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I turn back to the stone slab above me. Doing nothing isn’t really an option. Nero and I are lucky to have been left here unharmed, but what if the monster comes back?

And shit, what if hedoesn’t?

What if he left us here to die?

Fear closes my throat.

My memory isn’t endless, and if I overuse my magic, I don’t know what exactly will happen. That’s the ominous event horizon.

It won’t happen today.I vow that to myself. Iwillget us out of here. Whatever it takes.

I focus once more on the spell. It gives off a glittering sort of light. Unlike the wild plumes of it that I saw earlier, in this form, Memnon’s power looks like some indecipherable writing, all of it made by one continuous magical thread. It looks as though it were drawn onto the stone slab above me.

After a moment, I reach out and touch it. It’s ever so slightly warm, and I find that, oddly enough, Ilikethe feel of it. I stroke the thread, feeling my way around the spell. Definitely a containment ward; I can sense Memnon’s intent woven into the magic.Stayandkeepseem to be the overriding words coming off it.

Though it’s not the time or place, I can’t help but wonder what sort of supernatural he is. There are many who can wield magic, and though there are ways to tell the difference through spells themselves, I don’t know them.

My fingers linger on the ward, and as I muse, the intricately wrought thread jiggles and shifts until it eventually moves from its fixed position. The shimmery blue cord coils itself around my middle finger. The spell slithers down my hand, winding around my wrist like a makeshift bracelet.

It’s as though the magic likes the feel of my skin every bit as much as I like the feel of it.

I stare at it, half in horror and half in awe.

“This is so weird,” I murmur, watching the spell unmake itself as it moves onto my skin.

I should be worried about touching it. It’s obvious enough now that this magic belongs to Memnon, the creature I freed from this…prison. Everything about him seems volatile, his magic included. And yet it doesn’t eat away at my skin, nor has my touch invoked some secondary spell. It simply peels itself away from the stone and gathers on my hand and wrist until eventually, the entire spell has migrated onto my skin. There it lingers for a few seconds before dissipating.

The magic broke its own spell.

“So, so weird,” I murmur again.

Once the magic has completely dissolved, I eye the stone slab once more. I lean my shoulder against it and push, but it doesn’t so much as budge.

Below me, Nero yawns, flashing his canines and making a sound that would be cute if it weren’t a direct insult to my ability to bust us out of this joint.

I back down two steps and raise my arm, baring my palm to the slab.

“Lift this stone and cast it aside. Let me see what lies outside.”

My magic pours from my hand and coats the slab, and then the massive stone lurches upward, then drags itself aside.

I stare at the dying light above me with both relief and a sense of foreboding. Nero and I are free, but now it’s nearly night.

Night. Alone in the jungle. Where there is a plethora of predators—and among them, an ancient,vengefulsupernatural.

I shrink back a little. The deepening shadows beyond the tomb’s entrance would be a perfect place for Memnon to lie in wait.

Nero, however, has no such reservations. Now that we’re free, the panther slinks past me, picking his way through the ruins.

I hesitate for only a few seconds longer before gathering my courage—and my magic—and stepping out of the crypt.

In the dying light, the ruins look hauntingly beautiful—or maybe beautifully haunted. I can’t quite say which it is, only that the sight of them plucks at my heartstrings and makes the back of my neck tingle.

I turn and face the subterranean chamber once more. Raising my hand, I incant, “Hide what has been found. Place this secret back in the ground.”

My power sifts out of me and wraps around the stone slab. Even to my own eyes my magic looks weak and sluggish, but it still manages to drag the slab back into place, the stone settling with athump. Nearby muddy earth tumbles and rolls back over the door, then packs itself down. A few seconds later, the ground looks as it did when I found it.

I might’ve sealed that tomb, but it doesn’t matter. The ancient menace it housed is now free.