Her original new life plan had been simple enough: make a pile of money, retire, and live the rest of her life on some remote island where no one dangerous would ever think to threaten her. Tomb raiding was a great way to combine her love of history, particularly ancient magical history, with her skills from her old career.
Should I have been playing the stock market instead?
Shay sighed as she flipped open a book, Huitzilopochtli, Cortez, and the Lost Lake: A New History of Mexico.
Her life plan had been designed by a woman who trusted no one and had no real friends; by a woman who certainly didn’t love anyone. Now, though, she had friends, a boyfriend, and even a protégé. There was even the start of a legitimate career.
The cartel that had forced her into hiding had been destroyed. While she still needed to be careful, the extermination of the Nuevo Gulf Cartel meant she no longer had to constantly look over her shoulder.
Except for all the new enemies I’m making as a tomb raider. Good times.
Shay didn’t have a new life plan that took into account all the changes. She already had more than enough money to disappear for the rest of her life, but that would take some hard thought. She couldn’t leave the people she cared about behind, not without a damned good reason.
Too late for some choices, it would seem.
The lecture she was preparing for tomorrow only reinforced the disconnect between her past and present. She loved ancient history and archaeology, and a position as an adjunct archaeology professor at UCLA had turned out to be a good choice.
Originally, Peyton had helped her forge the appropriate credentials to score the position. The school didn’t mind that she was so busy with fieldwork that she only gave a small number of guest lectures throughout the semester. She addressed packed rooms of students on hidden history scheduled around her digs.
Nobody needed to know they were also tomb raids.
Shay shook her head at the memory. Peyton had done a good job of creating a past for her that excluded her time as a hired killer. She was interested in history’s truths but had lied through her teeth to get a position centered around exploring and uncovering them. Funny how that worked.
The surprising thing about the whole experience was that once she had started lecturing, she’d found she really enjoyed it. She was eager to get back into a lecture hall every time and drop truth bombs on unsuspecting college students.
But no one could change the past—not even Oriceran magic, as far as she knew. Her path as an assassin had been set when she’d made her first kill at fifteen, but now, whatever came next was up to her.
A full-time position at a college wasn’t out of the question, but she’d have to put aside tomb raiding. It’d be a chance at a normal life, and it wasn’t like she needed more money.
Shay took a deep breath and shook her head. It was a fleeting and stupid thought. She might love talking about history and archaeology, but she also loved being in the thick of danger and finding hidden artifacts that required not only quick thinking but training. I’ll never be satisfied just digging pots up from the desert.
Adrenaline junkie? Maybe, at least on some level. A woman interested in the truth couldn’t deny the truth about herself forever.
Shay had spent most of her life without reflecting on why she did something, and instead just did it. Introspection was hard, and not always welcome.
Was that why I decided to take on Lily? Am I trying to do something different with my life? I honestly don’t know anymore.
She flipped to a bookmarked page, a chapter titled, A Consideration of the Puebla Tunnels.
Shay grabbed a pencil and a pad of paper. Tablets and phones were convenient, but taking notes the old-fashioned way helped her remember things more easily. She skimmed the chapter, looking for useful information for her lecture.
Dismissed as legend for many years, the confirmation by workers of the existence of the tunnels under the city of Puebla in 2015 surprised and tantalized the world. Additional testing confirmed that the tunnels have existed since the founding of the city…
In the years that followed, the tunnel system was regarded as merely an artifact of the colonial history of the city, but excavations that started in 2024 revealed an additional and even deeper hidden tunnel system that predates the main tunnel system by at least a millennium.
Shay took a few notes and read a few more background paragraphs before coming to something else of interest. This was what they were going to want to hear about.
The precision layout and construction of the more ancient system wasn’t consistent with the technological capabilities of the indigenous human cultures. Prior to public contact with Oriceran, it would have been difficult to understand the true nature of the tunnels, or they might have been dismissed with pseudo-archaeological claims of ancient aliens. Follow-up research in conjunction with Oriceran scholars has confirmed that the original tunnel system was in fact of Oriceran origin and excavated originally with the use of earth- and soil-manipulation magic at the behest of dwarves.
Interestingly enough, despite the confirmation of the fantastical nature of the tunnels, there remains a mystery on both Earth and Oriceran about why the dwarves chose to excavate the tunnels. The Oriceran sources claim they lack extant documentation on the tunnels, other than a few brief mentions of the ordering of their construction.
Adding to the mystery are claims that, until recently, strange noises could be heard from the deeper tunnels. Additional expeditions, both technological and magical, haven’t revealed anything of note other than a small number of stray artifacts that suggest the tunnels might have been in
