doing exactly that, it wasn’t one of those ‘please notice me’ smiles. She was happy. Her eyes said it, even through the thick glasses. Although he usually didn’t encourage students–his reputation did enough of that–he couldn’t help but smile back at her.
Thunder rumbled overhead and they both looked up at the sky.
“This was to punish them,” she said.
He stared at her.
“Because they had not thought of their mother,” she continued, still looking up. “Nor their father, the Heart of Heaven. The face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall, by day and by night.”
That had to be the Popol Vuh again. She quoted it the way English majors quoted Shakespeare.
As another peal of thunder erupted, he glanced back at the boat–last chance to ditch this whole idea and go back.
He’d brought an inexperienced student to the Petén jungle, in the middle of the season’s first tropical storm. Obsession, his wife had called it.
Ex-wife, he corrected himself.
The rain suddenly started to come down in sheets.
“Stay right behind me,” he said, as he pushed into the foliage.
CHAPTER TWO
Brett could move fast.
As her suitcase bumped along behind her, Jesse struggled to keep up. The rising wind was blowing the rain nearly horizontal. It stung, even through the clothes.
At one point, she’d nearly lost him. He turned around regularly to check on her and had even tried to take her suitcase for her.
She’d been mortified. That was the last thing she wanted–to have Professor Brett Delacourt think she couldn’t handle her own stuff. But through the rain spattered glasses and growing darkness, she’d looked up at one point and saw only trees. She’d broken into a run and then tripped only to find him helping her up in the pelting rain and then he’d tried to carry her luggage. She’d insisted on taking it herself.
Now she wondered if that’d been wise. It felt like an anchor.
The canopy above them was nearly black, lit only occasionally by flashes of lightning, which was happening with greater frequency. The tops of the impossibly tall trees swayed violently.
Below her feet she saw that they were on some kind of muddy path. It was almost a small stream with all the water running down it.
She was breathing harder than she had in her entire life. The humidity was stifling. Trekking in the jungle was something that yoga hadn’t prepared her for, but she kept an eye on the yellow trim of Jason’s backpack. He seemed to know exactly where he was going.
All she had to do was keep up.
• • • • •
They had to be close now, Brett thought, but the storm was hiding the usual visual cues. The great mound was barely visible in the dense forest at the best of times. This had to be the path. There was only one. Even Tropical Storm Angela didn’t change that.
And what a storm it was. He’d never seen one this bad. He’d been in the field since his undergrad days and he’d never seen anything like this.
Monsoon–a huge one.
Again he cursed himself and turned to check on Jessica. She was struggling, he could see it, but she wouldn’t let him help. Instead, she dragged the suitcase and kept her feet moving.
The wind was driving the rain into them and they were both panting. The uphill climb on the slick path was getting steeper. But they were nearly on top of the site. Just a little further to go.
“Almost there,” he yelled to her over the thunder, just as the jungle lit up all around them and the air exploded.
Almost as though it were a strobe effect, he watched as Jessica was hurled forward. A tree, about ten yards behind her near the path, burst into pieces as Brett realized what was happening.
Lightning strike.
Jessica thudded into his chest. He instinctively grabbed her and held tight as he landed on his backpack with a grunt. His eyes had shut tight against the sudden glare but he snapped them open as they rolled awkwardly off the backpack to their sides. They landed on the ground with a splash.
He looked down at her.
“Jessica, are you okay?”
He saw her blink through the glasses, though they sat askew on her face. He kept hold of her, even though they were on the ground.
“Jessica!” he tried again, shaking her a little. Rain was streaming over her face but she shakily pushed her glasses up her nose. “Are you okay?” he said.
She slowly nodded.
He wasn’t sure if that was true but