Page 1

Chapter 1

15 Miles south of Göbekli Tepe, Sanliurfa Province, Turkey

18 Oct 2076

Joint Atlantean/human archaeological excavation

Therewereworsewaysto die. Rieka Sinha couldn’t think of them right now, but free-falling into a bottomless abyss wasn’t in her top three. Or even her top ten.

She wasn’t Alice in fucking Wonderland.

The trickle of small rocks tumbling off the edge snapped her back to reality. The white specks quickly disappeared into the surrounding darkness. Now wasn’t the time to daydream about what-ifs. Not when she was standing on a tiny ledge and surrounded by tons of rock and dirt. She glanced over the edge. She was more than halfway, but there were still a few hundred feet more to go until she reached the ‘bottom.’

“Watch your step.” Chay’s voice crackled through her earpiece, fading in and out, his Atlantean accent thicker than normal. The Atlantean co-director of the excavation’s tone was edged with unabashed excitement. A contrast to his normally stoic nature. “It’s been over ten thousand years since anyone has entered the cavern. We don’t know what state the temple will be in.”

If it was still down there.

The void beneath her seemed to grow larger by the second. Was this another dead end? After three seasons of working on site, she sure as hell hoped not. Rieka had religiously followed all the directions her mom had left her. She would finish what Lilian Sinha had started, no matter the cost.

A drone, no bigger than a swallow, hovered in front of her, its high-pitched hum growing progressively more annoying. It had been dutifully and silently following her until now. It beeped before a pulsating white light lit up the cavern, almost blinding her. The rocky ledge she precariously stood on seemed even smaller in the bright glare.

“Initial recon identified a potential stone floor three hundred feet below your current position,” Chay interrupted. “The atmosphere has a higher-than-expected level of carbon monoxide. The concentration appears to be stable. For now.”

If Chay thought that was going to stop her from exploring, he didn’t know her very well. She touched her pendant; the familiar shape sent a wave of calmness through her. No bigger than her palm, five interlinked circles made up the body of the pendant, with a trident running through the center. It had no monetary value, but it was one of the few items her mom had left her. A good luck charm that she never took off.

“Once on the ground, you have fifteen minutes before you have to begin your ascent,” Chay said. Then he added, “Don’t make me come and get you.”

It wasn’t an empty threat.

“Got it.” Rieka tugged at her harness, scrunching her nose at the faint scent of rotten eggs drifting toward her. She tapped the camera on her shirt as she turned the mode to infrared. “Visual confirmed.”

Time for her best Alice impression. Rieka yanked the rope one last time before she took the first step over the edge. Each step was painstakingly slow as she descended the sheer rock face. The drone’s steady glow illuminated her path.

“Two hundred and fifty feet.” Chay’s voice sounded scratchy and distant. “In another thirty feet, you should reach the bottom.”

Rieka squinted into the darkness. White specks of stone glittered just out of her reach. She jumped away from the rock, sliding down the rope the last few feet, until she tentatively stood on the uneven ground. One last tug of the rope, and she quickly unclipped herself and secured it as best she could. The drone’s beeping grew increasingly louder as it started flashing white, blue, and purple, as if it was a disco ball. It had identified something.

“We may have found it, Mom,” she whispered to herself. Adrenaline bubbled through her as she wiped her gloved hands against her cargo pants. “Dim the light.”

The drone obeyed.

For the first time in a decade, the old familiar wish that she had inherited the heightened senses of her Atlantean ancestors washed over her, but she pushed it down where it belonged. Wishes couldn’t create miracles or bring back the dead. It wasn’t like her mixed human and Atlantean heritage had ever helped her. As a hybrid, it had just made her an outcast in both worlds.

A crumbling archway protruded from the wall. Small chips of rocks and dust shimmered in the artificial light. On closer inspection, the fragmented floral design took on a far more macabre aesthetic, as if something were dripping from the petals. She pressed herself against the archway. If she squinted, the pigment had a reddish tinge to it.

“Chay.” She tapped her watch, but a black screen stared back at her. The drone’s light flickered three times, as if it was asking for help, before falling to the ground with a soft thud.

Protocol was to return to the surface when comms were down, but she was too close to the temple to leave. The silence was eerily claustrophobic as she walked through the archway, her white flashlight only illuminating what she pointed it at, but even the lack of light could not hide the sheer size of the cavern. This was no small sanctuary that had been built to be forgotten.

Pale blue lights twinkled around her, creating an otherworldly glow. The ruins of an ancient temple peeked through the darkness as she crept through the cavern. Crumbling columns encircled the path, and faded paint stained the dark stone. Rieka shone the light on the pillars that seemed to never end, they almost reached the high dome ceiling. This close to the columns, the feeling of insignificance was hard to ignore. But there was no sign of a tomb.

Time had not been kind to the temple.

“It must represent the original Houses of Atlas,” she said as she tapped the small camera strapped to her chest. She tapped again. It had stopped recording.

She glanced at the blank face of her watch. Again. Still nothing. There must be some sort of interference. It suited her mood. She wanted this moment to be just hers. The tracings of the closest columns were indecipherable, as if someone had attempted to remove what had originally been carved on it by scratching the surface. Rieka angled the light at the next one. They were all identical.

A small shiver ran through her as she turned around. It was still going to be the find of a lifetime. The century. She was standing in the first Atlantean temple constructed after the destruction of Atlantis. But it wasn’t what Rieka was looking for.