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Margot couldn't look away from the dead woman, although tears filled her throat and her body tensed in pain, in the urge to remove herself from the situation.
Rhiannon released the woman, whose body fell back against the foot of the tree, then slid down to lie on the ground. Rhiannon backed away, her face a mask of horror.
Pounding footsteps reached Margot's ears, and a second later, the younger Illary stood in front of her.
"I was only looking for more seca bark," she said, holding out her hand. She then seemed to notice the older Illary, and she dropped the bark and fell to her knees next to Margot and the old woman.
"This is your fault, your fault," she repeated, staring at the old Illary.
Margot put a hand on Illary's shoulder. "No, it's not her fault—"
"I do not mean her," Illary said. Her face contorted from grief to rage. "I mean you. You. All of you. My old body is gone, my companion, my advisor. And our sacred duty is gone. It won't come back—you scared it off. All of you. All of you!"
Margot turned to look at Bryce. Although he was still in his bear form, he suddenly looked less imposing, less wrathful.
Rhiannon spoke from behind Margot. "Go, wolf. I don't need you anymore. There is nothing here."
A wolf that Margot hadn't even noticed before stood up just beyond the clearing and skulked away. The other bear, still bleeding, followed the wolf.
"So you can tell," the young Illary said to Rhiannon. "You believe me when I say that it is gone."
Rhiannon came to stand next to them. "Yes. But you must tell me where it is."
Margot held her breath, waiting for the answer. She and Bryce could run together—fast. Maybe not as fast as a snow leopard, but she still held her branch. If she moved quickly enough, she could knock out Rhiannon and they could get the sphere.
"The sphere has a protection," Illary continued. "Me. I moved it."
"You moved it to where?" Rhiannon growled.
Illary glared. "Wherever it feels is safe. Through time, over continents, into the sea...I do not know. But I would not tell you if I did know."
Rhiannon advanced on Illary. "If you don't tell me where I can find it—"
No, Illary had been in enough pain today. Margot wasn't going to allow her to be hurt any more. She jumped to her feet and stood between them. Bryce, still in his bear form, looked ready to attack Rhiannon as well.
"You don't want this," Margot said. She pointed to Bryce. "He's seen your dream. He knows."
With a delicate snort, Rhiannon stopped in place. "It is not worth it, not now."
Margot watched while Rhiannon turned and walked off in the direction the bear and wolf had gone.
Bryce huffed and started after her.
"Bryce, please," Margot said, rubbing the drying tears from her cheeks. "Stay."
After a pause, he seemed to huddle in on himself. Margot watched while a faint light surrounded him, hiding the details of the shift, until it faded and he knelt before them in his human form. His face was full of sympathy. He took Margot's hand in his, but he spoke to Illary.
"I'm so sorry," he said.
"It is the way of my cycle," she said. "But I was not ready to say goodbye to this body."
Margot's chest ached for her. She took comfort from Bryce's touch, though, and said to Illary, "Is there anything we can do?"
"No. It is time for you to leave."
"But...what about you?" Margot asked. "We can't just leave you here. You're grieving, and you shouldn't grieve alone."
"I will take my old body and my body of now to the land of the queens," Illary whispered, looking sadly at the body of the old Illary. "I spent this life ensuring that this body would be safe to take care of the sphere. Now that the sphere has gone, I can go, too."
She stood up and lifted the other Illary as if she weighed nothing. Margot gasped—Illary was much stronger than she looked.
"Wow," Bryce said.
"Everyone should be able to carry oneself when it is necessary," Illary said simply. She pointed her feet away from the river, away from the lodge.
"Wait," Bryce said.
Illary stopped.
"Now can you tell us what the sphere is?" Bryce asked.
Illary shook her head. "No. You will know when it is time for you to know." She hesitated before looking into the old Illary's face, then said, "But I will tell you that you are the new guardians. It has chosen you."
Margot opened her mouth to ask more, but Illary began walking and didn't turn around again, and Margot decided that whatever she wanted to ask would have no easy answers, anyway. Likely, Illary would give them another riddle that would puzzle them even more than before.
She looked to Bryce, who stood beside her. Blood ran down one of his legs, trailing from an already-healing gash. She gestured to the wound. "Looks like it's already getting better?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Good." Margot took his big hand in hers and brought it to her lips, kissing his knuckles. "Thank you for protecting me."
"Hey, it wasn't just me," he said. "You were unstoppable with that branch."
She smiled. "Swiping Rhiannon's feet out from under her was my favorite part. Anyway, we should go back, call Jameson."
They began walking together, and Bryce said, "He's going to be disappointed. We came out here and all we have now are more questions."
"More questions, true," Margot said, "but we also came down to talk to Illary, which we did. And we know Bronson is probably after that sphere, and now it's our job to protect it."
He laughed and squeezed her close to his side before releasing her so they could walk again. "But we don't know where it is."
"Or what it is." Margot slowed to a stop and Bryce stopped, as well. She looked up into his pale eyes that seemed to shine in the moonlight sneaking through the forest canopy. "But you know what? Mission accomplished. We found Illary, kept Rhiannon from getting the sphere, and even better, we found each other."
He leaned down and took her mouth with his. She breathed in his spirit, his aches and pains, his love. They were whole and together.
*
THE NEXT MORNING, THEY left the lodge and traveled back down the river to Puerto Maldonado, where Bryce purchased their tickets to take them back to Cusco. From there, they'd start the series of flights that would take them home to Idaho.
"I'm going to kind of miss Peru," Margot said on the bus toward Cusco. Brown and green hills passed them by on the journey, and Margot soaked in the views. "I miss my bakery and Idaho and the clan, and I'm never going to be a regular world-traveler, but this place means something to me."
"Because of me, of course," Bryce said, waggling his eyebrows.
She laughed. "You might have a tiny little bit to do with it."
He grumbled and reached into his pack, then took her hand in his and fit two small pieces of paper in her palm.
"What's this?" she asked, trying to read the Spanish. They looked like tickets of some kind.
"Bus tickets."
"But we're on the bus already..."
"No," he said, grinning. "You said you wanted to go to Sacsayhuamán. So we're going today, before we head home."
They reached Sacsayhuamán late in the afternoon. Margot explored the ruins, marveling at the seamless way the rocks fit together. Every now and then she'd look up to see Bryce nearby, sometimes watching her, sometimes doing explorations of his own around the boulders. It was truly a magical place, but it wouldn't have held the same magic if she'd been here without Bryce.
They stood atop one of the giant gray rocks and watched the sun fall over the horizon. Bryce pulled Margot to him in an embrace that told her everything she needed to know, all over again. He’d chosen her, and she chose him, too.
Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed his lips. She closed her eyes and poured everything she felt into the kiss.
Bryce kissed her back, his hands gripping the fabric of her shirt like he was tempted to tear it off of her.
"Watch out, there are other people here," she said, pointing out the few straggling tourists at the bottom of the ruins.
With a growl, he said, "I don't care. When you kiss me like that, nothing else matters."
"I'll kiss you like I mean it," Margot whispered into his chest. "In our dreams. In our waking life. Every time. All of the time."
Ruthless Fighter
Fierce Mates: The Rock Creek Clan, Book Three
By Liza Street