The Lost Chalice (The Relic Seekers Book 3) by Anita Clenney Page A

than they had been before, so the water must be working. It was one of the guards. “Hank needs you. There’s some kind of alarm going off. We don’t know what it means.”
    “The circle room,” Raphael said. He left the room at a run. Jake and the guard followed. Jake already felt stronger than he had moments before, and he was surprised that he caught up with Raphael in the corridor.
    “You think the Reaper made another portal?”
    “Who else could it be?” Raphael said grimly.
    Kendall crowded in behind Nathan, gaping at the room. As with the previous space, lighted candelabras had come on when they’d entered, illuminating a large room with marble floors and elaborate enclosed cases and shelves filled with relics and objects from all over the world. She knew they were old from the scents and memories emanating from them. There were ancient scrolls, daggers, swords, Egyptian artifacts . . . They explored for a few minutes, and then started looking for a way out.
    Nathan found a door hidden behind a large tapestry. It wasn’t locked. A small light flared to life as they stepped through into another room. There they saw a few large objects—tablets with writing, a giant round stone that looked like a disk, and a sarcophagus with elaborate carvings.
    “Look at these hieroglyphs.” Kendall touched the cool surface of the coffin and saw quick flashes of a pyramid and chariots. She grabbed Adam’s arm— Nathan’s arm. He was Nathan now, but his expression as he studied the objects was Adam’s. “This could have belonged to a pharaoh,” Kendall said. “I would love to open it.”
    “Me too, but I would rather find a way out of here. These relics are a bad sign. Who do we know that loves relics?”
    “The Reaper. You think we fell through his portal?”
    “We know he had one in the temple. We saw him disappear through it,” Nathan said.
    “We could be anywhere in the world.” Kendall’s chest felt hollow. What would he do if he found her? She’d tricked him into drinking from the wrong chalice. Her hand magic might not work this time. And what would he do to Nathan? “If he’s here, maybe we can stop him.”
    “No. We’ll sneak out, figure out where we are, and then come back with help.”
    “But Raphael’s injured. We don’t know how long it will take him to recover, even if we get the water to him. If the Reaper is injured—”
    “You’re not fighting him.” Nathan’s voice was hard.
    “You sound like Jake.”
    “I wish Jake was here. Maybe he could talk some sense into you. We’re going to sneak out of here before anyone realizes we’re trespassing.”
    The word chilled Kendall’s blood. Trespassing had gotten her and Adam in trouble a long time ago. She looked for the door they had just entered, but it had vanished. There was a wall in its place.
    “Bloody hell. It was right here.”
    “It’s probably hidden by another wall,” Kendall said. “We must have triggered it to close when we came in. Maybe there’s a catch on the floor like there was in the other room.”
    There was a commotion and voices coming from the wall opposite where they had entered the room. “I think someone’s coming. We’d better find someplace to hide,” Nathan ordered.
    Kendall looked around, quickly trying to find a place. “Where?” The rocks were flush against the wall and too heavy to move.
    Nathan grabbed her arm and hurried her toward the sarcophagus.
    “We’re not.” Not that she didn’t want to look inside. She did. But she didn’t want to hide there. Even if it were empty. The last time she’d hidden inside a sarcophagus hadn’t been fun.
    “We did it before.”
    “You remember that?” Their fathers had told them to stay away from the dig, but they had sneaked out and hired a driver to take them there. They’d almost gotten caught and the sarcophagus had been the only place to hide. Like now.
    Nathan opened it. “There’s a person inside,” Kendall said. It was a lovely