Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Los Angeles, California

4 Years Earlier

ZO JUMPED WHEN the knock came at her apartment door. The moment of reckoning was at hand.

Taking a deep breath, she smoothed her palms over her gray trousers and went to open the door. It was a reflex that had her checking the peephole, but she knew who was there—her parents.

She looked around, but everything was neat and clean. It had been a different story when Mari had lived here—her stuff had been everywhere—but that had been before she'd returned home to Puerto Jardin. The knock came again, louder this time, and Zo grimaced. She couldn't delay any longer.

She had to take another deep breath before she could reach for the doorknob. "Mom, Dad, this is a surprise." Not really, but Zo had expected them to phone before flying from Boston to LA .

They entered, her father carrying an overnight bag, so at least her parents hadn't come prepared to lay siege. She closed the door, locking it behind them, and turned. They stood side by side near the couch, and Zo couldn't decide who looked the most displeased.

"I didn't expect you to fly in," she said.

"You left a voicemail to tell us you'd dropped out of your PhD program," her dad said. "Of course, we're going to come to Los Angeles and find out what you're thinking."

"We talked to the department, Zofia," her mom said. "They're willing to change your request to a leave of absence if you need time off. There's no shame in taking a break."

Of course, they'd talked to the department. "As I mentioned in my message, I have a job with the Paladin League."

Her parents shared a look. "Owen, why don't you put the bag in our room."

Or, as Zo thought of it, Marianna's room. They'd shared the two-bedroom, two-bath apartment while they'd worked on their graduate programs, but with her friend's departure, no one used the second suite except her parents.

"Zofia, let's sit and talk."

She stiffened before nodding. Reluctantly, Zo gave up her position near the door. Escaping was a fantasy anyway. Her mom had settled in the middle of the couch, which left Zo no choice about putting space between them.

As soon as she was seated, her mom took her hand. "Robert said you ended your relationship with him. You don't have to drop out of school merely because the two of you had a falling out. He might be an assistant professor, but you can complete your doctorate without encountering him."

"Robert and I didn't have an argument. I broke things off because there was no point in pretending he would ever be more than a friend." And not a close friend, either. He didn't understand her in the least. "I left school because I was offered a job at the Paladin League, which interests me."

Her mother frowned. "The Paladin League's grants do a lot of good, but you can do so much more as a field archaeologist, or as a professor. You could inspire the next generation of archaeologists. Think about that."

Zo took a deep breath. "I don't enjoy teaching—that's your calling. That's Dad's calling. I don't want to become a professor and deal with the politics of academia. That's not me."

"That's nonsense." Her mom squeezed her hand. "You handle the politics perfectly. You have since you were a child. You're merely exhausted from so many years of schooling. Take a quarter or two off, give yourself a chance to recharge, and you'll feel differently."

Her mother wasn't listening to her. Again. Her parents had laid out their plans for her life for as long as she could remember, and resistance was futile.

"Everything settled?" her father asked as he returned to the living room.

"Zofia is going to take a leave for a couple of quarters, and then she'll return to finish her dissertation."

"Brilliant!" her father said with a smile. "I knew a face-to-face conversation would solve the issue."

Zo felt her pulse spike, and her throat tighten. It was tempting to agree—easier. She could work for the Paladin League while she was on leave. She could continue with her PhD and do her job at the League, too.

But it would only postpone the career argument.

She had a fear that if she went along with her parents now, she might wake up one day and discover she'd been a college professor for ten years and married Robert or someone like him. Zo couldn't allow that to happen.

"No," she said, but her parents didn't hear her over their congratulatory conversation with each other. She swallowed hard, gathered up her courage, and spoke again, more loudly this time. "No. No, I'm not taking a leave. No, I'm not going back to school. No, I'm not giving up a job that interests me so I can finish my doctorate and become a professor, which is something I dread."

There was a moment of stunned silence before both her parents spoke to her at once. Zo closed her eyes and realized that although they'd only brought an overnight bag, she might very well be under an indefinite siege unless she capitulated.

Huarona Ruins

Near San Isidro, Puerto Jardin

Present Day

DAYLIGHT brOUGHT dismay. Zo stood on the ridge overlooking the Huarona ruins. It had been a decade since her last visit, and while she'd meant to bring Finn and show him the site, they hadn't gotten around to it. Time was always short when they were in Puerto Jardin, and they both had friends in San Isidro to visit when they detoured south.

Zo scowled. Her vision of the Huarona city had been so clear in her mind that she never expected to see anything else. She should have known better.

The rainforest had reclaimed most of the ground that had been cleared while the archaeological team had worked here. She could see only a small fraction of the ruins and trees abutted the temple on three sides—the only open space was the front that faced the plaza, and even that was limited. To reach the step pyramid, she would need to use the machete and hack her way there—ten years of tree growth, ten years of bushes, and ten years of vines .

Now, what the hell could she do?

The pulsating sensation returned, and Zo gave in to the urge to take the Lost Disk—No, it wasn't lost any longer—to take the Disk of the Gods from her jacket. It seemed to warm at her touch, soothing her dismay. She ran the fingers of her free hand over the front of it.

The disk was beautiful, and not because of the gold.

As Se?or Ramos had said, there was a face in the center, but it seemed as if the man wore a helmet of some kind, one with a visor pushed up above the eyes. Surrounding the helmet were lines, circles, spirals, and zigzags that meant…something. Zo couldn't decipher the symbols, but she knew they were important.

The face, though, only filled the center. Around it was a half-inch border with more glyphs, ones much more elaborate and detailed than what was on the helmet. She recognized some of them from the stones in the ruins, but many of them were new to her.

No one had worked out the Huarona language or what the pictographs meant.

"What am I going to do with you?" she asked softly.

The vibration increased, and the disk began to glow. At that moment, she sensed power, something strong, something that would be dangerous in the wrong hands. "Don't worry," she whispered, feeling slightly silly, talking to a relic. "I'll protect you no matter what the risk. I know how important you are." A stronger humming sensation traveled through her fingers, and the illumination intensified.

She shook her head. Her imagination was getting the best of her. The disk glowed because of the angle of the sun, not because of some innate power. The buzz? Her imagination. She wasn't seven anymore. Magic didn't exist. There was no such thing as doorways to the world of the gods, and this was a ceremonial object, not the key to open a wormhole .

The sun shifted. Enough for the glow to stop, and the pulsing ended.

Giving the disk one last caress, Zo returned it to her jacket, and considered what lay ahead. The undergrowth wasn't going to disappear simply because she wished it would, and the temple truly was the best place to hide the artifact despite Al's familiarity with the interior.

No more delaying. Squaring her shoulders, she pulled the machete from its sheath and headed for the trail down to the ruins.

Zo relaxed her hold on the knife, automatically adjusting to grip it correctly. She could almost hear Se?or Garcia's voice in her head, telling her how to manage the blade to avoid blisters and also prevent herself from tiring quickly. The park where she and Finn had kissed was the older man's favorite project, and while others in town assisted, he had been tireless about keeping it clear. She'd helped him more than once.

The proper angle, the proper swing, came back to her. Whenever she saw an opening in the greenery big enough for her to squeeze through, she did that. There was no point in exhausting herself. Zo went around a break in the trees and nearly walked into a downed tree.

A downed tree with a snake sliding across it. She backed up a step and waited for it to slither away before she resumed her trek.

When her arm got tired, Zo took a few minutes to relax and have some water. It was too risky to swing the blade when she was fatigued. She checked the time on her fitness tracker and frowned. Cutting her way through the rainforest was taking forever. She had to move.

An eternity later, she spotted the long stone wall across her path. A closer look showed it was filled with carved faces. Closing her eyes, Zo envisioned the ruins she remembered from ten years ago. This was the wall her parents believed held likenesses of the Huarona leaders. She blew out a long, slow breath. It was near the temple, facing it at an angle, and it helped her get her bearings. The clearing was on the other side.

Zo slid the machete back in its sheath, but instead of entering the plaza, she stuck to the cover the foliage gave her until she reached the other end of the wall. Edging forward, she studied the ground that lay before her. It was fifty yards, maybe sixty, to the temple, and it remained mostly free of vegetation, although there was a stray bush here or there. She looked up at the towering pyramid. The sky was heavy and gray, the mist hanging low—monsoon season in the rainforest.

Damn. She wanted to reach the entrance to the temple before it started raining. Even she wasn't crazy enough to try to climb up or down a wet, slippery rock stairway. She took another glance at the clouds, but she couldn't guess when the sky would open up. She'd have to start ascending the stairs and hope she made it in time.

She took a step away from the wall but froze when she heard voices headed her direction. Right now, they were behind her and far enough off her track that they were unlikely to see the trail she'd left with her machete. Ramos' men. It had to be them.

The entire side of the pyramid was exposed. She couldn't attempt those stairs now—she'd be seen immediately. They could pick her off, climb to her body, and take the disk off her corpse.

They were close. She could hear them complaining. The good news was it was abundantly clear they had no more skill than she had at wilderness things. The bad news was they were gaining fast, and she needed to move her ass now.

Zo turned and darted back into the growth behind her. It wasn't thick enough to conceal her well, but she kept moving, trying to be quiet until she could reach an area full of greenery.

She was going to have to hide the disk in the rainforest, whether she liked it or not. And she was going to need to be able to find it again. Here, close to the ruins, was probably the safest option. Looking around, she tried to find somewhere recognizable.

Suddenly, a bullet gouged out a portion of the tree trunk next to her shoulder, and Zo took off running.