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“Inti Raymi is the day after tomorrow.” Ali finally spoke.

Santiago’s insides cramped. “I know,” he answered, just as quietly.

“We’ll find what we’re looking for in the morning,” she said, so self-assured that Santiago had no choice but to stare at her again. If only he had a fraction of her confidence.

“What if we don’t?” he asked. “What if we can’t find anything?”

“We will,” she repeated.

“How do you know?”

“Because you’ve led us this far,” she said, tilting her head and regarding him solemnly. “Because you’re brilliant. I’ve never met anyone who could do the things you do. You’ll get us where we need to be. I know it.”

She reached out to him. But this time, she didn’t rest her hand on his leg. She slid it into his own, warm and smooth against his palm.

“I don’t think I’ve been the one leading us,” he admitted. “You’re the one who got us to Lima, then Cajamarca. You hacked our way through uninhabited jungle. You figured out the last clue.”

She smiled at that.

“And you protected us from pumas,” Santiago joked.

She laughed.

“I have never in my life met someone like you, Ali. You’re like something out of a dream.” Santiago would have been embarrassed of his words, had they not been so radically true.

He heard her quick inhale, through parted lips.

Santiago leaned into her, called by her scent and her skin and her mouth. Gods, her mouth. He dipped closer to her, and Ali’s eyes fluttered shut.

What are you doing? he asked himself, remembering the last time he thought they might kiss. You’re reading into things that aren’t there. You’re wrong.

You’re making a fool of yourself.

Quickly, he pulled back, practically bolting upright.

“We should head in,” he said, motioning to their tents. His chest ached with embarrassment and want, all mixed up in a confusing bundle of heat. “We have an early morning.”

Ali stared at him with disbelief. Then she shook her head with a scoff.

“Yeah, sure.” She stood, stiff as a boulder, and didn’t look at him as she prowled away.

Ridiculous. He heard his own voice inside his head.

Earlier, Santiago thought he had lost Ali. That he would never see her again. And he risked everything to find her. If he could brave that, why couldn’t he fight past his own self-doubt? She was worth rappelling down a mountain for. She was worth it all.

Santiago took a deep breath.

“Ali, wait.”

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Ali stopped, and Santiago watched her muscles tense. He thought for a moment that she would ignore him, stalk into her tent, and leave him there alone. Finally, mercifully, she turned.

When their eyes met, hers weren’t angry. No, he recognized that spark. She watched him now the same way she had watched the stars last night.

Every part of Santiago’s body tingled with electric current. The same one that coursed through him every time she was near. One that demanded he touch her.

He decided not to fight it anymore.