“We triggered something by entering this chamber,” Max yelled, grabbing her arm. “It’s collapsing!”
Sand, mixed with stone dust, poured from the ceiling behind them where the Anubis chamber had been. The path was closing.
“My notes!” Eden cried, clutching the charcoal-smudged notebook.
Max shook his head and pulled her toward the wall, away from the collapse. “There’s no time, Eden! We need an exit, now!”
He ignored the obvious path back toward the entrance, which was now filling with debris. Instead, he slammed his shoulder against a section of the far wall, listening to the hollow thud. “This isn’t load-bearing stone! There’s a void on the other side. Maybe an old drainage shaft!”
Eden shoved her notes back in her satchel and threw her weight against the same spot. Max kicked out a wedge of stone, revealing a narrow vertical shaft. Sand and fine grit poured down, but it was open.
“We go up!” Max ordered. He braced himself against the wall and pushed her into the vertical crawlspace. “Don’t stop! Climb!”
She scrabbled upward, using every inch of purchase to ascend the slick stone. Max followed, his body acting as a shield against the raining debris. The sound of the main passage imploding behind them was a roar that threatened to deafen her.
They burst out of a barely visible cleft in the rocky outcrop, far from where they’d entered, collapsing onto the warm sand. The sun was high, baking the desert in golden light. The sliding sand sealed the small hole they emerged from almost instantly.
Max lay beside her, breathing in ragged, painful gasps. He was covered in blood, sweat, and stone dust, but alive.
“The Scarab?” he managed to choke out.
Eden shook her head. “I left it. I had to, Max. It belongs there. The knowledge it contains... It terrified me more than the floor shifting beneath us. I managed to make a few notes. That will have to be enough.”
Max looked at her, then back at the rock formation. He reached over and stroked her cheek with a thumb black with grit.
“You did the right thing, Eden,” he whispered. “We weren’t meant to have it.”
Then he pulled her close for a kiss that celebrated the fact that they’d made it out alive.
Chapter Twenty-one
The walk back was not a triumphal march, but a weary trudge. Every step across the desert floor now felt like a cruel, hot enemy. The immense relief of escaping the collapsing labyrinth had given way to a crushing physical ache. Every one of Eden’s muscles screamed, and her clothes were rigid with a foul mixture of dried sweat and limestone dust.
Max kept his arm clamped around Eden’s shoulders, his grip less a romantic gesture and more a necessity—he was half-carrying her, lending her the momentum her legs refused to generate. The sun had dipped, but the desert still radiated heat, painting the sky in violent, bruised shades of orange and violet that only added to the feeling of disorientation. Eden’s exhaustion was absolute, a profound fatigue that made the world narrow down to the next footfall and the rough, solid warmth of Max at her side.
I had it in my hand. And now it’s gone.
She hadn’t meant to take it anyway, but the fact that she hadn’t gotten to examine it further, hadn’t been able to take more notes or take tintypes... She felt physically ill at the thought that she’d come all this way, risked her life and Max’s as well, for nothing.
They finally reached the dim orange glow of the campfire, where they found Amir methodically cleaning his old bolt-action rifle. He stood up slowly as they emerged from the shadows,his eyes instantly tracking the damage: Max’s split knuckles, the dried cuts on his cheekbone, and Eden’s ashen face, framed by dust-stiffened hair.
“You are alive,” Amir stated, his voice quiet. “We heard a rumble and thought the tunnels had collapsed.”
He gestured to the carpet spread out before the fire. Eden collapsed onto it, the notebook still clenched in her lap, feeling the chill of the evening air hit the fresh sweat on her neck. Max poured water from a small earthenware basin, wincing as he cleaned the deep gash on his palm.
