Page 65 of Wind Called

Which could be good or bad, depending on how you looked at it. Sure, a sudden downpour would help with the August heat, but gulleys and dry creek beds filled up fast in those sorts of conditions. The last thing they needed was to get swept away in a flash flood.

“All the more reason to get this over with,” he said, touching the fob to unlock his truck.

Her lips pressed together, but she didn’t say anything as she got inside. Instead, she directed him to take much the same route they would have if they were going back to the Enchantment resort, except this time they’d turn right and park at the Boynton Canyon trailhead.

“From there, we can head back into the Secret Canyon wilderness,” she explained. “But I wanted to ask if this was the cave you saw in your vision.”

She held up her phone, which showed an image of a cave mouth, clearly taken from inside, since it looked out onto a spectacular vista of red rocks.

Because he was letting the truck drive itself, Marc didn’t have to worry about looking away from the road so he could study the photo.

At once, he could tell it wasn’t the place he’d seen in his dream. “No,” he said. “That one is a lot bigger. The place I saw was barely big enough for a tall person to stand upright. I’d probably hit my head against the ceiling if I tried that.”

Bellamy didn’t look too disappointed. “Well, it was worth a shot. I had a feeling this one couldn’t be the cave you saw, though, just because the Birthing Cave is a popular destination for hikers, even if it’s kind of hard to get to. So I suppose we’ll just have to keep looking and let instinct guide us.”

He nodded, then said, “It’s a little better than that. At the beginning of my dream, it was almost as if I was watching a drone fly over the landscape before it zeroed in on the cave where the thief is hiding out, so I’m hoping what I saw will be enough to get us where we need to go.”

At once, her face lit up. “That’s great news. I think we’ll really be able to do this.”

Marc didn’t want to say anything to dampen her enthusiasm, but, even though he’d agreed to go along on this expedition, he couldn’t help feeling they were taking an enormous risk. They still had no clear idea as to what the Collector’s minion was even capable of, and it wasn’t as if his magical talents were the kind that would allow them to mount any kind of real offensive.

But he did have his shield magic, which he hoped would be enough to provide some kind of protection for the two of them. True, cowering in a corner while the thief threw fireballs or lightning bolts at him and Bellamy didn’t seem like the best way to handle such a confrontation, and yet Marc couldn’t think of what else he could possibly do if the unknown warlock…or witch…went on the attack.

If they even found the person at all. His vision of the night before had provided some decent clues, and yet, they were still heading into pretty rough country. It seemed all too likely that their prey would elude them, and they’d have to go to the elders and Connor and Angela and say, sorry, we tried, but it looks like the big guns should have handled this in the first place.

Marc didn’t voice any of those doubts to Bellamy, though. She looked utterly hopeful about the outcome of their expedition, and he wasn’t sure whether that was over-confidence in the sort of intel he’d be able to provide, or maybe a tendency to underestimate their opponent. The thief had gotten past the wards in Angela and Connor’s house and had also attempted to break into the library at Zoe’s home in Scottsdale, an indication that they were good at stealth and unraveling wards, at the very least.

If it was even the same person who’d committed both crimes, something no one seemed to be very sure of yet. The winds had told Bellamy that the Collector had many servants, so they had no idea how many of them could be lurking out there.

For all they knew, the dreadlocked thief he’d seen in his dream could have an accomplice somewhere nearby, which would make this whole confrontation a lot more dangerous.

Quite a few cars were parked at the trailhead, so many that Marc counted himself lucky to snag the last available spot.

Would having this many people around make their mission that much more difficult?

“Don’t worry,” Bellamy said in an undertone after she came over to join him on the driver’s side of his Nissan truck. “Most of these people are probably headed toward the Birthing Cave, or maybe the Three Sisters, which is a rock formation about a mile down the trail. We’re going much farther than that.”

Marc supposed he should be glad that they wouldn’t be tripping over hikers while they were trying to apprehend the thief. All the same, he still found himself hoping they wouldn’t have an audience during that magical confrontation.

Trying to cover it up afterward would be a real nightmare.

But he and Bellamy were prepared, with lots of bottled water and a couple of Kind bars she’d slipped into her overnight bag when she was packing.

“You never know,” she told him as she handed one over so he could put it in his pack, and he couldn’t help smiling.

He liked a woman who was prepared…and who understood that, while the pastries they’d snacked on during the drive over here were tasty, they weren’t exactly the sort of meal to sustain them during an extended hike.

“No, I guess not,” he said, then settled his backpack a little more firmly on his shoulders. A pause as he let himself take in the landscape, the red rock formations on all sides, the scrubby junipers and cholla cactus and other native plants that helped make the trail harder to see.

“Let’s do this.”

19

They had to pace themselves,since neither of them knew exactly how far into the Secret Canyon wilderness they’d have to venture before they found the cave Marc had seen in his vision. At least they’d gotten out here early so the morning air was still cool and mild against her cheeks, although Bellamy knew it wouldn’t take long before the sun was high enough in the sky to really start raising the temperatures.

She had been able to tell right away that he knew what he was doing, since he kept his gaze fixed on the trail and moved steadily, negotiating rocky patches with ease and maintaining sure footing the entire time. Yes, he’d told her he hiked a lot, and she’d already seen him in action while they were heading out to the Devil’s Bridge, but now that they were past the Birthing Cave and moving into a section of the trail that wasn’t nearly as well-traveled, she could only be glad that he was her hiking companion today and not someone with a lot less experience.

His dark eyes kept scanning the landscape from behind his sunglasses, and she knew he was trying to see if he recognized any landmarks from his dream. So far, that didn’t seem to be the case, since he didn’t appear inclined to leave the main trail and move onto one of the smaller, fainter ones that branched off every once in a while.

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