up with were of the times she had been here with her uncle and Drew.

She
knew the ancient sarcophagi lay down deep just ahead. She’d told Jake the site was discovered back in 1850, but it was more accurate to say it had been re-discovered. Back in AD 24, the historian Strabo mentioned the Serapeum, calling it the greatest discovery in all of Egyptology.

He claimed that a
thirteen-hundred-meter-long avenue of Sphinxes led the way to the entrance. He also mentioned that sandstorms could whip up at a moment’s notice and bury you before you reached the door. Even during Strabo’s time, the door had been buried deep in the sand, no longer in use.

Laney glanced ahead to where signs pointed the way to the entrance.
She knew that, as a result of the massive decade-long restoration, the site was now home to a temperature-controlled environment, and each sarcophagus was secured by a metal vaulted skeleton that kept the rock above it from crumbling. A wooden floor had also been added for the comfort and safety of the necropolis’s visitors.

She
followed Henry and Victoria through the sandy ground. Patrick and Jake were on either side of her, yet she felt alone. The burden of this outing was on her, and her alone.

Laney felt a chill despite the warmth of the air.
Panic rose within her. Because she knew it wasn’t just this outing that was her responsibility. If Victoria was right, nothing less than the entire future of humanity lay at her feet.

Laney took a couple of deep breaths.
Don’t think about all that. One thing at a time.

She could barely make out the entrance of the Serapeum in the dim light.
Was Victoria right? Was this an ancient burial ground for the Fallen?

In her own fights with the Fallen, it was only through modern weapons
—automatic weapons no less—that they had been able to kill them. Laney knew that that was because those weapons had the power to shred the heart before the Fallen could heal.

In ancient times,
there was no equivalent. There had been no weapon in existence that could harm a Fallen so quickly and so thoroughly that the Fallen could not recover from their injury. Weapons, no matter how strong, were simply too slow in delivering their injury. Helen had found a way around that.

And she had the ring,
a voice whispered inside her mind.
A weapon more powerful than any gun.

Laney watched Henry help Victoria over the uneven ground. Laney didn
’t think Victoria needed the help, not really. If there was one word she would use to describe Victoria, it was strong. Maybe not physically, but there was an inner strength that shone through her. Where did that come from?

Behind her, Laney could just make out the shadow of the step pyramid of Djoser, built by Imhotep.
Reputed to be an incredible healer, able to coax medicines from plants and other natural remedies, Imhotep had been deified as a god, and you might believe it based on the grand structure he built.

T
he two-hundred-and-four-foot pyramid was alleged to have been the tallest building of its time back in 2041 BC. It was an incredible undertaking. What type of intelligence did it take to construct such a building? The world’s first step pyramid.

Laney smiled.
At least, first that we know of.
Laney had learned that, if anything, more history was lost than was uncovered.

Her smile dimmed.
Was Imhotep a Fallen too?

She glanced ahead to
where the entrance of the Serapeum was just barely visible. Walls of packed sand towered over the sides of the path leading to its entrance. Laney knew that just beyond that entrance, the twenty-four sarcophagi lay quietly waiting.

The site
continued to baffle archaeologists in multiple ways. First, no one knew how the granite necessary for the structures had been imported. Each coffin weighed an incredible seventy tons. Collectively, that meant that whoever had built it had to move sixteen hundred tons—over three
million
pounds—of granite. How on earth had they transported that much weight?

That wasn
’t the end of the bafflement, though. The passageways of the Serapeum were too narrow for the sarcophagi to have been moved through them using simple manpower. There simply wasn’t enough room to fit all the people necessary to move it.

And they didn
’t have machines capable of moving them back then. In fact, even today, one of the twenty-four sarcophagi lay in the middle of one of the paths of the Serapeum below. That was as far as one team of scientists had been able to move it—with all of modern man’s tools at his disposal.

Doubts flooded
Laney. Her predecessor was brilliant, strong, and fierce. How was she ever going to measure up?

Her
eyes drifted back to Victoria; they seemed to be drawn to the older woman time and time again. Who was she, really? Where did all her knowledge come from?

Laney shook her head.
Her biological mother was obviously the keeper of many secrets. But now wasn’t the time to push that issue. Maybe when this latest adventure was over, she could sit her down for some answers.

“This way.”
Victoria said, leading the way down the hill. Jake and Henry followed in her wake.

Patrick waited for Laney to catch up with him.
He took Laney’s hand when she came abreast of him. “Ready?”

She nodded, taking a breath.
Time to see if all this destiny talk was real.

CHAPTER 51

T
hey stopped a quarter of a mile from the path to the necropolis. Laney looked around. Not much had changed since she was last here. Up ahead was the path that wound down into the Serapeum. Nothing stirred, not even the air.

Patrick
glanced at her and she nodded. “I’m good.”

He started down the path
. Henry followed behind with his mother, taking her hand when she stumbled. Laney watched the interaction from behind.

“
What?” Jake asked.

“
I didn’t say anything,” Laney said.

“
No, but you thought something. What was it?”

Laney sighed.
She never could seem to hide anything from Jake. “It’s nothing. I just—” She paused. “Henry’s a good son. And they seem to have a good relationship, despite everything she’s put him through.”

“
And?” Jake prodded.

“
And I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been like if I had grown up with both of them. A big brother. A living mother. Don’t get me wrong. I love Uncle Patrick. I wouldn’t trade him for anything. I just can’t help but wonder if fate had twisted a different way, what I would have been like.”

Jake pulled her to a stop, tipping her chin up to look in her eyes.
“You would have been
you
. I don’t think a different upbringing would have changed that. You would still be strong, defiant, stubborn—and amazing.”

Laney felt a lump in her throat.
She liked his words, but she knew it wasn’t entirely true. A person’s environment had a lot to do with the person they turned into. She leaned into Jake. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I am so glad I did it.”

“
Right back at you.” Jake leaned down and kissed her on the lips.

Hand in hand, they continued forward to where Victoria and Henry had stopped twenty feet ahead.

Victoria met Laney
’s eyes as she and Jake joined them. Laney averted her eyes, though, looking instead at the walls of sand on either side of them. Somewhere under there the sphinxes lay sleeping. She glanced down toward the entrance. She could barely make it out even though it was only a hundred feet away.

Henry turned to Jake and Patrick.
“Let’s go make sure everything’s clear. Laney, can you and Victoria wait here?”

Laney nodded
as the three men set off down the path.

“
You care about Jake a great deal,” Victoria said, once they were alone.

Laney looked over at her and saw
—actually, she wasn’t sure what kind of expression it was. Hopeful, maybe.

But Laney
didn’t know how to respond. She wasn’t sure she was ready to share anything personal with Victoria yet. But then she remembered her conversation with Kati and her promise.

She looked back at Victoria
, who was still staring at her with those strange eyes. “He’s everything,” she said simply.

Victoria nodded.
“I’m glad you have him. He’s a good man. He reminds me of your father.”

Surprised, Laney darted a glance at her.
She was about to speak when Victoria nodded toward the path. “I think we’re good.”

Laney glanced over at where Patrick stepped out of the entrance, waving for them to come.

Laney
and Victoria made their way over to them.

“
All good?” Laney asked.

Patrick nodded.
“Yes. Henry and Jake just went inside to check it out and turn on the lights.”

As if summoned by their names,
the two men reappeared.

“
It’s quiet.” Jake looked at Laney. “Are you ready?”

Laney nodded, trying to put some enthusiasm in her voice.
“Let’s go find us a ring.”

CHAPTER 52

L
aney, Henry, and Jake watched as Patrick and Victoria made their way back up the path. The two of them had elected to stay outside, just in case their entrance had been noticed. Laney turned to the Serapeum, and flashed her light at the entrance only a few feet away.

She stopped right in front of it, her eyes looking for some sort of sign that they were in the right place.
But there was nothing.

Not that there should be.
Thousands of people had probably walked through this entrance over time.

Laney peered through the entryway.
The lights in entryway were off but she could still make out a dim light further in. 

“We kept the first bank of lights off. But about twenty feet in they’re on,” Jake said.

“Well, I guess it’s time to go.” Taking a deep breath, Laney stepped through the entrance. Immediately her foot got caught on the uneven ground, making her stumble. She landed unceremoniously on her butt.

“
Ow,” she said, getting to her feet. If she was the destined one, her destiny sure didn’t seem to come with any grace.
I bet Helen of Troy was a lot more graceful
.

Henry followed her
in, reaching down to help pull her up. “You okay?”

“
Only hurt my pride,” Laney said, dusting off her pants.

T
wenty feet in, they all switched off their flashlights, not needing them with the exhibit lights. And what an exhibit. Pictures of the dig lined the walls. They were in only the front entryway and already Laney had goose bumps.

She knew up ahead the path turned to the right and that the resting place for the sarcophagi was actually split into two separate areas.
There were twelve sarcophagi, six on each side, at the beginning of the path, followed by another small hallway, and then the remaining twelve sarcophagi.

They moved ahead, turning
into the main area of the exhibit. Here, the floor was solid wood, and the first twelve sarcophagi lined the sides of the path, each in its own carved niche in the rock wall. Up ahead, the light illuminated the second portion of the path, which held the remaining sarcophagi.

“
You weren’t kidding about the size of these things.” Jake stood next to one, gazing up. The sarcophagus was another four feet taller than him. Henry walked up to another one; the sarcophagus towered over him as well.

Seventy tons of hewn granite, placed within its own arched niche. The metal skeleton above each sarcophagus held the ancient ground at bay.
It also gave the space an almost alien look, as if they were on some weird spaceship.

Laney knew the containers were perfectly constructed, with ninety-degree angles inside.
The lids fit perfectly on top of the bases, not a whisper of air escaping. She shuddered, imagining being trapped inside, no air. Not an easy way to die.