“I am ready to move on. I want to do it. I have an amazing new beginning waiting right around the corner for me, and you need to let me go because you have your own life to live now, too. I will go on to experience new things, and so will you. Promise me you will, because Mom needs you.”
Andy’s form began to waver, and Danielle put her hands on Anna’s shoulders to steady her.
“Yes,” Anna nodded through her tears, doing her best to put on a brave face because she realized he was fading and it was the last thing her brother would see. “Remember that I love you.”
“And I love you, always.” He smiled before his outline dissipated into the slow, swirling cloud that seemed to be taking up the lingering few spirits of the ancients.
“You weren’t wrong about the idea, Anna. Britton’s mistakes were not your fault,” Jake added softly, with a firm hand on her other shoulder as they all took a moment to reflect on new beginnings.
“It’s a long walk home,” Jake said finally to the remaining group, and while everyone nodded in agreement, no one seemed eager to leave the sacred city and the sense of peace which had fallen over them in the early morning fog.
“I think, Cataya, that Alvaro will be glad to see you when we get there. He has been waiting for me to bring you back ever since he fell out of the tree the night Danielle and I went off to the waterfall.”
“Do you have any idea what he was doing at the top of a tree in the middle of the night while we were, um, picking flowers at the falls?” Danielle had to ask, though her reddening cheeks gave away her sensitive inquiry.
Jake laughed as he got her meaning, but a secretive look of desire flashed across his hooded eyes before he took her hand with a promising squeeze.
“He told me he was keeping ‘watch’ on the village to make sure everyone was safe for the evening. I am not sure when he fell, and he can’t remember, but I found him along the path between the lodge and the falls. I was afraid that Majers and his team had done something to harm him, and I stayed with him until he regained consciousness. I couldn’t leave him, injured, in the forest alone. By the time I was able to make sure Alvaro was going to be all right, your little adventuring party had moved into the mountains.”
“How did you get there ahead of us, if we left before you?”
“Who do you think drew the map that Majer’s followed? I know the way to the ruins from the village like the back of my hand and lots of short cuts in between. You can’t really put all those little things on the sheet, but if you are the one who made it, you know they are there.”
“Alvaro!” The young girl beamed in response to the only word she recognized, and carried herself a little more regally as they began the long climb out of the valley.
“See?” Danielle nodded sagely in her direction. “You’re looking at the future Mrs. Huggy Tribe.”
“Hopefully it won’t take more than a month to see how the relationship between Alvaro and Cataya is going to play out.” Jake took her hand and grinned at her mischievously.
“Hopefully it will take longer than that. But why would you say such a thing?”
“Well, I have a wife now. That means I’m all out of excuses to present to Varha. I’ll have to stay in the village with said wife for one cycle of the moon until my cure is complete.”
“Do you think they’ll believe I am your wife now? After all, they knew I wasn’t before we left.”
“We just completed an ancient and mystical ceremony that tied our souls together for eternity, paved the way for the future of all mankind and had our union blessed by all the gods from our past, present and future. I don’t know how much more official it can get. So don’t try to get out of your part of the bargain! They’ll know you are my wife the moment they see my heart.”
“And just what will we have to do to facilitate this so called cure?”
Jake drew a painstaking breath, followed by a dramatic pause.
“Oh, I think it involves lots of baths and candles and lovemaking…but if you’re not up to it, I understand.”
Danielle stopped in her tracks and forcibly turned him around to face the crumbling city at the end of the trail beneath them.
“I’d say I’m game for an awful lot after this, wouldn’t you?”
“We’ll see, but I hope so,” he replied with a smile.
Danielle didn’t even want to know what that meant.
Epilogue
The sun was far too warm for a late spring day as Danielle knelt at the edge of her garden, industriously removing the chunks of stone and brick that foolishly got in the way of her righteous trowel.
The metal struck a particularly solid object in the rock laden dirt with a thud, and she almost cursed out loud when a long, cool shadow fell across her path and she reigned in her tongue.
The late afternoon sun cast a glare into her eyes, so she stood and held her gardening gloves over her forehead like a shield so she could make out the unannounced visitors.
“I’m sorry to bother you. I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing on my way into town.” Anna stepped out from under the glare with a sweet smile on her face. “I made you this pie. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed baking it.”
The young woman eagerly passed the hot plate to Danielle, gardening gloves and all, as she gave her a warm hug.
“I have a 4.0 grade average at the University now.” She beamed shyly, and cast a hesitant look in her direction as Danielle returned the smile with true pleasure before she set the pie pan down on the grass. She could tell Anna had more to say, so kept up the conversation to encourage her.
“I’m glad to see you. It’s been a few weeks since I spoke to your mother last. Do you have any other news for us?”
“I, just…” She blushed in exactly the way a young girl should do and it pleased Danielle to see her so acting so normally.
“I met a boy, in class. He thinks I’m wonderful and amazing. He thinks a lot of things that I’m not sure I am.”
“You are all of those things, and more. Never forget that you have the strength of survival, the beautiful face of a generation and the secrets of a lost world to pad your dating resume.”
“I don’t tell him about those things that happened. I don’t really talk to anyone about it except you and Jake. Honestly, who else would believe me besides the people that were there? But I know what you mean. After you see something like that in your life, you have to wonder what else goes on in the world that you have been blind to before. Well, I just wanted to stop by for a second, but I guess I’d better go.” Anna shifted from the wise to the wise cracker and rolled her eyes before she continued.
“I promised my Mom I’d help with the square dance tonight. It’s probably not going to be too boring. Neil said he might stop on over when the dancing was finished, but I want to get there soon in case he comes early.”
“Good luck with him, Anna…and with the dancing part, too.” She gave her a sympathetic look, but both women knew how lucky they were to be alive to do such important things as dance and pretend to be embarrassed by one’s mother.
When the girl had gone up the hill and Danielle heard the sound of her car pulling out of the gravel drive, she turned back to her work on the garden.
The trowel scraped along a rather large obstruction, but it didn’t jar her hand like stone might do. After gently moving the dirt aside she was able to see the top of a wooden crate, heavily coated in resin and her nerveless fingers dropped the trowel onto the pile of dirt.
“Jake!” she called out with an edge of panic to her voice, and he came running from the front like his life depended on it.
“Is there something else you think you need to tell me?” She glared in his direction as he glimpsed the top of the secret box from the hill.
“We’ll see, but I hope so,” he said with an excited grin, and they both reached into the hole to pull out handfuls of earth and uncover the first new mystery of their life, together.
THE END
www.kimberlyadkins.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kimberly Adkins is an author and avid artist who works with oils, acrylics and water colors. She also spends time song writing and sometimes singing when they make her.
For Kimberly, romance writing is a wonderful and appealing outlet of magic, because passion is truly real, and Fate lines up to reward the faithful who believe that love holds a power beyond our understanding and dreams can have a chance to come true.
Also by Kimberly Adkins
Blood Evolution
www.BookStrand.com
Through Ancient Eyes (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 21
