The Gilded Mirage
Dr. Mara Ellin, a disgraced archaeologist, receives a final, bloody package from her vanished mentor: a humming stone fragment and a map to a lost city buried beneath the Saharan sands. It is a discovery that could redeem her career, but the canyon they enter is a living, intelligent trap, guarding ancient, engineered beings known as the Gilded Ones. To survive, Mara and her team of outcasts must unravel a tragic history of a fallen civilization before they become permanent additions to its ruins, learning that some truths are not meant to be uncovered, but protected.