Jaguar Sun (The Jaguar Sun Series)

by Bourke, Martha

  “You mean…run up the steps?” Clearly she had no idea who she was talking to.

  “You’ll have to. Carefully. And it’s not going to be easy. The steps are steep, and there are almost a hundred of them.”

  Holy hell. I had a sudden flash of myself trying to run the bleachers in gym class, and it wasn’t pretty. I wasn’t like Matt or the twins. I’d never been what you’d call athletic.

  “Once you get to the top,” Adriana continued, ignoring my reactions, “you will have to go into the High Temple at the top where you can’t be seen. There you will open a portal and move yourself to its roof.”

  “Wait.” What? “But I never know where anything I move is going to end up. I can’t control it like that.”

  “But you will. You’re almost there now.” She gave me a reassuring smile.

  Grandma had told me to rely on Balam’s strength. “Okay,” I finally said.

  “Actually,” Adriana said, “I wanted to move forward with that today. I’d like you to work on focusing on an object in a remote location, opening a portal, and bringing it to you. So let’s start out by grounding ourselves, and then we’ll begin.”

  It didn’t take long for me to realize I was going to have some trouble grounding my energy. After what we’d just talked about, I couldn’t seem to focus. Images of what the solstice might be like kept coming to mind and I would have to push them away again. I was pretty sure that Adriana could tell, because it took me longer than usual to center myself.

  “All set?” I heard her ask.

  “I think so,” I said, feeling the energy surging through my body.

  “Okay. I want you to think of something in your room. Don’t make it too hard. Choose something that’s in a very obvious place.”

  I pictured my hair brush on the bathroom counter. “Okay, got it,” I said.

  “Now build your power while continuing to focus on the object.”

  Moments later I heard a thunk. I opened my eyes. My brush had landed right at my feet!

  “Excellent, Maya! That was great, really great!” Adriana wrapped her arms around me.

  “Yeah, not bad.” I had to admit it, it was pretty awesome. I hadn’t expected to get it on the first try.

  “Tomorrow, you get to move you,” she said.

  That sent chills down my back. We practiced for a while longer, but we were interrupted when my cell started to ring. I picked it up and looked at it. “It’s my dad,” I said. “I need to take this.”

  Adriana nodded and left the porch.

  “Hey, Dad!”

  “Hi, honey! How are you? How’s the trip?”

  “It’s been just…really, really busy. And exciting! I’m so sorry for not trying to call you more.”

  “It’s fine, sweetheart. Rosa has called a couple of times when you’ve been on day trips to let me know that things are okay.” Yes! Way to go, Grandma!

  “It’s been…a real experience, Dad. I’m so glad you let me come.”

  “That’s great, Maya. Listen, I’m pulling into the lot on campus. Make sure you take lots of pictures and stay safe.”

  “I will. I really miss you, Dad.”

  “Miss you too, honey. Bye-bye.”

  Man, was he in for a shock when I had no pictures of my long-lost Mayan relatives to share when I got home. I still felt so guilty about lying to him, and I knew that there was a possibility that he would never trust me again. The fact that Grandma knew and he didn’t was going to make it all even harder for him to swallow. All I could hope for was that he would understand that I really had no choice. It wasn’t like there was an understudy or some kind of alternate waiting to take my place. I was it. (You lucky world, you!)

  After a minute, I headed inside and met the twins in the kitchen to start dinner. Since Ana was gone, it had been decided that we were all going to pair up and cook one night a week. That gave poor Alma some well-earned down time. Tonight I wanted to put together something really great. I guess I still felt partly responsible for what had happened with Ana. Don’t ask me why.

  “Okay, chef,” Damian said, “what are we cooking tonight?”

  “Pasta with homemade sauce, salad, and garlic bread.”

  “You’re making the sauce?” Lyssa asked.

  “It’s not as hard as it sounds.”

  “What’s for dessert?” Matt asked, coming up behind me and kissing my mark.

  “I had Liam pick up some churros in Valladolid this morning.”

  “Hmm, not what I had in mind,” Matt said.

  “Oh, for cripes sake, go take a shower,” Lyssa said.

  “And make it a cold one!” I called for good measure. Yeesh.

  The cooking went faster than I had planned. With both twins helping out with the basics, I was able to concentrate on the sauce. And cooking was totally changing my mood. It wasn’t just that I enjoyed it. It seemed to have a very soothing effect on my nerves. It really took me out of my head. And with all the time I spent in there, that could only be a good thing.

  “You put carrots in spaghetti sauce?” Lyssa asked. She was chopping up veggies for the salad.

  “Don’t question the master,” Damian said.

  “It’s my secret ingredient,” I told her. “Some fine shavings help to balance the acidity of the tomato.”

  “But don’t tell anyone,” Damian whispered very dramatically. “’Cause then she’d have to kill you.”

  I raised my wooden spoon with equal drama. “All right, you goofs, let’s get the table set. Round one is due in any time.”

  I always knew that I could cook, and obviously the shifters didn’t get treated to Italiano every day, but the compliments on the sauce were awesome.

  “Well, I really had a lot of help,” I said, flushing. “And the fresh vegetables from Alma’s garden really put it over the top,” I added, giving her a big smile. When I looked across the table and caught Cesar staring at me, I blushed all over again. After dinner, we all ate our churros. We had a blast dipping the long cinnamon pastry sticks into the rich chocolate sauce. That was the most fun I’d had preparing and eating a meal in a long time.

  As head chef, I wasn’t in charge of cleanup, so I decided to take a walk. The truth was, getting the chance to cook like that again made me miss Dad. I thought about how I had lied to him about coming to Mexico with Grandma and wondered what would happen to him if things didn’t go well on the solstice. Who would take care of him? It wasn’t something I really wanted to think about, so I tried to push it out of my mind.

  I walked through the garden in the darkness, letting the lovely fragrances surround and fill me as I thought about what Adriana and I had talked about. Of course, I was still worried, even with Balam lending me his strength, but I was coming to understand something. As I looked back on our conversation, I realized that all of these plans had taken years. First, it had taken them years to find me. Then they had all watched over me and protected me. And they were continuing to do that as they taught me how to use my spirit magic. They all believed in me, all of them. And I wasn’t going to let them down by not believing in myself. Not anymore.

  As I moved between two papaya trees, I saw a shadow moving off to my right.

  Matt. “Dishes done already?” I asked. I thought I heard him coming up behind me.

  And that’s when they hit me.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  I woke up totally disoriented and with a headache that made me nauseous and gave me fuzzy vision. And then a voice I recognized broke through my muddy senses.

  “Maya, here, drink some of this.”

  “Victrixa?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry about your head. You may have a slight concussion. They were supposed to have used ether, but they panicked. Neanderthals. You have quite a bump on your head. It’s all right, though. Drink this. It will help with the pain.”

  “Where am I?” I whispered. Anything louder threatened to make my head explode.

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that,” she said.
“The less you know the better. But you have a regular bed, a table and a chair. And your own bathroom. There’s also a very small refrigerator with some snacks and bottles of water. But, please, Maya, don’t make trouble. If you’re a model prisoner, we’ll release you after the solstice.”

  I drank what she gave me without a fuss, mostly because I figured it would either help my headache or kill me. Either way, the damn headache would be gone.

  “Lay back now and get some rest,” she said. “In a few hours, I’ll have a meal sent down.”

  I lay back against the cool pillow. I was on what seemed to be a twin-sized bed. When I heard the clinking of keys and metal bars, I groaned. I was so screwed. I just lay there on the bed, waiting for the medicine to work. Slowly, very slowly, the pain began to ease and I was able to drift into an uneasy sleep.

  ~ ~ ~

  “So—you want something to eat, or what?”

  I opened my eyes and immediately noticed that my vision was almost completely clear. I looked up just in time to see Ana unlocking the door to my cell.

  “Seems to me I’ve seen you somewhere before,” I said.

  “The princess speaks. Here’s your dinner, your heinous.” She walked across the room and set a plate down on the table, along with a glass of something.

  “I don’t get it,” I said. “Why would you turn against us like that? Against your own mother?”

  “Alma? You’ve got to be kidding.” She gave a laugh that sounded like a bark. “You know, for someone who is supposedly so important, you’re not the cleverest cat in the jungle are you?” She walked out of my tiny cell and locked the door behind her.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

  “Do I resemble Alma at all? Can you think of a single thing where we’re alike?”

  It wasn’t like I hadn’t noticed it. There were the differences in height and personality, but I just figured she had a really tall father. Actually, now that I had seen the two together, she resembled….

  I gasped. “You’re Victrixa’s daughter!”

  “Took you long enough.”

  “But…but, how?”

  “Victrixa’s people found out that Alma was looking for an older child to adopt. Victrixa saw it as the perfect opportunity and made arrangements for me to be adopted by Alma when I was ten.” And that was it. She said it just like that. Then she turned and walked up the stairs.

  God, I thought, Victrixa gave up her own daughter? At first it seemed incredible to me, until I remembered that it wasn’t so different from what my loser-mom had done to me. It seemed pretty clear that Ana disliked—no, she probably hated me. She practically vibrated with anger. But who wouldn’t hate the reason their own mother had handed them over to a stranger? How the hell do you deal with that?

  I stood and looked around my little cell. It looked like it had once been a cellar of some kind, with a tile floor and the walls made of stone. Not a normal place to find, say, a prison cell with its own bathroom. I figured it had to have been built specially for me. And I was so honored, let me tell you.

  I turned to the little table and looked at my meal. It was just normal, everyday Yucatan cuisine. Hopefully, it wasn’t poisoned, though, because I was starving and chowed it all down. Then I picked up the glass of cloudy liquid. I recognized it as the same drink I’d been given for the headache. I left it on the table, walked over to the mini-fridge and opened it. Fruit, tortilla chips and salsa, coconut candy, Takis (which are like rolled up corn chips that taste like tacos. Sounds weird, but, whoa, are they good!). There was bottled water, even some Canel’s gum (Lyssa’s hands-down Mexican favorite). They weren’t trying to starve me to death, that’s for sure. I took a bottle of water out and closed the door.

  I sat down on the bed and tried to wrap my head around this new (and more than slightly disturbing) situation. I noticed that there was a clock on the little table next to the bed. It was after six o’clock, which meant that I had been missing from the compound for almost twenty-four hours. I waited for someone to come down into the cellar to take my tray. That didn’t happen until nine o’clock. Once the tray was taken away by some guy who pretended that I didn’t exist, the lights went off.

  “Looks like there’s a curfew,” I said to no one in particular.

  I decided to take advantage of the dark. I sat on the bed with my legs crossed and started to center myself. I had never tried to eavesdrop on anyone from this far away before, but I hoped it would work. I grounded my energy and focused hard on the compound.

  “It’s been twenty-four hours!” Matt was yelling at Richard. “We have to do something!”

  They were standing in his and Adriana’s bedroom. “Look, we have everyone possible working on it. We can’t do anything until we find out where Toltec is hiding her.”

  “Maybe they’re not hiding her,” Matt said, his voice breaking. His eyes welled up.

  “We’re going to find her,” Richard said, “I promise you.”

  “You can’t lose hope,” Adriana said, walking into the bedroom and laying one hand on Matt’s shoulder.

  “I’m gonna go see if there’s any news,” he said, tearing out of the room.

  Richard watched him go and shook his head. “This isn’t good. We only have five days until the solstice,” he said.

  “Is that all you care about? She could be dead, Richard! That innocent, beautiful, brave, young woman could be dead. And Matt. It’s already starting. You know how bad it could get for him. He’s her mate. And he followed her into the phase, for God’s sake. He could completely lose it being away from her like this, not knowing whether or not she’s alive.”

  Richard walked behind her and shut the door to their room.

  “Keep your voice down, Adri. Listen, we can’t fall apart. We don’t have that luxury. We are the only thing holding everyone else together, especially Matt.” He placed his hands on Adriana’s shoulders. “We are going to find h—”

  A loud noise above my head made me lose my concentration. I couldn’t get it back. I realized I had tears streaming down my face. The idea that Matt thought I might be dead was unbearable to me. And what did they mean when they said he could “lose it”? I sat in the dark on my bed, my eyes closed, just leaning against the wall. I had to do something. Find a way to let them know that I was alive. But I couldn’t let Toltec know that I was using my magic. Whatever I did, it would have to be at night in secret. I slid down the wall and lay flat on the bed. I drifted in and out of a restless sleep most of the night.

  I woke up the next morning to find my breakfast on the table and some clean clothing folded on the chair. There were just a few pairs of shorts, some T-shirts, and a package of new underwear. There was also a sweatshirt, which I was really thankful for. It was much cooler below ground than it was above. I ate breakfast and headed into the bathroom for a shower. It was small, with just a sink, toilet, and a shower. But the water was almost hot, and I let it run down my back as I thought about how I could let everyone at the compound know I was okay. For now, anyway.

  I was sure that if I could use telepathy to see what was happening back at the compound, then it would be pretty easy to do the same here. I might even be able to overhear some of Toltec’s plans. The real question was whether or not they could find out that I was doing it. I wasn’t convinced it was worth the risk. Victrixa said that they intended to let me go after the solstice, but I wondered if I could trust anything she said. She seemed sincere enough, but, then again, she had tricked me into believing she was my mentor without even breaking a sweat.

  I came out of the bathroom to find Ana picking up my breakfast dishes.

  “I see my clothes fit you,” she said. “You better make sure nothing happens to those.”

  I decided to be polite. “Thank you,” I said.

  “Whatever.”

  “So, it was you who was working dark spirit magic to try and kill me, and now you’re lending me clothes?”

  “Just following orders,” she gr
unted, wiping off the table.

  “You seem to have some kind of personal issue with me. Care to share?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t give a crap about you. I just want this whole effing thing over with so I can get on with my life.” She walked out, locked my cell, turned, and walked up the stairs.

  “Okay, then,” I said, heading back into the bathroom. There was no way I was going to be able to wait ten more hours to check in with the compound. I closed the bathroom door, put down the lid of the toilet and sat down. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit, but I was able to cross my legs. Within minutes, my mind was with Matt, Lyssa, and Damian in Lyssa’s bedroom.

  “I keep thinking that if I only knew she was still alive, you know?” Matt said. He looked like he needed a shave, and he had dark circles under his red eyes.

  “You need to sleep, Matt,” Lyssa said. “You can’t keep going out there with the search parties with no rest.”

  Damian spoke up. “I’ve been thinking....”

  “Here we go,” Lyssa groaned.

  “And I really think the odds are in her favor.”

  “What do you mean?” Matt asked.

  “They don’t need to kill her to accomplish their goal. All they need to do is keep her away from Chichen Itza on the solstice.”

  Lyssa nodded. “Unless they think she’s just too powerful to keep around.”

  “I can’t deal with this,” Matt said before she could say anything else. “I’m sorry, you guys, I know you’re trying to help. But I just can’t sit here and talk abou—”

  Suddenly a searing pain went through my chest, breaking my connection. Gasping, I opened my eyes. It was Matt. I could feel his anguish. Oh, God, he was in so much pain. I burst into tears, rocking back and forth on the toilet seat. Then, just when I thought I couldn’t stand it another second, the pain eased, leaving nothing but a pit of emptiness inside me. He’d gone from pain to despair. And, slowly, from that point on, my panic began to grow. I had to get a message to them somehow. And then I had to figure a way out of there.