“I’ve come to try to talk you out of it.” Max met her gaze intensely. “Because it’s dangerous, Eden. Terribly so. I’ve lived in that part of the world for years. I’ve seen how things are done. This isn’t going to go the way you think it will. I guarantee it.”
Eden felt a surge of anger. He was patronizing her, dismissing her life’s work as a frivolous hobby, just like every other man in her life had done. “I’ve spent years researching this. I’ve studied the region’s politics and local customs. I know the history of the region. You can’t just come in here and tell me I’m not prepared.”
He leaned forward, his voice dropping and his blue eyes intense. “You may very well have read every book, every account, every journal. But that’s not the same thing. Have you ever had to bribe a government official to turn a blind eye? Have you ever had to negotiate with a man who would just as soon slit your throat as shake your hand? Have you ever had to look at a man and know, in your gut, that he’s lying to you? That’s the sort of knowledge you get from experience, not from books.” He ran a hand through his golden hair in a gesture of frustration. “I’m not trying to downplay your research. I’m trying to tell you that this is not a game. It’s not a treasure hunt.”
She sat back, her inner fire fading into weary resignation. “So, what? Should I just abandon it all? My life’s work? I’ve been working toward this for so long, Max. I can’t just give up.”
He stared at her for a long moment, a conflicted look on his face. She could see the battle he was fighting within himself. “Then tell me,” he said at last, his voice soft, “what is it you hope to find? Why is this so important to you?”
Eden took a deep breath, trying to control her anger and defensiveness. She had to find a way to explain it to him that would pique his interest as well. “I’m looking for a way to prove that the stories of ancient civilizations are not just myths, not just tales told by bored scribes. I’m looking for the lost knowledge of the ancients. The labyrinth of the Temple of Anubis is said to contain a civilization’s entire knowledge—their science, art, and philosophy. If I can find even a fraction of it, it could change everything we know about ancient history. It could prove that the past was so much more than we’ve ever imagined.”
She saw his gaze soften, a flicker of something she couldn’t quite name crossing his features. She suspected that he wasn’t seeing her as a foolish dilettante anymore. He was seeing her as a woman with a purpose, a passion that burned as brightly as his own.
“They say the labyrinth is a place of endless passages and twisting corridors. It was built to protect its secrets from grave robbers, from men like the ones who would go there now. How can you be sure you’ll find it? And even if you do, how can you safely navigate it?” he asked, but the fact that he was asking the questions at all emboldened her.
“You know of the labyrinth?” she asked, surprised. But she supposed she shouldn’t be. As he’d pointed out, he knew far more about that world than she did.
“I’ve heard rumors, listened to the scholars discussing it over brandy. Most think it is just a legend,” he replied, leaning back in his chair and lacing his hands over his flat abdomen.
“Would you like a drink?” she asked, remembering her cousin’s claim that Max was too fond of drink. Even if she could convince him to go with her, could he be trusted?
He smirked a bit, as though he knew exactly what she had been thinking, but he shook his head. “I’m fine. I’m not going to drink on the expedition, if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
She met his gaze for a long moment, then crossed the room to her desk in the corner, unlocking a drawer and pulling out a papyrus scroll with trembling hands. Her stomach churned as she moved some piles of paperwork and set the scroll down. She’d only shared it with a few people and been ridiculed every time. She didn’t know what she’d do if Max didn’t want to help her.
She gestured to the scroll. “I believe this holds all the information I need to find the labyrinth. But every scholar I’ve approached, every man at the Royal Geographical Society, they’ve all laughed at me. They’ve called my research into the priesthood of Anubis a flight of fancy. They believe the ancient Egyptians were primitive. That they only cared about gold and gods.”
She took a step closer, her voice dropping. “But I deciphered a hidden history written in the stars and riddles. It’s a language no one else has bothered to learn.”
His skepticism was a palpable presence in the room, but he listened, because he had always, perhaps against his better judgment, listened to her. He was the only man who ever had.
“The priesthood designed the subterranean complex to guard something far more valuable than gold. It’s a series of puzzles and intellectual traps to be solved only by a mind deemed worthy.” Her voice was a low, passionate plea. “It issaid to contain the Scarab of Duat, not a golden trinket, but a blueprint of the underworld itself. A map of the Duat—the secrets of life, death, and the cosmos. A secret held only for the most brilliant minds.”
She laid her hand on the scroll, her fingers trembling slightly. “I know this sounds like a madman’s fantasy. And it is. But I also know you, Max. You’re a man of logic and courage. I need your skills not to break into a tomb, but to get us through a series of traps that will require us to think and reason.”
Max sat back, his gaze distant. He was silent for so long that Eden began to think she’d botched this whole thing. She knew him to be a man of action, a man of quick decisions. The fact that he was taking so long to consider her request meant he was truly struggling with it.
Finally, he looked at her again, his eyes filled with a resignation that made her heart sink. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”
She shook her head slowly, a lump forming in her throat. “No, you can’t.”
He sighed, the long, weary sound filling the room. “Then I suppose I’ll have to come along with you.”
Eden felt a rush of relief so profound that she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out. “You will?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
“Someone has to make sure you don’t get yourself killed,” he said, the familiar hint of sarcasm back in his voice. “You can’t go to that place alone, Eden. You don’t have the stomach for what awaits you there. The mere fact that you’re a woman, a rich one at that, will draw attention. We might be followed, and the sort of men who would try to steal whatever we find will not be gentlemen.”
She tried to protest, to tell him that she was perfectly capable of handling herself, but the words died in her throat. She knew,with a certainty that chilled her to the bone, that he was right. She could decipher ancient scripts, but she had no idea how to defend herself against a man with a gun. She needed Max. Perhaps more than she’d realized.
“You don’t want to do this, do you?” she asked, her voice quiet.
A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “No, I don’t. But I will.” He looked down at the maps and books on the table, shaking his head. “You’re getting yourself into a world of trouble, Eden. But I suppose if I can’t stop you from going, I might as well make sure you come back alive.”
“Thank you,” she breathed. “I mean it, Max. I’ll be forever in your debt.”
He was so close that his scent—coffee, sandalwood, and perhaps a hint of clove—made her dizzy. What she wouldn’t give to turn and bury her face against his chest. She longed to find comfort in his arms the way she once had. Dear Lord, it had been so long since she’d been held.
“But we do it my way,” he added, leaning forward. “Certain terms must be clear if I am to agree to this venture.”
