Page 46 of Sins of Leo

She gulped and hugged her pack tighter.

“Done. Now this next bit might be cold and disorienting. Don’t panic. Remember, I’ve got you.”

Ruth nodded, her throat too tight to speak. She tried to forget what he’d said about Scorpio messing up his calculations and arriving naked. What if Leo also screwed up and ended up losing her in the transition?

The air became charged, heavy, then intensely cold. A brightness enveloped her, and she opened her mouth to scream, only nothing emerged.

Darkness hit next, thick and cloying, terrifying, especially since she wasn’t alone in it.

A voice said,And so the quest for the second piece begins.

CHAPTER 14

Starbeaming didn’t affect Leo,unless exhilaration counted. Then again, his body had been adapted for such a feat. Not so for Buttercup.

He arrived sitting in the shallows of a stream with his clothes on and pack still on his back. While Ruth also retained her garments, she hung limp in his arms.

Normal, he reminded himself, squashing his panic. It happened all the time to the fully human. Still, his concern had him quickly rising with her in his arms and slogging to the shoreline. A small canoe lay beached, inside it, fishing line and a net. Luckily no one appeared to be around to question their sudden appearance.

Given the beaten path from the beach leading into the woods, the village had to be nearby. He headed in that direction and had almost reached the tree line when a woman, her skin lightly tanned and her hair long and flowing, stepped out of the forest, startling him.

“Hello, stranger. You seem lost,” she stated with only a hint of an accent.

“Um, yeah. My car broke down.”

“And you fell in the stream?” she asked with a quirked brow.

“Slipped getting us some water,” his quick lie.

Her gaze went to the limp Ruth in his arms. “Your companion appears unwell.”

“She fainted at the sight of a spider.” A lame excuse but the woman smiled wider.

“They can be quite large in these parts.”

“I’m looking for Astriaco. Is it nearby?”

“Lucky for you, it’s not far. Follow me, I will take you there.”

Leo, hesitated, though, remembering the warning from Olivia. “No need. I’m sure we’ll find it on our own. I don’t want to take you out of your way.”

“I was going there anyhow, since that’s where I’m staying.”

The still-unconscious Ruth made him decide to ignore the warning in his dream. “If it’s no trouble.”

“Not at all.” The woman set off, and he trailed her, asking, “Is everyone in these parts so friendly with strangers?”

“Why wouldn’t we be? We don’t often get visitors. Are you here on business or pleasure?”

“A bit of both. My wife”—it slipped out and yet didn’t feel wrong—“had her father go missing in these parts many years ago. I offered to bring her so she could gain some closure.”

“How sad, and yet all too common. The jungle can be a dangerous place.”

“I’ve heard rumors claiming there’s some haunted spots.” He didn’t mention the door in the hopes of drawing the woman out.

“This is a place steeped in history, and some of that echoes even today.” The woman offered him a sly glance. “Her father wouldn’t be the first to disappear seeking out those mysteries of the past.”

“I’m Leo, by the way.”

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