She waited until the path widened enough for him to walk beside her again. “All he said was that the vultures had been sent to act as protectors during the rebirth.”
“Whose rebirth?”
“He didn’t know, but he thought maybe you might have that answer.”
Quint cursed. “Let’s just hope it’s not any of ours.”
“Yeah.” She caught his hand and squeezed it. “I’m worried about you, Quint. About what all this means.” She glanced behind again before adding, “I shouldn’t have brought everyone to this place. If anything happens to you or Dad or anyone else …” She paused to duck a thorny branch dangling in the way. “This is all my fault for being so obsessed with honoring Mom’s reputation and trying to elevate it to new heights.”
“You love her. It makes sense that you want to make the worldsee how wonderfully smart and amazing she was.”
She sent a smirk his way. “Are you saying that because you mean it, or because you think Mom might be listening in and you want to earn some brownie points?”
He chuckled. “Listen, I get that you have lasting resentment for some of those in the archaeology field who tried to discredit her theories and smudge her reputation. With Marianne gone—well, sort of gone—you and your father are the only ones to take up a sword in her defense.”
“Does that mean you forgive me for lying about needing to cancel our trip due to work?”
“Mostly.” He pulled her his way to avoid a pair of wasps meandering past. “But I do wonder why.”
“Why what?”
“Why you lied.”
“For my mom, like we just discussed.”
“Yeah, I get that part, but why didn’t you tell me the truth about wanting to come here and find evidence to support her theory on the place? I think this goes deeper than that.”
He was right, it did, but now wasn’t the best time to go into that. The ruins were just ahead, and she didn’t want to bare her soul in the middle of the jungle in case tears came leaking out in the process.
“I think you don’t trust me,” he added, letting go of her hand.
“Quint, it’s not—” she started, only to be interrupted by the ruckus of something crashing through the thick vegetation to their right. Something much larger than a lizard or rat, from the sounds of it.
She stopped in her tracks, her heart taking off at a gallop. After the ghost stories of which she’d recently partaken in one way or another, it was a wonder the beating organ in her chest didn’t just keel over in a dead faint.
“What was that?” Quint asked, his machete out as he took a step toward the web of thorny brush and ferns cloaking the ground. “Did you hear any whispering?”
Whispering? What? She caught him by the elbow with both hands and tugged him back away from the brambles. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Then why are you trying to wring out my arm like a wet towel?”
“Sorry.” She let go. “I guess I’m spooked by the vultures and what they might mean.”
“You and me both, boss lady.”
Esteban and Bronko caught up with them.
“What’s going on?” Bronko asked, his hand on the butt of the pistol holstered at his waist.
“We heard something,” Quint said. “It sounded big.”
“Like human big?” Esteban asked, backing up a step.
“It was probably just a cat,” Angélica told him.
Bronko hit her with a squint of disbelief, which was no surprise. Clearly, he knew as well as she did that no other animals besides snakes, birds, and a few lizards had been seen so far inside the wall.
Esteban licked his lips nervously. “How much farther until we reach the ruins?” he asked in Spanish.
