She Who Scratches — Michael Prescott

I, Marcus Memmius Celer, tell this story. I have told it a thousand times. I may tell it a thousand more ... This is the story of a trio of legionnaires in the days of the Emperor Hadrian, when Rome held sway over Egypt, and strange magic haunted the world. When Celer and his friends Festus and Melior come upon a scroll stolen from Alexandria's great library, pointing the way to a thousand-year-old labyrinth of tombs, they know they've been offered the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance at riches beyond measure. To win it, they must desert their legion, sail up the Nile, and trek into the blazing western desert, the land of the setting sun — the realm of the Theban dead.The three battle-hardened veterans are ready for anything, or so they think. But nothing can prepare them for what they find in an ancient burial ground hidden beneath eternal drifts of sand — a necropolis sacred to the lion goddess Pakhet, She of the Sharp Claws. She Who Scratches ...New York Times and USA Today bestseller Michael Prescott, author of more than twenty thrillers, blends history, fantasy, and horror in a 20,000 word novella that takes you deep into the past — and even deeper into hell.