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of
their heart, which contains the soul. Similar to Saint Peter at the gates of
heaven. Asar determined if the soul could pass into the afterlife to be
reunited with their body and live the rest of their life in paradise. If they
were turned away…” Kendra shrugged. “Well, let’s just say it was the equivalent
of being sent to hell.”
    Lilly pushed Kendra
closer toward the statue. “What is he holding in his hand?”
    “It’s a key. I had
a replica made of the one dad found in Alexandria.”
    “The key that was
stolen from the site?” Kit asked.
    Kendra nodded. “Dad
made a drawing of it in his journal.” Her younger sister’s eyes widened as she
looked at Kit’s hands. “Ah, Kit. Where did you get that?”
    Kit glanced at the
pectoral necklace still in her hands and pointed at Lilly.
    “It belongs to the
dark reven. I found it at the aqueduct.”
    “You do realize that is the talisman Mother has been looking for, don’t you?” Kendra held her trembling
hand out to take the necklace.
    “What?”
    Kendra rubbed her
thumb across the gold medallion. “This is the artifact that was stolen from the
excavation site in South America. The site with the mass grave. The very one
Mother had me researching. The symbols are slightly different, but this is it.”
    The hair on the
back of Lilly’s neck stood up. The dark revens were even closer to this curse
than she thought. Her father had discovered the South American site about the
same time he found the goddess’ tomb in Alexandria. It was just by coincidence
the paperwork on the Egyptian site had been approved before the South American
excavation. Lilly’s father had been in Egypt when the outbreak occurred. A year
later, a team of archeologist opened the South American site.
    Lilly’s head spun with
the possibilities. “Okay, let’s walk through this.” She rubbed her forehead as
she paced back and forth in front of the statue of Underworld god. “This
necklace, which is Egyptian, was found in a Mayan temple? What are the chances
of that?”
    “Looters, maybe?”
Kendra offered. “A multitude of Egyptian artifacts were stolen from the
pharaohs’ tombs and temples.”
    Lilly stopped mid-step
to face her little sister. “Tell me about the mass grave at this site.”
    Kendra smiled and
rubbed her palms together. “Well, here’s where it gets interesting. The archeology
team arrived at the site. It was perfectly undisturbed. No one had been there
for over a year. They were using ground penetrating equipment to see if there
were any buried chambers or artifacts. That’s when they found the bodies—twenty
of them. At first, they thought the grave contained Mayan remains, but when
they exhumed the mummified bodies, they were dressed in modern clothes. Most
were criminals from the local area. A forensics team was brought in, thinking
it was a homicide scene. A colleague of mine, Dr. Steven Jones, was assisting
at the site when he found the necklace. His notes stated he found it inside the
temple ruins, an area that was hidden with no entry or exit. He had to bust
through a six foot stone to even get into the chamber. The chamber appeared to
be inhabited, but there were no bones or skeleton to account for the scrolling
on the walls.”
    Lilly looked from one
sister to the other. “Let me guess. Egyptian hieroglyphics.”
    “Bingo. Mother was
interested in the glyphs that were scrolled repeatedly on the walls of that
chamber. She thought it was the key to the curse.” Kendra touched the medallion.
“Lions and moons.”
    Lilly chewed on her
fingernail. “Where is Dr. Jones? Can we call him?”
    “He’s dead.”
    “How did I know you
were going to say that?” Kit scoffed. “See, back to dead and rotting.”
    “How did he die?”
Lilly asked.
    Kendra frowned. “He
died in his tent during the investigation. Coroner’s report said natural
causes, but the guy was a marathon runner.”
    “And the necklace
ended up missing.