Forbidden Power

Hiding

Marco came out of the house with an excited expression and beckoned to Teddy and me to join him. Teddy called out to him in Spanish, and Marco yelled back, "Si, si!"

I do understand that word, at least. Teddy took off at a fast gait, which meant I had to jog to keep up with his stride. Excitement caused my adrenaline to bubble. What had Marco found? Could he really sense the spiritual? That would be the most unusual form of archaeology that I've ever encountered, but science is all about testing what works, so whatever. I'll accept it as a medium of discovery if it works.

We reached the area that used to be the door and went into the small house. Marco was standing near what looks like it used to be a kitchen as a small fireplace was still there. He pointed at it excitedly and rattled off in Spanish to Teddy. Teddy looked at the fireplace, and his expression shifted from excited to skeptical. I hate being left out of the conversation. Why can't they talk in English? At least we can all understand that!

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"Marco says he senses a spiritual presence around this old cooking spot," Teddy told me, seeming unconvinced.

I looked at the dilapidated stone fireplace. It had caved in to cover the opening that used to be there, so now it was a pile of unassuming rocks. But the opening would have once been big enough for a small man to crawl through if it really was a tunnel, and it wouldn't be suspicious as all houses had a means of cooking. This type of setup isn't at all unusual, especially for a mage who was guarding the city from harm. He would have had the nicest of everything available for his services.

"It would be a good place to hide something in plain sight," I started, beginning to feel swayed by the possibilities.

Teddy looked at me with surprise written on his face. "You actually believe that there could be something here?"

"We won't know until we look," I answered. "I'll go get some tools."

I hurried to the tables just outside the walls and grabbed some chisels and brushes and trowels. The stones aren't huge, but we don't need tools to move them. What we find inside the fireplace might need careful attention, though. Dr. Hamid's face appeared out of a nearby pit he was excavating.

"Find anything interesting?" He asked.

"Maybe not. We're going to dig out a fireplace and see if there are any clues there," I told him. He smirked and shrugged, and his face disappeared back into the waste pit they were working on. Trash pits from ancient days yield a surprising amount of information, but that doesn't interest me in the least right now. I hurried back to the guys and heard them talking urgently in Spanish. I heard Teddy say my name and a small gasp from Marco, who has the higher voice.

"Hey, guys! I'm back!" I called, hurrying in with the tools. They had done some work during the very short time I was gone. I looked in shock at the amount of stones that had been moved to the side. They're not big stones, but they're not light, either! How did these guys move so many so quickly?

"We moved some of the stones away. That's okay, si?" Marco asked politely.

"Um, si. That's okay. How did you move so many? I was gone, what, two minutes?" I asked, looking at each of the men. Marco looked at Teddy with wide eyes, but Teddy just shrugged, walked to the fireplace and lifted three stones at once.

"Like this," he said dully, dropping them on the other side of the small room. "It's not like this is a big space."

"Those stones are heavy. How?" I began before shaking my head. Teddy must be a lot stronger than he looks, and he looks crazy strong. That's the only explanation.

"Um, okay, so have you found anything yet?" I changed the subject.

"Not yet. I feel like we should clear the area and then examine it for clues," Teddy said. I nodded and stood aside while Teddy hauled three to four stones at a time across the room. Marco was only able to move one at a time, and he made that look strenuous. Teddy looked completely unfazed by the weight of the stones. His biceps bulged in his polo shirt, and I gawked at them for a moment before looking away. I've never noticed his muscles before. He's well built. And from what I can tell, he's well built everywhere. I gulped as my mind wandered to his bulging pants the other day. That was a reaction to me. I made that happen. On the job site. Just by being myself.

"You're lucky you have a nice body. There's nothing else attractive about you. Look. I can barely get it up. Don't watch me. Just look somewhere else so I can focus on your breasts. That's the only way I'm going to get off," I heard my husband jeer in my mind. He was violent with me when we were intimate. I don't remember a single time that we were together that he didn't remind me that he hated that I'm smart and was glad I had a decent body so he could get some sort of pleasure from me. I involuntarily shivered.

He's having an affair. I have every right to leave him. I can stay here at the site for a couple of days in a tent, but I have to go home and get my stuff eventually. What will happen then? Where will I go? Should I tell Teddy and Marco? What should I do about it?

"Layla? Layla?" Marco's soft voice was calling me back to the present.

"Huh? Oh. Yes?" I shook my head and smiled at him. He squinted at me.

"You okay? That must have been some daydream!" He said. I just nodded.

"Sorry. I was thinking about... all the possibilities," I told him vaguely.

"We got the area cleared, and Teddy has found something," Marco said, grabbing my elbow and gently pulling me to the now cleared out fireplace. Teddy was hunched down looking at something with his cell phone light.

"You need to see this, Layla. I think your hunch about an inverted pyramid is right," Teddy told me.

I excitedly dropped to my knees next to him, scooting close so I could see what he was looking at.

"What is it?" I asked excitedly. Teddy pointed to a stone on the floor with what looked like another inscription. I leaned back on my feet and reached into my pocket and pulled out a baggie with some charcoal and paper. I quickly ran it over the inscription and held it up to get a better look at it.

"Looks like a pyramid again," Teddy said.

"Yes, but what are these lines around it? Beams of sunlight or something?" I asked, c*cking my head to try and get different viewpoints.

"Looks like directional signals. North, Northeast, East, Southeast, South, Southwest, West, and Northwest," Teddy said, pointing to each one as he ticked them off.

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why bother hiding something so mundane?" I mused.

"Yeah. They aren't even right," Marco griped. Teddy turned to look at him with a raised brow.

"What?"

"Look at that. North is where Southwest is pointing. You can go out and look at the sun if you don't believe me, but you should believe me. I've spent a lot of boring days staring out of my window at the sun. I don't know much, but I know where the sun rises and sets, curse it," Marco continued bitterly.

I tried to hide my amusement behind enthusiasm. Poor Marco. He must have hated his time as a monk.

"Okay, so it was carved wrong. There must be a clue in that," Teddy decided. He took a picture of the marking on the floor with his phone and edited it to indicate that the Southwest marker was actually North, meaning that the small lines indicated the main directionals while the big lines indicated the minor directionals. This wasn't how normal Egyptians operated. They worshiped the sun. There was no way this inscription was accidental. It was marked this way purposely.

"Is there nothing else here?" I asked, kneeling down and brushing the dust off the floor where the fireplace once stood. It looked like a normal stone fireplace apart from the faint remaining inscription.

"Let's head back to the tents and have some dinner. We've been out here for awhile. It's already late afternoon, and the sun will set soon. We don't have anything better to do. Let's see if we can come up with some theories with full bellies," Teddy suggested, offering me his hand to help me up. I sighed and took his hand. My heart skipped a beat when our skin touched. I looked up at him to see if he felt anything, but he looked stoic. Business as always. Just being a gentleman.

Was it just me? Was I the one changing because my marriage is over, and I'm scared and have nowhere to go? Is that why I'm suddenly feeling attracted to Teddy? Or was it there all along, and I supressed it because we were simply coworkers and my father had already chosen my husband?

Teddy placed his big hand on my lower back and gently guided me out of the house.

"I think it would be best if you called your husband and let him know that you don't have the van and need to spend a couple of days here at the site so we can get more daylight to work. He wouldn't mind that, I'm sure, considering you're a vital part of our team. We need your brain as long as we can get it," he said.

I peeked at him over my shoulder to see if he was joking, but he looked completely serious. My heart fluttered. He's always said things like that to me. He's always told me I'm smart and important. Of all the men I've ever known, he's treated me with the most kindness and respect. He treats me like a woman and protects me when necessary, but he also lets me take the lead and values my opinion. I feel a sense of sadness settling over me. If only I'd recognized my feelings for him sooner. If only I could start over. Maybe in the next life. For now, I have a couple more days to enjoy before I have to face my husband and possibly get beaten to death.

"That's a good idea. I'll let him know I'm staying here for a couple of days. I'll see you guys in a few minutes. Let me call him," I said, turning away and trotting a few feet away from them with my cell phone out. Of course I'm not going to tell him where I am. No way am I going to contact him, but I don't want to let Teddy and Marco know that. Not yet. Let me bask in Teddy's respect a little longer. I'm not ready to lose it yet. I'm just not.