Page 122 of The Lost Guardian

“No one else would hire me!” Ali protested. “And the work wasn’t that bad at first. Some pickpocketing, conning tourists. It’s not like they didn’t have money to spare. They practically expected it! A harrowing travel story to tell when they got back to their comfortable, ordinary lives.”

“How generous of you to provide them with it,” Santiago said.

“I know it wasn’t right,” she snapped. “But it was how Naya and I survived. And I wasn’t hurting anyone. Not really. I had no idea Torres was that bad. I did small thefts, then a few mid-size jobs, and I didn’t ask questions.”

“And then you got promoted to huaquero. A grave robber?” Santiago’s voice was loud, so loud, but he didn’t feel in control of his body. “A Huáscaro? Congratulations.”

“I’m not.” Ali shook her head. “I swear, I don’t raid graves, and I don’t rob tombs. I sell the occasional item on the black market, and how those items are acquired, I’ve never cared to ask. And as for this.” She motioned toward the tattoo, then winced at the effort. “Torres likes his people to be united in something. I’ve never cared one way or the other which pampered son of a long-dead monarch took power.”

Santiago didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry. Both, likely. So she wasn’t a cult religious fanatic. As if that made it better.

“I would never deliberately put anyone in danger, and I wouldn’t hurt anyone who wasn’t trying to hurt me,” she said quietly. “This is my first field mission. You have to believe me.”

He didn’t.

“But you knew what Torres’s men did to my grandfather,” he said. The despair weighing down Santiago’s bones fueled his rage. “They killed him. You told me yourself, Ali.”

“I didn’t know! Not at first. I swear, I didn’t know.” Slowly, Ali slipped her shirt back over her head. Santiago felt a twinge of discomfort watching her struggle with the armholes, but he let her.

She managed it, and the tattoo was covered again.

It was still there, though. Santiago had seen it. He could still see it, behind the fabric of her top. Mocking him.

Ali sighed. “By the time I found out what kind of man Torres was, I was in too deep. They were desperate for your grandfather’s key. They told me that if I couldn’t get it, they would kill us both. What was I supposed to do?”

Santiago shook his head.

“And I had no idea about the curse! All I knew was that Torres wanted Atahualpa’s treasure. I thought it was harmless. Relatively harmless,” she amended when Santiago raised his brows. “You and I weren’t even supposed to be here. I was just meant to get the chakana. Then it opened, and there was the map and the riddles…” Her voice trailed off.

“What?” Santiago hated her for making him ask.

“And Torres ordered me to help you find it. He knew Leo and Mario wouldn’t be able to,” she admitted quietly.

“Then why are they after us?” Santiago demanded. “They’ve been shooting at us! Why would they, if you’re working for the same man?”

Ali winced at his words. “Torres made it a competition,” she said. “Whoever could get him to the tomb first would get a percentage of the treasure.”

Money. It was all for money, Santiago thought bitterly.

Something else occurred to him then. And he wasn’t sure why it mattered more than everything else he’d learned that day, but it did. His broken heart bled inside him.

“You didn’t know my grandfather at all, did you?” He wanted it confirmed. “He never sent you to help me.”

Ali didn’t answer, and that was answer enough.

“You’ve been playing me this whole time.” Santiago’s voice was barely a whisper.

“Not the whole time,” she answered just as softly.

Images of their night together flashed through his brain. The way she’d whispered his name. How she’d curled into him after. Her hair against his cheek, the breath of her laughter on his neck.

He felt sick.

“Not all of it was a lie,” Ali insisted, as if reading his mind.

“No. Don’t.” Santiago took one step back from her, then another. “Don’t try that. I may be naive, and you may have tricked me, and you may have even made me think that you, that I…”

He gritted his teeth.