In this high-stakes fantasy inspired by The Mummy (1999), an explorer and a scholar team up to uncover an ancient city, unknowingly unleashing the evil within.

Explorer Aris Nycta is hell-bent on uncovering who killed her archaeologist father. After discovering the foreboding lost city of Nemethet thanks to her father’s cryptic clues, Aris was betrayed by her ex-lover and framed for stealing a priceless artifact. Now she’s imprisoned within Savros’s scorching fighting pits, and her death is inevitable. 

Wealthy scholar Killian Lance believes he can bring his parents back from the dead. He’s certain the fabled Nemethet holds the key, and when he learns Aris knows the location, he’ll buy her salvation—if she’ll take him there. 

Aris thinks he’s a spoiled brat, and Killian thinks she’s a brutish thief. But as Aris and Killian travel through harrowing jungles and dangerous waters with a ragtag crew, they may find more common ground than they expected. 

But all is not what it seems in the city hidden beneath the sea. An ancient evil lurks within Nemethet, a darkness with a strange fixation on Aris, and if Aris and Killian can’t find a way to thwart it, no one will get out of the city alive. 

The Darkness Beneath is a thrilling debut perfect for fans of the action-packed magic of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and the romance and intrigue of What the River Knows.