Free Journey to the Lost Tomb (Rowan and Ella Book 2) by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

want to go early. The sooner I’m at the
airport, the sooner I’m on the airplane and the sooner I’m out of this
godforsaken country.”
                “Sure,
Maddie. No problem. Let’s go.”
                In
the elevator on the way to the lobby, Maddie took Ella’s hand. “I hope you know
how grateful I am to you, Ella,” she said. “I’m not sure I’ve acted like it,
but you saved my life and I know it. Some day, when there’s a little more
distance between me and Cairo, I want to tell you all about it. Okay?”
                Ella
squeezed her hand. “You’re gonna be fine, Maddie,” she said. “You’re tough.
You’ll look back one day and this will all just be a fleabite.”
                Maddie
took a long withering sigh and tried to smile. “I’m not sure it’ll ever be
that,” she said. “But I’ll weather it.”
                After
they paid their bill and stood out in front of the hotel, Ella asked the
doorman to hail two taxis for them.
                Maddie
frowned. “What’s going on?”
                “There’s
just something I need to do,” Ella said. “You’ll be fine. I will be right
behind you, probably no more than thirty minutes and we’ve got plenty of time.”
                “Where
are you going?”
                Ella
could see Maddie was becoming agitated and she worried that all her brave talk
was about to crumble and they would be pushing the flight back yet another day.
                “I
saw this thing yesterday at the bazaar that I want to get Rowan, you know, a
souvenir.”
                “What
in the world?”
                “It’s
called the Book of the Dead. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”
                Maddie
stared at her like she’d lost her mind.
                “Yeah,
I know it’s kind of creepy. Personally, I was thinking more along the lines of
a refrigerator magnet but when I saw this thing it just kind of called to me,
you know?”
                Maddie
shook her head as she watched the doorman put all their bags in her taxi.
                “Look,
Maddie,” Ella said, shaking her friend’s arm to try to ground her, “if it looks
like I’m going to cut it close, just go ahead and board the airplane, okay?”
                “Do
you expect to be that late?” Maddie looked panicked but there was a grim determination
in her voice. Ella could see Maddie’s eagerness to leave Cairo was warring with
her insecurity about being separated from Ella for an hour.
                “No,
not at all,” Ella said. “I’m just saying don’t worry if you don’t see me at
first. I promise I’ll be there.”
     
                Nine
hours later when Maddie landed in Atlanta, she thought she had sufficiently recovered
her nerves until she saw the look on Ella’s fiancé’s face as he approached her
in the receiving line at the international terminal. Watching him look at her,
and then look quickly behind her, knowing who he was hoping to see, knowing who
he would not see…was enough to make anyone start weeping again.

 
    Chapter Six
     
    Cairo 2013
     
                Ella
asked the taxi to park at the end of the alley. There was no room anywhere to
park on the street and she feared keeping him circling the block would prove
longer than just sitting here obstructing traffic and risking a ticket. The
driver demanded to be paid first and then, not surprisingly, took off in a
screech of tires as soon as Ella closed the door.
                It
didn’t matter. Even with the aftereffects of the revolution, the area had more
tourists than downtown. She judged she had a good three hours before her plane
took off and, even in the typically abominable Cairo traffic, she couldn’t be
an hour’s ride from the airport.
                The
heat