Bloodrose

  Anika smiled. “I think you can bear it.”

  TWELVE

  “CAN WE TRUST HIM?” I watched Adne move, gleaming threads spiraling out from her skeans as she wove the door that would lead us to Eydis’s resting place in Tulúm. The writing is on the wall, Logan had said. Was he right? We had one sword; we were about to take the first step in getting the second.

  Nev shrugged. “As much as I hate to say it, yeah. Logan would stab himself in the back if he thought it would get him something he wanted.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Mason had rejoined us in Haldis Tactical but couldn’t seem to shake his somber mood. “None of it matters.”

  “Would you stop?” Nev bared teeth at him. “It’s okay to be angry. You should be angry.”

  Mason looked away. “If he can help us win, that’s what matters.”

  “Look.” Nev’s features softened. He rested his forehead against Mason’s. “We’ll win, then we’ll kill him. Deal?”

  Mason tried to pull back, but Nev gripped his shoulders. He began to laugh. “Okay, deal.”

  I regarded Nev thoughtfully. “Why didn’t you?”

  “What?” he asked, keeping Mason wrapped in his arms.

  “Kill Logan,” I said. “When he came through the portal with us. You stayed human. You were strangling him. Why didn’t you shift and rip his throat out?”

  It was an appealing idea—and one I was certain had crossed Nev’s mind more than once.

  He offered me a thin smile. “I wanted him to know it was me who killed him. The Keepers have never been good at knowing who we are when we’re wolves.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough.”

  “It’s time.” Anika gestured to the now-open portal. All I could see through the shimmering door were jewel tones. Sapphire blue. Emerald green. Colors so vivid, they were both alluring and ominous.

  Shay fell in step beside me. “Tell me again why he’s here?”

  I didn’t need to ask who Shay meant by “he.” “You know why. The pack needs him. And the Searchers trust him.”

  Ren was already moving through the portal, in wolf form, trotting beside Sabine and Ethan.

  “Fine,” Shay said. I was a little surprised when he also shifted, bounding past Adne and into the gem-like hues of the door.

  Mason laughed. “He’s a wolf, all right.”

  “And he doesn’t want Ren to forget it,” Nev finished. Grinning at each other, they both shifted and took off after Shay.

  I heard Connor laughing behind me.

  “Your mess,” he said when I glared at him.

  “Don’t forget that I know about your housekeeping issues too, Searcher.” I flashed fangs at him before shifting. That wiped the smile off his face. I barked my satisfaction before chasing the others.

  The colors were so bright it took me a minute to realize I’d reached our destination. The environment around me was full, too full. Thick leaves bent down, surrounding us, the jade nets of the forest canopy only occasionally pierced by spears of sunlight. It was the mixture of odors that gave me a sense of place . . . and change. While the air of Cinque Terre whispered of sea salt and lemons, it was crisp and dry. This air was heavy, rain-drenched. It poured into my lungs almost like water. I caught the scent of ocean salt and knew it was nearby. But even the sea smell had changed, gained a dark, rich scent of kelp and brine that invoked the vastness of waves and endless shorelines.

  “All accounted for?” Silas straightened his vest and pulled out his omnipresent pen and notepad.

  I really wish he wasn’t coming with us. Mason’s voice sounded in my head.

  You won’t get any argument here, Shay replied, wagging his tail.

  “Oh, wait, I forgot my sunscreen,” Connor said. “Silas, be a dear and run back to the Academy to get some. We’ll just wait. Right, guys?”

  “Shut up,” Silas said, but he patted his vest and I knew he was double checking to make sure he’d brought his sunscreen.

  “Come on.” Ethan waved for us to follow him down a game trail I could barely make out in the dense foliage. “They’ll be waiting for us.”

  We walked a quarter mile. With each step a crashing sound grew louder. Ethan turned a sharp corner on the trail; when I reached the same spot, I stopped in my tracks.

  It was as if someone had suddenly drawn the shades in a dark room. Blinding sun washed over us as the jungle dropped away, revealing miles and miles of beach with sand so white it resembled snow. The thunder of rolling surf stirred my blood, its sound both an invitation and a warning. I didn’t want to admit it, but the ocean was unsettling. Wolves didn’t belong in the water. Still, the mystery and beauty of endless waves tugged at something inside me. Maybe its very strangeness gave it an inexplicable appeal.

  “You going for a swim, Calla?” Connor nudged me with his elbow. I’d been staring at the ocean so long I’d fallen behind. The others were heading for a ramshackle house that looked like it was on the verge of tumbling from the forest line onto the beach in a heap of wood planks and shingles. A long dock stretched from the deck of the house out into the ocean, where three boats bobbed up and down, moored to the rickety structure. I could make out the shape of a man in one of the boats. He didn’t look up at us, too busy with his own tasks to note our arrival.

  A woman with long, dark hair stood on the deck, waving to us. When Ethan reached her, he wrapped her in a fierce embrace. She grinned at him but quickly turned her eyes on the gathering wolves. Shay paused in front of her, returning to his human form.

  “It’s good to see you again, Scion.” She smiled, and I realized she’d been one of the Guides who had been meeting with Shay and Anika without the rest of us. Her eyes moved to the sword on his back. “And very good to see that.

  “Bienvenido, lobos,” she said, gazing at me and my packmates. “I am the Eydis Guide, Inez. Please tell me you don’t bite.”

  Ren shifted forms. “Since you asked so nicely, we’ll make an exception.”

  The rest of the pack followed Ren’s lead. I wanted to laugh as I watched my friends attempt to look nice instead of menacing as we introduced ourselves.

  “Guardians have a sense of humor. Who could have guessed?” She laughed, a belly-deep, genuine sound that made me smile.

  “They’re full of surprises,” Ethan said, but went red in the ears when Sabine arched an eyebrow at him.

  “Indeed.” Inez threw Sabine a surprised glance. “Come inside. We’ve prepared you some food. We’ll go over the mission parameters while you eat.”

  “I love Eydis,” Connor said, throwing his arm around the woman. “Inez never disappoints.”

  “We make the most of what we have.” She smiled at him and gazed inquiringly at Silas. “Anika informed me you’d be coming. It’s rare to have a Scribe among us.”

  “I merely do what history requires,” Silas said.

  Connor shoved Silas toward the door to the house. “Please get to the table so you can eat instead of talk.”

  Like the Haldis outpost in Denver, this hideout was built for function—though that function caught me off guard.

  “Is this a dive shop?” Shay turned in a circle to look at the masks, fins, and tanks that lined the walls.

  “We don’t get a lot of business, but it’s a good cover.” A young man with curly black hair and sparkling eyes answered. “Look at that sword! You must be him.”

  “Nothing gets past you, does it, Miguel?” Connor, laughing, hugged the new arrival. “Good to see you, friend.”

  “And you, amigo,” Miguel answered before greeting Ethan. “How’s Grumpy?”

  “I’ve been worse.” Ethan grinned.

  “Can we cut the class reunion short?” Adne’s hands were on her hips. “I’m starving and the clock’s ticking.”

  “Class reunion?” I asked.

  Adne gestured to three men, who were huddled together, whispering and laughing. “The Three Amigos over there were in the same Academy class. They had quite the reputation.”

/>   “Had?” Connor looked up. “When did our reputation become past tense?”

  Adne rolled her eyes, but Inez put an arm around the girl’s shoulders and led her into the next room, beckoning us to follow.

  After our Italian meals I expected all future food to be a disappointment. I couldn’t have been more wrong. A feast of sopas, pa-nuchos, and delicately seasoned, unbelievably fresh fish was spread before us. Every bite was heaven. I wanted to gorge myself on the food—which was unlike anything I’d ever tasted—but my mind quickly fixed on the battle ahead. Inez, seated at the head of the table, spoke to us as we ate.

  “Once you’ve finished, we’ll head out,” she said. “Gabriel is making preparations now.”

  “What kind of resistance are we expecting?” I asked. “More Guardians?”

  “There are Guardians here,” Miguel said. “Yaguares.”

  “Yaguares?” Nev asked. “You mean like panthers?”

  Inez nodded. Ren and Nev exchanged a glance.

  “I was kind of hoping for more bears,” Nev said. “Cats are gonna suck.”

  “We’re fighting cats?” Mason’s face squished up. “Yuck. They taste terrible.”

  “You ate a cat?” Shay asked. My stomach twisted. I could imagine little more disgusting than cat meat.

  “Not ate,” Mason said. “Bit . . . and killed.”

  We all stared at him.

  “Hey—” He held his hands up defensively. “It attacked me. Crazy feline.”

  “If all goes well, you will not face las sombras,” Inez said. “Our plan is to avoid them. It is never easy to fight in the jungle, and it is where las sombras are deadliest.”

  “Las sombras favor the trees,” Miguel said. “They drop from above.”

  “How many?” Ren asked.

  “Like the bears, they prefer solitude,” he replied. “But still, they are deadly.”

  “So what do we do?” I asked. “Same as Tordis? You lure the kitties away while we head into the cave?”

  Miguel shook his head. “It is no cave. Es un cenoté.”

  “Oh, man.” Shay shuddered. “Seriously?”

  Miguel nodded.

  “What’s a si-note-ay?” Mason fumbled with the word.

  Shay had gone slightly green. “It’s where the Mayans made sacrifices to their gods—deep sinkholes that run for miles beneath the surface. Sometimes they lead into networks of underwater caves. They’re all over this region, right?”

  “Sí.” Miguel’s face was grim.

  “The Spanish called them sagrados,” Silas said. “Wells of sacrifice.”

  “Wells of sacrifice?” Sabine’s eyes widened.

  “They threw people in,” Shay said.

  “And Eydis is inside one of these sacrifice wells?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Silas said.

  “Does that mean we have to climb down into a sinkhole?” Sabine asked. “’Cause that doesn’t sound like fun.”

  “Las sombras watch from the branches,” Miguel said. “We would not have time to rappel into the cave before they attacked.”

  “What about that thingy Adne can do?” Mason asked. “Can’t she open a portal down inside the cave? Like in Eden?”

  “Sorry. No can do.” Adne shook her head. “We don’t have any idea what’s down there. We’d be in serious trouble if I ended up accidentally opening a portal underwater. Or on the wrong side of a sheer drop. We don’t have any descriptions to go on. In Eden, I had Ansel’s experience working for me. I used his story to open the door.”

  “Then what’s the plan?” Shay asked.

  “Gabriel found another entrance,” Ethan said, though he didn’t look too happy about it.

  Inez’s mouth had an equally grim set. “He’s been scouting it for the past three days. It is our best option.”

  “Another entrance?” Mason asked. “But won’t the panthers be guarding that one too?”

  “No,” Miguel replied, meeting Ethan’s stony gaze.

  “They won’t?” Shay frowned.

  “No.” Connor rolled his shoulders back. “Because cats hate water.”

  My skin prickled at Connor’s words. Wolves didn’t exactly hate water, but we weren’t dolphins either.

  He winked at me. “That’s right, sweetheart. We’re all going for a nice, long swim.”

  “How long?” Shay asked.

  “We’re going in at low tide,” Ethan said. “Hopefully we won’t need the scuba gear for long, but you’re all getting a crash course in it. Just in case.”

  “Awesome.” Shay grinned. The rest of the wolves glared at him. “What?” He glanced around the pack, giving us wide, too-innocent eyes. “I like trying new things.”

  “Chosen One shows an aptitude for adventure and risk taking,” Silas murmured as he wrote. He hadn’t touched a thing on his plate.

  “Can’t you stay here?” Connor asked him. “You can’t write underwater.”

  Silas drew himself up. “I shall commit each event to memory and transfer it to paper upon our return.”

  “Of course you will,” Connor said, pushing himself away from the table. He looked at Inez. “We’re not swimming for at least an hour, right? ’Cause I don’t want to get a cramp.”

  THIRTEEN

  GABRIEL, IT TURNED OUT, had been the man working in the boat. The boat we were all now boarding. He smiled, despite having to coax six reluctant wolves off dry land. With a mess of sun-streaked hair, Gabriel looked more like a surf god than a Searcher. From the way he tossed around scuba gear—tanks, regulators, buoyancy vests, lead weights, masks, fins, wet suits, and flashlights—with efficient care, I guessed that he’d been assigned the task of instructing us in the ways of water too.

  As I scrambled toward a seat, the boat lurched over a wave and I wondered if eating all those sopas had been such a great idea after all.

  The outboard gurgled to life and Miguel navigated us away from the docks while Inez waved her farewell.

  “The Eydis Strikers, except Miguel, are keeping an eye on the cenoté topside,” Gabriel shouted over the roar of the outboard engine. He watched us, his grin widening as we flopped around the floor of the boat like fish out of water, struggling into our wet suits.

  “I thought we weren’t attacking the Guardians,” Shay said.

  “No attack, just watching in case we have any surprises,” Gabriel said. He picked up a tank. “Listen up—we only get one shot here, so pay attention.”

  It was hard to pay attention when it felt like championship Ping-Pong was taking place in your stomach, but drowning didn’t hold any appeal either, so I clenched my teeth and did my best to focus. The wet suit didn’t help matters, as it fit like a tight, thick second skin that I desperately wanted to claw off.

  “We can make it almost all the way to the cenoté without being submerged,” Gabriel said. “But the last ten yards are a tunnel and we will have to swim it.”

  “We’re going into an underwater tunnel?” Mason already looked green, and this news made him clutch his stomach.

  Gabriel nodded. “And the tunnel narrows just before you can access the cenoté. When you hit that gap, you’ll have to take off your vest and tank and push them through.”

  Nev laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Gabriel’s expression wasn’t a kidding one.

  Mason leaned over the side of the boat and retched.

  “You can’t fit through the opening wearing your tank,” Gabriel said. “But it will only take you a minute to push the tank and then yourself through. Don’t overthink it.”

  “You’re assuming it’s just us down there,” I said. “What if we have to fight our way in? Did anyone tell you about the spider?”

  “No spiders down there, preciosa,” Gabriel said. “I swam the tunnel twice already—it’s a clear passage. The Keepers are only watching the top.”

  His smile was warm and reassuring, but I felt uneasy.

  “Listen,” he continued. “I’m serious about not overthinking
this dive. Below the surface, the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen in the tanks can play tricks on your mind. At worst, hallucinations, panic attacks—and if you start to freak, it will be hard to turn it off. Comprende?”

  Mason wiped his mouth and nodded.

  “Besides,” Adne added, “it’s a one-way trip. No use getting all worked up.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Ren gave her a weary smile.

  She punched him on the arm. “Not that kind of one way. I just mean once Shay has Eydis, I’ll weave a door and we’ll be back to Inez in time for dinner.”

  “Fish tacos?” Connor brightened.

  Gabriel shrugged. “Likely.”

  The trip along the coast took an hour, during which we skirted a dark and unfriendly limestone coastline. The jungle hung over the water, its vines appearing to writhe just above the swells. By the time Miguel lowered the anchor, everyone but the Searchers and Shay had been sick at least once. Apparently wolves can’t find their sea legs.

  I rinsed my mouth out with salt water as Gabriel gave final instructions on scuba safety procedures. “Remember, if you get into trouble, the person with a functioning tank is in charge. That’s how buddy breathing works. Got it?”

  We all gave him a thumbs-up.

  Gabriel pointed to the tangle of jade leaves and thick branches. “That’s where we’re headed.”

  I peered at the shore and could just make out a sliver of darkness cutting through the glistening green.

  “I will wait here for an hour,” Miguel said as he settled into one of the seats. “In case any of the lobos can’t handle the dive. None of you seem to have sea legs.”

  Mason threw him an unfriendly smile, taking a deep breath before he and Nev put on their masks and fins, placed their regulators in their mouths, and jumped into the water.

  “You okay?” Shay held my tank while I slipped my arms into my buoyancy vest and secured the safety belts.

  I nodded. Bile was sloshing in my stomach again. I didn’t think talking would help.

  “You’ll do fine,” Ren added, handing me a mask.