Page 60 of The Lost Guardian

She even walks like a cat, he marveled to himself. Well, not like Leviathan.

Santiago rubbed his hand over the small pang in his chest. He always thought he’d bring his best friend on this trip, too. He was certain that Brooke was disappointed, back in Los Angeles, to have missed it.

Next time, he promised, turning his attention back to the woman at hand.

“You know, conquistador Cristóbal de Mena famously wrote that the emperor did not raise his hand at all but pointed to a white line near the ceiling, at a distance which ‘not even a tall man holding a palm branch could have reached,’” he said, pointing to the painting. “In either case, the wealth amassed for Atahualpa’s release would have been astronomical.”

“And if the stories of the Guardianes are true, the Spanish didn’t keep a single cent of it,” Ali said. Then she motioned toward the inner room that housed the ruin. “José says he’ll distract Bianca, but we’ll have to hurry before more tourists come in.”

The main body of the building was an open courtyard with a rust-colored wooden walkway and thick white ropes encircling the Ransom Room. The “room” itself wasn’t very large, about eleven feet wide and seven feet long, constructed with heavy stone slabs.

They walked up the modern steps, and Santiago’s hands trailed the rope barrier that divided him from the infamous piece of history. He approached the structure reverently, the pull of antiquity acting as a direct line between himself and his ancestors.

Without intending it, Santiago’s hand came to rest above his heart. He savored the feeling, something warm and welcome expanding inside his chest.

Awe.

It’s magical. Santi smiled.

Then his blood chilled. Because, for a moment there, he was almost enchanted enough to believe. And if magic was real, then Atahualpa’s curse…

Santiago shook the thought from his head. He was no hero. He was a scholar.

“The bottom layer of stone you see here,” he soothed himself, his voice nearly a whisper as he pointed toward the foundation. Ali’s gaze flicked to the temple’s base. “That’s the stone of the mountain itself. They didn’t dig down into the earth; they shaped the palace around the original rock.”

His gaze trailed up to what remained of the building. “The rest of it, these oversize brick pieces, were all carved by hand and stacked on top of one another. No mortar or adhesive was used to hold the pieces together. Instead, they carved divots and protrusions into the surface of each block. They hooked onto each other, keeping it all together.”

Abruptly, he clamped his lips shut.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I know I can ramble on when I’m passionate about something.”

“Why are you sorry?” Ali asked, her head tilting slightly in curiosity. “It’s fascinating.”

If Santiago had harbored an innocent crush before, those words slammed him into dangerously enchanted territory.

His heart tumbled out of his chest and landed like a puddle at her feet. He tried to keep the emotion off his face, but he feared he was all of two seconds away from gazing at her adoringly.

Swallowing hard, he turned to her.

19

“Ali…”

But before he could continue, the murmurs and giggles of a large group drifted in from the front room where they had entered. José rushed in, his face drawn.

“A group of schoolchildren is here,” he said, vaulting over a barricade to reach them quicker. “A class trip.”

“That’s all right,” Santiago assured him, grateful that he had interrupted them. He wasn’t sure what he had been planning to say to Ali, but it would likely only have embarrassed him. “We can wait until they leave.”

“No,” José said, pulling them around toward the back of the structure. “It’s not just them. I saw the gunmen from my office behind them. They’ve figured out the clue.”

Santiago could actually feel the blood drain from his face.

“You two go in,” Ali whispered. “I’ll keep guard and distract them for as long as I can.”

“We can’t just—” Santi argued, motioning to the flimsy barrier that kept him from the room. “There’s a reason they don’t let people in there. It can cause structural degradation!”

“Are you joking? This is literally what we’ve come here to do.” Ali shoved him toward José, who was already crossing the threshold. “Hurry, go!”