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the quality is more lifelike.” He studied the hilt of the dagger a little more closely. “This statue is too detailed to be from an earlier period. This much detail strikes me as from a later period…Ptolemaic maybe.”
    “That is one wicked-looking dagger.” He heard the admiration through the static. “I wouldn’t want to run into her in a dark alley. Unless she was there to save me, of course.”
      Her face captivated him. While he could not see the depths of her eyes, the detail in her face spoke volumes to him. The muscles in her jaw were clenched with determination. Her high wide cheekbones held aloft with confidence and pride. Yet, the crinkling around her eyes and forehead spoke to him of pain. That was something he was currently familiar with.
    “Hey, Dare. Can you point that camera back down again? Let me get another look at the belt?”
    “I didn’t know you could read anything other than bones and dirt?” A sudden itch aggravated him. Darius reached under his shirt to scratch his chest.
    “I hate to disappoint you, but that doesn’t look like hieratic writing.”
    Darius bent down to get a better look, gently fingering the indentions carved thousands of years ago. Darius was stunned. “Sumarian? But that would be crazy. That would date this before the Egyptians.”
    She was a beautiful enigma. No wonder his grandfather searched for her his whole life.
    “I can read the hieroglyphs on the base. That part is a warning to whomever possesses this statue to keep their distance, lest the lion within roar with fury and smote you as the enemy. Or something to that effect.”
    “What a find. I can’t believe that this piece is in a private collection.” Marcus sounded like he was clicking on the keyboard madly. “Uh, sorry. I forgot to keep an eye on things. Get out of there. There are two people coming at you from both directions. Hurry.”
    Darius barely had time to jump into a display of a funerary boat. He plastered himself on the floor behind it just as Therion entered the room.

    * * *

    She felt it.
    Like waves rolling across the sea, pulses rippled against her with increasing speed and intensity.
    Is it time to fulfill the prophecy? Have thousands of sun cycles passed?
    Shaila could almost feel the weight of dust and age, but underneath it all, her soul had fully awakened. Her mind reviewed images collected from the passage of time in a prismatic display of color. With sightless eyes, she had only her memories and dreams to keep her company. Would the loneliness finally end?
    Voices hummed around her, bringing her mind out of the mist. She heard tones spoken with excitement and awe.
    The pulses continued. Something on her chest responded to them, vibrating as if in answer to a primal call.
    Is it time? Is it finally the end of my nightmare?

 
     
    CHAPTER THREE
     
    “There you are, Mother!” Therion strode across the tiled floor of the gallery, meeting his mother at the foot of the staircase. He kissed her cheek. “You really have those high-priced room designers ready to burst out of their skins. They are terrified to disappoint you.”
    “They should be. This year’s season introduction must be flawless.” Her fingers curled around his.
    He watched a frown mar her features. “What’s wrong?”
    “I don’t know. A vibration. Something new. Just a feeling that I can’t identify yet.”
    “A disturbance in the Force?” Therion stepped away from his mother to avoid the pinch. She didn’t always appreciate his sarcasm. He greeted the object of his fantasies. “Hello, doll.” His rubbed his palm across the statue’s abdomen. He felt his mother’s icy glare.
    “Are you so desperate that you need to molest a statue?”
    “Oh, tell me you don’t stroke that Marc Antony statue in the other room. Ah, but it’s this particular statue, isn’t it? You hate it. That’s why you gave it to me.”
    She moved to touch the jaw of the statue, but hesitated. “It is a rather disturbing