He gave the signal, and the teams of two split off into the surrounding jungle, whooping and yelling like foxes on a hunt. I stomped off without waiting for Amador, determined to get as far away from her as possible. I didn’t care about winning the game. I just wanted to go…anywhere.
But Amador hurried after me, determined to keep up.
We broke into the jungle in a random direction, and themoment I did, my thoughts settled like a concrete block in my mind. I was running out of time, and I might not be able to appreciate the world around me. Yara had talked about never feeling the sand under her toes or the waves on her legs. I might never be able to walk on my own two legs again in a few days.
I couldn’t appreciate the beauty of the jungle anymore. I knew it was all green and lush and vibrant, but my mood had turned my world into gray. I stumbled upon a small path, instinctually followed it, and then turned abruptly off it, throwing us deeper into the trees. No matter how far I walked, I couldn’t stop thinking about Yara. I couldn’t stop thinking that what had happened to her would happen to me.
Lucas had mentioned the lady of the mountain was a ghost. Was that what Yara had become? Was she stuck in this realm, haunting it, like the stories said? Spirits couldn’t move on if they had unfinished business, so was she angry that she’d been forgotten by history? Was she trying to ask for help, or was she warning me? It still felt like I was missing something—some clue—but I didn’t know what.
All that was around us were green vines and even greener ferns. As we walked deeper into the jungle, I tried to make sure that whenever I pushed aside a branch, it would snap back and hit Amador. She’d huff and groan, and I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the back of my head.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Amador asked, the sound of her crashing through the underbrush coming from behind me.
“No,” I said. “I’m intentionally trying to get us lost.”
“Well, great job!”
I bit my tongue to stop myself from snapping back, but something moved out of the corner of my eye. Long black hair, whipping through the breaks in the trees. At first, I almost thought it was my imagination. But I froze, goose bumps rising on my arms.
“Did you see that?” I asked.
“What?” Amador followed my line of sight, but whatever it was had disappeared. She scrunched up her nose, annoyed. “Whatever. Let’s turn around,” she said. “I’m tired of being bug food.”
I rubbed my arms, trying to soothe myself, but it was so creepy. I knew I hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep, and I must have been imagining things.
But then I saw it again. Farther away this time but moving just as fast. Long hair, smooth like silk. A woman. She vanished into the trees. It could only be one person.
The lady of the mountain. Yara Liliana.
I ran after her, Amador trailing behind me. She called my name, but I ignored her. I charged through the underbrush, breathing hard. If there was a way I could speak with Yara, I had to try. I had to know what happened to her.
To my right, I saw her again. I even heard her laugh, light and melodic. She had to be real.
I changed direction and hurried after her, and Yara’s name stuck in my throat. I couldn’t lose her.
Amador caught up to me, but I didn’t think she could see Yara. “What are you doing? What did you see?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to be wrong. I didn’t want to feel like I was losing my mind any more than I already was.
I kept running, then spotted her again. Her arm was wrapped around a tree, her hand tracing down the bark as if she was circling it. I rushed to the other side of the tree, expecting to see her, but there was nothing but a patch of moss.
Yara was gone.
Amador crashed through the jungle, gasping and groaning. “What’s gotten into you?”
I didn’t answer. My chest felt too tight, and my eyes stung. I was chasing a ghost, and no matter how hard I tried, I’d never be able to reach her.
Suddenly, Amador gasped, and it made me jump. She pointed to our right, where I, too, saw a flash of pink behind all that green. “There!” she said.
I charged into the underbrush, and sure enough, there was an entire bush of the pink azaleas. Amador burst through the foliage next to me, leaves stuck in her hair, and a wild and hungry gleam in her eye. She was competitive, that was for sure.
Had Yara led us here? I looked around, but she was still nowhere to be seen.
Amador picked up one of the flowers and put it to her nose. I caught its smell, too—the faintest whiff of steel, the sharp tang as familiar as his palm on my cheek. It smelled just like Lucas, but in the next instant, the scent was replaced by notes of bergamot. That couldn’t be right, could it? How could a single flower smell like two different people?
“It’s perfect,” Amador sighed. “Roses and mint.”
Was that what Lucas smelled like to her? I was about to ask, but something on the forest floor stole my focus. At first, I thoughtit was just a root, but the line was too straight to be natural. And then I saw another. Then another, and another. All crisscrossing in perpendicular lines. Amador stepped toward them.
