the same,” I retorted.
His head bowed down. “What else need I do to convince you?”
A burning ember lay banked, waiting for me to fan it, to give it permission to blaze. I looked into those hooded eyes and knew he was right. I had to make a choice.
The problem was—if I did, could I live with it?
CHAPTER 9 – GODS OF WATER
CHAPTER 9
GODS OF WATER
I yelped in surprise.
A gush of water surged from the top of the falls and drenched us with buckets of bitterly cold water. The waterfall ebbed into a network of small trickles over the ledge, revealing a small concave curvature to the rock underneath. I gaped at the cleared expanse. I hadn’t seen it before because of the flowing water, but I knew this spot.
“This is it. This is the ledge that I saw in the vision.”
Matt nodded. He took out the cross from the bag and took a step into the falls.
I caught his hand. “Are you sure? What if the water starts coming down again?”
“That’s why I need to go quickly.” Disentangling his fingers from mine, he picked his way across the slippery ledge toward the center of the falls. In the sky, a few stars twinkled as the day sought its end. In a déjà vu scene from the vision, I watched Matt run his hand along the wall. He paused.
“There’s an engraving here,” he shouted past the roar of the water. “A horned deer under a tree. Rawana used a deer to lure the princess to him. The tree is the same size as the cross. I’m going to try it.”
The vision. I yelled, “Don’t, Matt!”
He did anyway.
“Trust me,” he said.
I didn’t. I gripped the stem of a plant growing in between the boulders. As soon as he put the cross against the rock, an opening showed in the rock and water burst forth. Matt scooted to the side instantly, which saved him from the geyser’s direct blast, but it still managed to catch him and he went flying backwards. I caught the rope around my middle and braced myself with the plant. Luckily, the plant held. Under me, Matt swung himself back toward the ledge and crawled back up.
The geyser slowed and finally stopped. Matt peered into the hole.
“What’s there?”
“A cave.” He tugged the rope to urge me forward.
I inched over onto the ledge. Matt slid into the hole. Above us, the waterfall started to gush once again.
He stuck his head out. “Hurry! I’ll catch you if you slip.”
No, I really didn’t want to hurry. I looked down the long expanse of the waterfall and briefly closed my eyes. Opening them, I ran down the slippery edge. Matt pulled me into the hole. A giant whoosh of water slammed down like a closing curtain behind me. My heart, running a hundred miles an hour, was all I could feel, and it took me a minute to catch my breath and realize Matt was holding me in his arms in the empty darkness.
“Do we have a light?” I said, my voice breathy. Hard thighs braced me, my back against the wet rock of the cave wall. I couldn’t see him, but I felt him move against me in the dark.
His lips grazed my ears. “Do we need one?”
I shivered and put my palm flat against his wet, lean chest. His subtle, woodsy scent mingled with the warm humidity of the cave. A trickle of cold liquid dripped on my head and down my back. On my left, a hiss sounded from somewhere down below us. Hard droplets of water shot up in a scattered burst as if we were standing next to a sprinkler.
I startled.
Matt’s arms tightened around my waist. “Don’t move.”
In the dark, I heard him fish around in his bag. A light flared on. I gasped and dug my fingernails into Matt’s shoulders. He held an orb in his hand. It showed the sheer edge of a drop-off directly to our right. A quiet stream ran along the cave’s edge and dropped deep into a black hole. Suddenly, the pressure of the water increased. Behind us, water gushed down cutting off the hole that led back outside.
I said, “It’s going to be tricky getting out of here.”
“Let’s see what’s in here first.” Matt let the orb go and it floated in the air. To our left stood a huge chamber. Attuned to Matt, the orb floated a few feet in front of him as he walked beside the stream and