Andrew pointed the flashlight at the design with the door and the stairs. “Through that.”
I narrowed my eyes at the inscription. “Is that what it says?”
“It says, ‘Everything I lived for is here with me. My only love, my most treasured.’”
“That’s sweet Augustine called Maria his most treasured, but I hoped it said something like ‘push the second stone down to the left and the door opens.’”
“Don’t worry, there will be pushing.”
Andrew ran his hand over the groove where the sarcophagus’s front-facing wall met its side ones. He handed me his flashlight, then propped his shoulder into the corner of the marble crate. I had no doubt Andrew could lift or move many heavy objects, but there was no way he could shift this massive box. Even if we tried together, we couldn’t do it.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Trying to slide this panel.” Andrew pushed with his legs, his thigh muscles straining against the fabric of his pants. His boots skidded on the floor. He braced his right leg against the wall and pushed harder.
The sound of stone scraping against stone mixed with Andrew’s deep growl, and air wheezed through a one-inch opening.
“It’s working.” I wanted to clap with joy.
“Christ.” Andrew slumped to the ground, his chest rising and dropping fast. “This is not easy.”
He took several breaths and twisted on his butt. Leaning his back to the wall, he planted his feet on the side of the panel. He clenched his teeth and tried to straighten his legs. Dropping the flashlights, I reeled to the other side and gripped the panel’s edge, my nails painfully digging into the stone. Pushing with my foot on the coffin I used every bit of my strength to tug. We struggled until the heavy panel gave in and, with a harsh grating groan, slid open.
My pulse drummed in my neck as I picked up my flashlight and sidled to assess the portal—most likely to hell—we’d just uncovered. A cool, clammy draft ruffled the ghostly cobwebs in a dark passage with straight stairs leading deeper down into the bowels of the building. Andrew grabbed his backpack off the ground and stepped to me.
“The machete or the rifle would be nice to have,” Andrew muttered and waved his hand. “Ladies first.”Yeah.I shook my head. “Just kidding.” He ducked into the opening.
Andrew and I had to bend our heads as we descended the staircase sidled by bare granite walls, the never-ending spiderwebs piling up on Andrew’s hat like a dirty bridal veil.
“How exactly did you figure out there was a passage?” I peeled a grim mesh off my face.
“The inside of the sarcophagus is sloped and about half a meter deeper on the front side.” Andrew straightened as he stopped on the last step. “And the door design with inscriptions was a giveaway.”
At that moment a loud bang like a bomb went off behind me, jolting my body. My heart slammed against my chest as the debris of rocks hit my back and head, and a dust cloud ceased my breathing.
ChapterTwenty-Nine
Andrew struggled to his feet and then hauled me up. He cradled my face. Over the ringing in my ears, I could barely make out what he said. An inch-sized cut bled above his left eyebrow.
“You hurt?” I peered up at his face cast in shadows. Our flashlights were somewhere on the ground behind us.
“I’m okay. Are you?”
“Did we set off a trap?” My words scraped my throat. Andrew blinked slowly and swayed. His hands slid to my arms, his fingers tightening around them. My hand went to his hips to stabilize him. He must have banged his head hard when we’d tumbled. “You need to sit down.”
“I’m fine.” Andrew turned to look up the staircase.
Through the settling dust, bright lights flickered, and silhouettes shifted. I swallowed, and my ears popped. The noise of gravel crunching under multiple boots grated on my nerves. Hairs rippled down my back, when I realized we hadn’t triggered a trap. A blast had taken out the door in the room above.
“Anybody alive?” Richard’s flashlight blinded me, and I raised my hand to block it.
“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Andrew shouted. “You could have killed us.”
Richard stepped off the last step. “But I didn’t.”
Rage churned inside of me at the sight of the scoundrel.
Tweedledee shadowed Dickhead, his bald noggin reflecting a light coming from behind them. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. William slowly limped down into the cave. Brandon, Brie, and Tweedledum trailed after him, a headlamp strapped to his shaved head.
