Page 60 of Sins of Leo

“It’s a baby cut,” he chided as he pressed the bloody wound to the stone—to no effect.

Before he could ask, she moaned, “Let me guess, my turn to donate plasma.”

“You don’t have to.”

“But if I don’t, then we won’t know if it works. The longer this takes, the longer before I can get out of this godforsaken jungle,”she grumbled. She held out her arm and looked away. “Make it quick before I lose my nerve.”

He only made the tiniest of nicks, but she still bit her lip. This was crazy. As if her blood could?—

The moment she smeared it on the stone, the door began to grind.

Her jaw dropped. She’d not actually thought it would work.

Cold air wafted. Much cooler than seemed normal.

“Ready, Buttercup?”

Not really but she tucked close behind as Leo stepped in first, willingly entering the darkness. Every single movie she’d ever seen about dark caves and the dangers lurking within ran through her mind in that instance.

Gulp.

“Hold on a second and let’s see if this ruin behaves like the one Scorpio entered,” he muttered.

A faint glow suddenly illuminated the cave they stood in.

“How did you do that?” she exclaimed.

His fingertips brushed the wall. “This ruin is built inside a meteor, which is reacting to my presence.”

“More magic.” Funny how it didn’t seem so abnormal anymore after only a few days. Only a few days? It felt like much longer since Leo had come into her life and shaken her reality to its core—and rocked her world. She’d never been one to believe in those who claimed instant connections to a person. Surely it took time to build bonds, and yet here she found herself in lust and—if she were honest—falling in love.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything in this chamber,” he noted.

Ruth stepped past Leo to look around. For all her father had been a grand explorer, she’d never actually been inside something of archeological importance, unless The Wyckoff House in New York counted.

The room appeared plain. Smooth walls with two openings. The door they’d entered and an arch at the rear.

Leo strode to the second exit, and as he stepped over its threshold, a grinding sound had her whirling. “The door’s closing.”

Before either of them could react—or pull a movie move and throw something in the gap to stop it—they were sealed inside.

As panic filled Ruth’s veins, her heart began to race. “How will we get out?”

“By fetching what we came for,” his ominous reply.

“Assuming we can find it.”

“Have faith, Buttercup. If Scorpio could figure out the last ruin, then I’m sure it will be a breeze for us.” His optimism eased her somewhat.

“So what’s next?”

“Looks like our first puzzle. The next room has another door, and the walls are covered in symbols.” A faint glow emanated from beyond the arch, illuminating him.

Ruth joined him in a room not much larger than the last and noticed the markings randomly carved all over.

“They’re all the same,” she remarked. Three intersecting lines, the size of her fingertip, dotting the entire space—floor, walls, ceiling. The door at the rear appeared closed and had no handle or keyhole, nothing to indicate how to open it. However, that wasn’t the most disturbing thing.

“There’s a body,” she huffed, spotting the pile of bones in the corner. Had she just found her father?

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