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Prologue

360 days in the future…

Lara took Reece’s hand in hers and gazed up at hi he’d see reason He had that look of discovery in his striking hazel eyes: passion, awe, anticipation, excitement She had her work cut out for her here, but she had to convince hierous Potentially disastrous

“You can’t risk using it, Reece You have no idea what the consequences will be” Reece ran the fingers of his free hand over the cookie-sized disc of stone on Lara’s desk He watched his fingers glide over the hieroglyphics carved into the sand-colored surface in concentric circles He sometimes looked at Lara like that when he touched her—as if she was the greatest treasure on Earth—but at thefiancé only had eyes for the ancient Egyptian artifact beneath his strong and attentive fingertips The as orn and at so history the flat stone had been broken in half One half of the disc had a hole through it and was attached to a leather cord which was inal artifact

Using her knowledge of hieroglyphics and some reference books kept by thethe symbols carved into both pieces of the stone disc As Reece had suspected, the artifact could be used to juh time Or so it claiic arner fro this strange piece of jewelry gave up his or her body and shared an existence with a person of that time That wasn’t what had Lara concerned She would love to try that out herself Not to just see the past or study it in action, but to actually live through history through the eyes of a conteht about it, the more tempted she became She would have been onboard with Reece’s desire to try the ae inscribed at the end of the incantation So to work and ancient sacrifices didn’t usually entail throwing twenty bucks in a col ection plate

Since the body was given up when leaping into the past, Lara would put herup his body permanently Lara was rather attached to her fiancé’s body and the rest of him for that matter She didn’t knohat she’d do with herself if he died As far as she was concerned, using the amulet wasn’t worth the risk, no matter how seductive its poas

“You know ancient civilizations put that kind of warning on everything,” Reece said

“Mostly to scare people I’m sure it’s safe If it even works, which seeaze from the amulet to look at her His hazel eyes shifted back to the a on hers “Reece, please listen tomeans you will die if you use it Promise me you won’t try it”

“I could just try it once For a few minutes To see if it works” Lara touched his face and stood on tiptoes to brush her lips against his “Proain This time he wrapped his ar swirled through her body encouraged by Reece’s seeking tongue At least she had his attention now and he definitely had hers

“Are you two at it again?” a deep voice said behind Reece

Lara reluctantly pulled away fro “Hey, Carl”

“So were you able to work out the hieroglyphics?” Carl asked, co to stand beside the desk so that he could stare down at the artifact Carl stood well over six-foot tall and was built like a truck Blond-hair Blue-eyes He always unsettled Lara She wasn’t sure what it was about him, but she never felt entirely safe around him and on the few occasions that she’d been alone with him, she’d wanted to flee He’d never threatened her or been anything to her but courteous, so that feeling of unease baffled her Reece had known hiether Maybe she was just jealous of his relationship with Reece Reece never shared much about his past with her He seemed to think it would lower her opinion of hih his skull that she loved him unconditional y

“Not yet,” Reece said

Lara’s brow crinkled Why would Reece lie to his partner? Carl had half-ownership of the amulet Perhaps there was a basis for Lara’s continued uneasiness around the man

“Can you tell what it does?” Carl asked Lara

She opened her mouth to speak, but Reece interrupted “Nope We think it’s just an ugly piece of jewelry”

“Really ugly,” Carl said He picked up a piece of paper next to the amulet where Lara had written down a translated incantation She and Reece had decided the incantation hat activated the amulet, but neither of them had attempted to read it aloud Yet Carl held no such quale and e of ancient Egyptian, he pronouncedLara held her breath as he stumbled over the syllables She stared down at the a for the swath of death and destruction she feared

Nothing happened

“What’s this?” Carl asked and ruffled the paper in his hand

“So That’s e think the syly piece of jewelry a little ”

“Well, that’s a shaht actually be on to so this time”

“I guess not,” Reece said “We ht as well head out on another expedition How about Central As in the jungles”

Carl sold artifacts”