I’m sorry, James.” Angeline stared at the sand. Embarrassment had kept her in the tent all day, along with a desire to avoid the man standing before her. But desperate for some fresh air, she’d finally emerged onto the beach after everyone had dispersed from supper.
And ran straight into the handsome doctor.
“No need to apologize.” He shoved hands in his pockets, reminding her of an awkward schoolboy. Which only endeared him to her even more. “You are definitely keeping my swimming skills honed.”
Though a slight upturn of his lips indicated he toyed with her, she couldn’t help but feel ashamed. “You mock me.”
“No.” He withdrew his hands and touched her arms. “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have made light of it. I’m just happy you’re safe.”
“Thanks to you.” She moved from his touch. A gust of wind struck and she hugged herself. A few colonists wandered by, staring at her as if she were possessed with an evil spirit.
James took her elbow and led her aside. “What did you see, Angeline? Or perhaps I should ask who? Whoever it was and whatever they said, nothing could be so hopeless. Not when you have friends who care deeply about you.”
Like you? Are you one of those friends? She searched his eyes. Flecks of gold sparkled against deep bronze in the setting sun. But she knew he was. And that made everything so much worse. She glanced at the jungle—a seemingly impenetrable fortress of green that moved and swayed and squawked and howled like a living, breathing entity. Perhaps if she dove into it, it would swallow her whole. Save her from Dodd and her past and from making more of a fool of herself than she already had.
James reached out for her but then pulled back. “I fear I’m not very good at comforting people.”
Angeline looked at him again, at the way the wind tossed his hair in every direction, at the dark stubble on his jaw. She smiled. “Yes, you are.”
He shrugged. “What I meant to say before was, I’m a good listener if you’d like to tell me what’s bothering you.”
What was bothering her? Men from her past kept appearing out of nowhere, taunting her with words and crude gestures. Dodd was blackmailing her into sharing his bed. And she loved this man who stood before her with all her heart but could never tell him. She could never be his. “Nothing is bothering me. I thought I saw something in the water. I was tired, delirious…I wasn’t thinking.”
He blew out a sigh that spoke of disbelief.
She must lighten the mood before he delved deeper into her secrets, before that look of affection and love in his eyes made her want to tell him everything. She gave him a scolding look. “Now, what did I tell you about rescuing me, Doctor?”
He smiled, studying her. “Guilty, as charged. Do say you’ll forgive me once again.”
She would forgive him. She did forgive him. And though she was happy to be alive, she wanted no more rescues—from him or anyone else. Rescues meant trust and dependence on others. And she wasn’t ready to allow herself those luxuries, to become vulnerable, open to betrayal.
Blake started a fire and the colonists began to congregate. Though the night was warm, Angeline continued to shiver.
“You’re trembling,” James said.
“I can’t seem to stop.”
“Come by the fire. We can talk later.” He led her to sit on a log beside Eliza then sped off as if he couldn’t get away fast enough. She didn’t blame him. She not only spurned his every advance, but now she’d gone and proven herself completely deranged. A person could dismiss one leap into the sea. But two?
Stowy jumped into her lap and nudged her with his head. At least the cat didn’t mind if she’d gone mad. She petted him as Eliza smiled and asked how she was feeling. Magnolia and Sarah did the same as they joined the group. Though some of the colonists stared at her as if she had a disease, Angeline found no hint of wariness or judgment on any of her three friends’ expressions. Or even on Blake’s or Hayden’s. These people truly were her friends. She would miss them terribly. She’d heard the pirates return just after supper more excited than usual, declaring they’d finally found the location of the gold. Of course, they’d announced similar success on many an occasion, so Angeline wasn’t allowing her hope to rise that they’d soon gather the treasure and leave. But if they did, that meant she could finally get away as well. Away from the voices and visions, away from the threats, and away from the torture of seeing the man she loved day in and day out, longing to be with him but knowing he would always be out of her reach.
Grabbing a blanket from among his things, James sped back to the fire and flung it around Angeline’s shoulders. She looked up at him with the strangest mix of shock and sorrow. He wanted to tell her that he longed to hold her until she felt safe again. He wanted to tell her that if she’d allow him, he could love all her problems away, but Captain Ricu joined them at the fire, drawing all eyes and a few whimpers from the ladies. He’d not addressed them as a group since the first day he and his pirates had landed, and his presence now sent a tangible fear through the colonists.
“So you think you’ve found your gold, I hear.” Blake kept his tone nonchalant.
“Aye, we have. We be sure of it.” The twinkle in Ricu’s dark eyes confirmed his statement as he planted hands at his waist and surveyed the crowd.
“Where?” Hayden asked as he took a spot in front of Magnolia.
“In the temple.” Dodd clipped thumbs in his belt. “Can you believe it? Under our noses the whole time.”
Silence, save for the crackle of the fire and sizzle of waves, permeated the group as nervous eyes skittered about. James shared a worried glance with Blake and Hayden.
“You mean the moon and stars above the altar?” Eliza asked, voicing the hope they all felt.
Pressing hair back at his temples, Patrick pushed his way through the crowd. “No. You may have those if you wish.” He flicked his hand through the air. “It is the gold beneath the temple that is the fortune we’ve been searching for.”
James couldn’t believe his ears. Of all the places for this infernal gold to be located, why that heinous place?
“Did you actually see this gold?” Blake crossed his arms over his chest.
“Nay.” Captain Ricu stepped over a log and stood before the fire. “But maps led us straight to it.” He patted his colorful vest—where said maps were, no doubt, safely tucked—sending his pins sparkling in the firelight. “I should realize it before. The cannibals, the temple. It makes sense.”
“I don’t understand.” James took a spot standing behind Angeline.
“I ne’er told you tale of how I came by map?” A blast of wind tossed Ricu’s black curls behind him. “Aye, quite a tale it be.” His eyes, the color of the hot coals in the fire, sped to Hayden. “Thanks be to this estúpido who cut my anchor chain.”
Ricu, now having gained an audience, lowered himself onto a stump, leaned forward on his knees, and swept his gaze over the assembled colonists. “We drift for week, hoist and lower sails, try stay close to shore so we fix anchor and not run into ground. We find berth in inlet near the port of Itaqui. And while we fix anchor chain, we go to town’s tavern.
“There we met Bartolomeu Henrigues or Blastin’ Bart as he call himself, a Portuguese pirate, at least hundred years old. We had merry time drinking and playing cards into long night. But when I told him of gold I sought, he pull map from waistcoat. And this be the tale he told.” The captain’s eyes were alight with adventure while everyone leaned toward him to hear over the pounding waves.
“His grandfather be a fierce pirate who sail under Portugal flag and raid along coast of Brazil and Caribbean. Legends of vast amount of gold—enough to buy entire world—lure him to land on Brazil shores. A search of jungle brought he and crew to strange temple with stone obelisks and steaming water pool.”
“Just like the one we found.” Magnolia’s voice came out numb with shock.
“Aye.” Ricu nodded, fingering the tuft of dark hair on his chin. “Only few cannibals remain and pirates torture them to find where gold be, but they ne’er say a word, kept make gestures about fierce beast who come up from ground and made tribe go louco and kill each other.”
A few of the ladies gasped, including Mrs. Scott, who leaned against her husband.
James swallowed a lump of dread.
“Then pirates see things. Dead people talk to them. Terrible nightmares. Yet they keep search for gold, dig where cannibals say it buried. But visão get worse and worse, and nightmares grow until pirates get crazy and shoot and stab each other.” Red and gold flames danced over Ricu’s face as he stared at the fire, mesmerized by his own tale. Or perhaps as frightened by it as most of the colonists seemed to be.
James gazed at Angeline, longing to see her expression, but her back was to him. Would that be their fate if they remained? If they allowed the visions and nightmares to continue? Would they all go mad and either kill each other or themselves?
“What happened to them?” Dodd asked, the joy of only moments ago slipping from his expression.
Ricu grunted. “Only four remained and fear to kill the others. They not care about gold, but they not want such fortune lost, so they draw four maps that when put together lead to gold. Then they each take map and leave Brazil. Go in different directions, get far from each other and temple. They say if God want, others bring maps together and get gold.” Ricu patted his vest yet again and proclaimed, “Blastin’ Bart gave me one map. These men”—he pointed at Dodd and Patrick—“had others. That is story.”
Moonlight dripped pearly wax on Captain Ricu’s ebony locks as the fire snapped and spit sparks into the night sky. Some of the colonists continued to gape at him as if they thought him as crazy as the pirates he spoke of. Blake gazed numbly into the fire. Eliza looped an arm through Angeline’s, while Hayden drew Magnolia close, a fear rolling across his features that James felt in his gut.
“You can’t dig there, beneath the temple,” James spoke up, forcing authority into his voice. “You’ll release the fourth beast.”
Captain Ricu stared at him as if he were a two-headed fish that had just emerged from the sea. A similar expression twisted Patrick’s features. Dodd, however, dropped his gaze to the sand.
Patrick released a long sigh. “Of course we can. And we will.”
“Dodd, you know this to be true.” James turned to the ex-lawman. “You’ve seen what we’ve seen. You know what happened to Graves when he released the third beast.”
Though hesitation sparked in his gaze, Dodd shrugged. “I’m not sure what I’ve seen.”
“Beasts! Ridiculo!” Ricu spit onto the sand, his outburst causing a few colonists to flinch.
James shook his head. “But, you just told us there were beasts, Captain, the ones who drove the cannibals and pirates mad.”
A rumbling broke forth from the captain’s throat. “You believe?” He tried to contain his amusement. “This be louco pirates’ tale.”
“But you believe the part about the gold.” Eliza raised a brow. Snorting, Ricu rose. “We dig up gold. You see. I am Captain Ricu, and I take what I want when I want.”
And with that, he marched away.
Later that night, after everyone had retired, James sat alone by the fire with the ancient book in hand and his father’s Bible lying on a log beside him. He alternated between praying, reading the Bible, and interpreting more of the Hebrew script. But his eyelids kept sinking, and he wasn’t sure he was learning anything useful. He chastised himself for not studying Hebrew with more diligence when he’d been a young man learning to be a preacher like his father. But back then, he hadn’t taken life very seriously, except the feel of a beautiful woman in his arms. What a wastrel he’d been and a disappointment to his parents. Especially when he’d run off to become a doctor and joined the war.
The wind had lessened, the waves now stroked instead of pounded the shore, their caress so soft, he could hear the pirates snoring down the beach. Sand crunching brought his gaze up to see Blake and Eliza heading his way, their drooping eyes telling him they’d lost their battle with sleep as well.
Blake acknowledged him with a nod before tossing a log into the fire and taking a seat beside his wife. Moments later Hayden and Magnolia joined them.
“I thought you were still awake when I left the tent.” Eliza patted the spot beside her for Magnolia, who sat, adjusted her skirts, and drew her long braid of flaxen hair over her shoulder. “I heard you leave and decided it was better to have company than lie in the dark alone with my thoughts.” She gazed up at her husband standing by her side. “No sooner did I step outside than Hayden dashed up to me.”
He winked at her. “At your service, Princess.” He turned to James. “So, Doc, can the pirates release this fourth monster?”
“You finally believe?” James gave a grin of victory he didn’t truly feel before he closed the book and set it down. “Only a man with pure darkness in his heart who speaks the phrase above the alcove can release the beast.”
“Whose heart is darker than a pirate’s?” Magnolia dug her toes into the sand.
“But what pirate knows Latin?” Eliza added with a hint of hope.
“What cannibals do?” James shrugged. “They don’t have to know the language. They only need to speak the words out loud. We can’t risk it. We must stop them from digging for that gold. If the fourth beast exists, we cannot allow him to be set free. From what I’m reading, his release would affect the entire world.”
“The entire world? How can that be?” Hayden asked.
“Oh my.” Eliza shook her head.
Magnolia grabbed her husband’s hand and gazed at the jungle. “Look what Destruction has done to us already.”
“Nearly destroyed us,” Blake said.
Wind blasted over them, whirling sand through the air. Hayden coughed. “And I don’t think he’s finished.”
“Then even if the pirates get their gold and let us go, leaving Brazil wouldn’t help.” Blake’s forehead wrinkled.
“No.” James glanced up to see Angeline emerge from the shadows, the same blanket he’d given her wrapped around her shoulders.
“I heard voices.”
“We didn’t mean to wake you.” Eliza stood and gestured for her to sit beside her.
“I wasn’t sleeping.” She lowered to the log. “What are we discussing?”
When no one answered, she lifted her violet eyes to James, moist and glimmering in the firelight. Moonlight circled her head like a halo. James swallowed. Was there ever a more beautiful woman? “Pirates and beasts,” he said. “Not exactly topics to aid restful sleep.”
“But important ones we need to discuss,” Blake added.
Stowy peeked out from Angeline’s blanket and began pouncing on the firelight flickering over the cloth. “What I don’t understand is how a fortune in gold came to be hidden beneath the temple,” she said. “Whose gold is it?”
“I don’t know,” James said. “Perhaps it was put there as bait to lure men to dig up the beasts.”
Blake nodded. “Good thinking, Doc. That makes sense. Why else would it be placed in the tomb of the last beast?”
“Mercy me, who would do such a thing?” Magnolia asked.
James rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s almost like God Himself planted a test for mankind. Much like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Will man choose evil for riches? Or will he deny himself and choose good?”
“But the pirates drew the maps that led to the gold, not God,” Eliza shot back.
James smiled at her defense of the Almighty. “No, but God knew they would. He also knew what the first two beasts would lead man to do. Beasts whom I believe the cannibals released accidentally.”
“Is that to be our fate?” Angeline’s voice caught. “Are we to end up killing each other?” She lowered her chin, and James knew she thought of her plunge into the sea.
“We won’t allow it to get that far,” Blake stated with authority.
An ominous growl sounded from the jungle, drawing all their gazes. Several minutes passed as the crackling of the fire joined the sound of waves lapping ashore.
“Wait, I just remembered something.” Hayden rubbed the stubble on his jaw, his eyes wide. “Remember that priest I told you about? The one I met in Rio?”
James nodded. “You said he mentioned a fire lake.”
“Yes, and something about a temple and pure evil. A force that could not be defeated.” Hayden stared at the fire. “He also said something really odd. At the time I thought he was crazy. He told me I was one of the six. That I had to go back. That only the six could defeat the evil.”
“Six.” James thumbed the scar on his cheek. “Didn’t Graves say something about six?”
“That’s right,” Eliza said. “I remember him saying that there weren’t six yet. That there can never be six.”
“Six what? People? Us?” Angeline asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m hoping this book holds the answer.” James gripped the large leather tome and drew it back into his lap.
“The answer to stopping pirates?” Hayden snorted. “I doubt it. We have no weapons and they outnumber us.”
“No. Not pirates.” James swallowed. “The beasts.”
Hayden chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. “Yes, that’s so much easier than defeating pirates!”
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord,” James said, wondering where the phrase came from. Had he read it in scripture? Either way it poured from his mouth before he gave it a thought. The effect was astounding. Instead of snorting in disbelief or taunting him for uttering a religious platitude, his friends nodded and stared at the sudden explosion of sparks from the fire ascending into heaven.
James had no idea how they would get out of this mess. But he knew one thing: This was not just a battle against pirates. This was a battle against pure evil.