Page 99 of Ancient Obsession

“Samira?”

Her head jerked up, expression tight and fearful. When she saw it was him, her face softened, but she still sat forward, slightly curled in on herself.

“May I sit?” Oliver indicated the seat beside her, and she nodded.

“What happened to you?” he asked. “Where have you been the last few days?”

“It…” She swallowed and had to start again. “It came after me. When I was waiting by the library to meet you.”

“We found your notebook,” Oliver said. “My friend has been working on translations from your notes, trying to find some way to help us out. I hope that’s okay.”

“You have my notebook?” She sat back and uncoupled her hands but kept them in her lap. “I thought it was gone for good.”

“I’ll get it back to you. But, where have you been? The police and the rest of the team thought you were dead.” And, Oliver thought to himself, that he’d been the one to kill her.

“I was completely freaked out. I had talked with Vera before I left you that note. She’d told me about the spores and how their properties might have had some effect on the mummy. And that we all could have been marked in some way.” She drew in a breath. “Is she…?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. She was really scared, but also very brave.”

“Why did it…kill them? Try to kill me?”

Oliver licked his lips and leaned forward. He rested his wrists on his knees and stared at his hands, scratched and scraped from the rough edges of the coffin. She deserved to hear the truth, or at least his version of it.

“When the lid was opened, we all got sprayed by those spores, Robin and myself included. It also startled Vera so much she jumped back.”

“Right. But you filled in for her. You took over before we dropped it.”

“I did, but I wasn’t wearing gloves. As we worked with the lid, my hand slipped inside and I touched the mummy.”

Samira’s eyes widened. “You think that forged a connection between the two of you.”

Oliver laughed softly, then frowned. “Is it crazy to think that?”

“No, I don’t believe so.” She laughed bitterly and wiped away tears. “That mummy murdered my team. It’s not much crazier than that.” After thinking a moment, Samira continued. “In my translations, I came across the word mery.”

“We found that in your notes. But you wrote that not only was it a name, it was also⁠—”

“The word for beloved.” She sat up and leaned forward, mimicking his pose. Her eyes were brighter as she continued. “It was searching for you. We were all marked by the spores, but it’s been searching for you. When it became mobile, it tracked all of us through the spores. And when it realized the others weren’t you, it…” She stopped and blushed. “Oh. That came out wrong. I don’t mean to imply you were at fault.”

“No, it’s all right.” He felt as if a cold hand had closed around his heart. He knew it hadn’t been his fault, but the thought sat heavy in his gut anyway. Would Lucien, Dominic, and Vera think he was at fault?

“I don’t know how much of those spores are left, but Vera will definitely want to…” She stopped and sucked in a breath, then sat back. “Oh. She’s gone.”

“You’ve been through a really terrible ordeal. But you saved all of us here, saved me.” He hesitated, then asked, “Were you hiding in that closet the whole time?”

Samira shook her head. “Not the whole time. I didn’t think anyone would believe me, especially not the police. And I’d lost my phone running through the woods to get away from it. I knew it could track me, so at first, I moved from place to place. A couple of friends aren’t taking summer classes and left me the keys to their apartments to check on things, so I crashed in different spots. Then I thought if I came back here, to where the coffin was, it wouldn’t be able to track me because the whole room had been sprayed. I hid in the supply closet during the day and came out at night to get food from vending machines or unlocked classrooms. I thought it might eventually come back to the coffin, so I decided to wait for it.”

“That was really smart thinking.”

“Thanks.” Her expression tightened and she winced slightly. “I heard it bring you in, but didn’t know what to do. And then other people came in and started shooting, so I laid on the floor and hoped I wouldn’t get hit. When I saw it grab you, I knew I had to help somehow. That’s when I got the cart and pushed…” She made a motion like she was pushing the cart once again, then stopped and peered around. She seemed to suddenly realize where they were and how the space had been set up, and she looked him over, taking in his torn and dirty tuxedo. “Oh my God, is this…Were you here getting married?”

Oliver sighed gently. “It’s a really long story how it happened, but yes. I was waiting to come down the aisle. Standing right over there, actually.” He pointed and she turned. “And then Amenmose came up behind me.”

“Oh my God. What did you do?”

“I screamed and tried to get away. It all happened really fast. All I know is I fell and blacked out. When I came to, I was inside the coffin.”

“That must have been terrifying.” She went silent, eyes wide.