Page 102 of The Lost Guardian

“The next clue?” Santiago asked, perking up.

Ali shook her head regretfully. “Sorry, not the clue, but something pretty great anyway.”

Something great?

“Rios, if you had one wish right now, what would it be?” she asked, her voice oddly delighted.

I think I already used it, he thought, overwhelmed with the temptation to touch her again. And here you are.

“Well?” she demanded, poking him in the stomach.

“Um, I—I don’t know,” he stammered.

“Really? You haven’t been bugging me about anything since we got to Cajamarca?” she asked, backing away.

He followed her, rubbing his jaw with his hand as he thought.

Ali grinned. “You have no idea?”

He shrugged. She was here! She was all right! What more could he want?

“In that case, I guess these will be of no interest to you?” she asked, pulling him around a boulder.

The heat and humidity increased tenfold. And the fog was back, but it was different somehow.

Then Santiago realized it wasn’t fog at all.

It was steam. His knees grew weak.

“Hot springs?” He gaped.

“Just like the Inca Baths in Cajamarca,” she confirmed. “Except without all the tourists!”

“I don’t believe it!” Santiago said, inching forward.

Could you see mirages in the jungle?

But they were indeed hot springs. And where the thermal baths in Cajamarca were man-made—amazingly, by civilizations that predated the Inca—these were natural and untouched.

There were several springs scattered around the surrounding area. Some were no bigger than a puddle, while others stretched long and wide and shallow. One spring, however, looked like an oversize hot tub, large enough for two. Santiago walked toward it and held his hand just over the surface.

“Well?” Ali asked expectantly.

Carefully, Santiago touched the water. When it didn’t burn, he plunged his arm in and grinned. The spring was hot, but not dangerously so.

“Perfect,” he said.

Ali matched his smile, dropping her pack and abandoning her overshirt. Then, to Santiago’s shock, she began pulling off her pants.

“Uh,” he choked out, turning away to give her privacy. “We can take turns, of course.”

“Don’t be silly!” Ali answered, and he heard water splashing and then a deep, satisfied sigh. “I just fell down a damn mountain. I need this. Besides, we don’t have time to waste taking turns. This thing is big enough for the both of us.”

Santiago hesitated, warring with himself.

“And it feels amazing,” she added with a soft moan.

Heat that had nothing to do with the curling steam around him saturated Santiago’s skin, prickles of awareness running up and down his flesh.