Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Sarika did believe that communication was all-important. Not just listening but hearing what was said and processing it without bias and judgment.
“I think my lifemate is a very wise woman,” Tomas said and drew her other foot into his lap.
They both fell into a companionable silence that was soothing and peaceful. He continued to massage her foot and calf, adding to the beauty and magic of the night. The sound of the wind fluttering leaves in the trees. The drone of the insects. The occasional flutter of wings. It was a symphony of rainforest music lulling her to sleep while her man used his amazing skills to get out every single painful knotted muscle in her feet and calves.
As if in a dream, she had a hazy recollection of him carrying her to the bed and tucking the sheet around her. He stretched out beside her, his body warm and relaxed, as he murmured softly to her. She barely caught the words, ones of safeguards to keep away nightmares, to only have sweet dreams. To awaken when the sun went down the following rising. She went completely under, feeling encompassed with what could only be love.
* * *
—
The small convoy trekking through the rainforest toward the ancient ruins of the jaguar temple consisted of Luiz, Lojos, Mataias, Tomas and Sarika. She was surprised that Jubal was also with them. They had flown through the jungle, staying high above the canopy. Tomas had carried her, and Luiz had taken Jubal. That also surprised her, that her cousin was so clearly involved with the jaguars when he identified as a De La Cruz.
Having met Zacarias and his brother Riordan, she knew the bloodline had embraced Luiz, taken him as a true family member. He wasn’t adopted. He wasn’t half. He was fully their true bloodline and as intimidating as hell, yet he carried Jubal as if Jubal were his family. He was an enigma, one she doubted she would ever solve.
As they neared the ruins, she began to get uneasy, a feeling of dread filling her when she’d been comfortable and safe in Tomas’ arms.
We need to be on the forest floor, Luiz said, just as the exact same thought burst through her.
Something wasn’t right. They were very high, and no one should have been able to detect them, yet there seemed to be more danger to them above the canopy than inside the darkened interior. The uneasiness spread to the others.
It is impossible to see the ruins from the sky, Luiz told them. It is as if it is protected even from the latest technology. When others come to explore, they do not see the ruins of the temple. All jaguar know the way, but outsiders have not found it.
We know the way, Lojos said. We’re outsiders.
The temple recognizes Carpathians, Luiz said.
Sarika gasped, her hand sliding to her amulet. That was how Mitro had found her people centuries ago. He was Carpathian, and the temple regarded him as such.
Tomas set her feet gently on the forest floor. The interior was extremely dark, little light penetrating the thick canopy above. The moon was barely a sliver she could occasionally glimpse through the filter of leaves overhead. She relied on her night vision just as the others did.
The trek through the jungle carried a pall of gloom over it, a warning to turn back. With every step they took, the dread grew. The shadows moved ominously. There was no drone of insects or monkeys overhead. The forest was utterly still and eerily silent, as if holding its breath. No movement. No scurrying lizards or voles.
Sarika reached for the memories she kept locked away. Not all of them were nightmares, but she hadn’t separated the bad from the good until then.
“It is a safeguard, much like Carpathians weave,” Sarika said. “It was meant to allow the people to live in peace. That was all they wanted, to live out their lives in peace.”
“Is it your safeguard?” Jubal asked.
Sarika shook her head. “No, the people had established their village and constructed the temple before my time.”
“They called themselves Mayans?” Tomas asked. “Because as far as I know, Incas were in this rainforest but not Mayans.”
“We called them Mayans,” Jubal said. “Shifters did, because the ruins were close to the same type of structures the Mayans built.”
Sarika drew on the memories she had so carefully avoided. This time she chose to uncover the happier moments she’d spent with the gentle villagers. “The people never referred to themselves as Mayans,” Sarika confirmed.
“That makes much more sense,” Tomas agreed. “The little I’ve seen or heard makes me believe these people were separate from the Incas and the Mayans.”
Huge leaves like elephant ears flapped along the narrow path they trekked. Hundreds of vines hung down, thick ropes of twisted wood covered with hair, making them feel as if the legs of spiders brushed their faces as they passed. Long-stemmed liana, a woody vine rooted in soil, twisted into many alien shapes as it climbed the various trees.