“Turn it.”
Bea glanced at Colin for confirmation. His jaw clenched, he nodded. Taking her bottom lip between her teeth, she turned the ring. The golden panel between his eyebrows slid back, revealing a perfect, pure diamond embedded in his forehead. Bea sucked in a breath. The light hit the jewel, sending a blinding ray upward from the top of the crown.
“Get down, Bea,” Colin demanded.
Without hesitation, she jumped. Her feet hit the water, sending droplets into the air before swallowing her whole. Hovering suspended in the cool liquid, she almost didn’t want to return to the surface. Suddenly, Colin was beside her, his curly strands floating like a halo around his head. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her upward.
Together they burst through the water and sucked in the crisp air.
“I don’t … I don’t understand,” Bea whispered, clinging to the man’s sodden chest. “What is it? What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” Colin moved toward the water’s edge, his gaze on Demyan. “But I’m betting he does.”
Bea reached out, taking hold of the pond ledge. Demyan merely stood there with his gaze pinned to the ceiling. Using her remaining strength, Bea managed to pull herself to dry land. Immediately her gaze went above. A beam of light pierced the painting, highlighting the coast of India. Pinpointing a location?
“Colin,” she whispered as he settled on the stone floor beside her. “What is it?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he jumped to his feet and bolted forward, hitting Demyan with a thud. Caught off guard, the thin man crumpled under Colin’s weight and they both fell to the ground with a force that surely should have broken a bone or two. Unable to hold on to the torch, it fell to the floor and went out, throwing the room into darkness, but for that one beam of light on the ceiling.
“Colin!” Bea cried, jumping to her feet.
“You knew all along, didn’t you, you bastard?” Colin growled in the darkness.
“Of course I did,” Demyan replied.
There was a thud, then a grunt, as if someone had hit someone. The remaining natives shuffled back, wanting no part in the dispute.
“Colin! Please!” Bea shot out. Through the dim light the beam provided, she could just make out their shadows, wrestling on the floor like two street urchins fighting over a coin.
“Go.” Colin turned as he said this and she knew he was talking to her.
Bea stumbled back. “What?”
Colin stood, his arm lifted. A pistol gleamed at the end of his hand. He took a step back, then another. “Go now. The tunnel.”
Indecision held Bea captive. “But the ring.”
He dared to glance at the statue where the ring was still embedded. And she saw it there, that brief moment of hesitation. He was giving it up, his life, what he’d been searching for, giving it up to protect her.
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s go.” He latched on to her hand and pulled her toward the opening of the tunnel, their only possible means of escape. Bea’s elbows hit the stone with a thud that vibrated her bones. No time for pain, with a grunt, she pushed herself to her hands and knees and raced up the corridor.
“He knew,” she panted. “He knew what would happen, what the ring could do? Where that map was?”
“Yes,” Colin said from behind her.
“He was waiting for us?” She focused on the floor, focused on the darkness, urging her body to keep going.
“Seems so.”
Bea dug the tips of her toes into the stone floor, urging her legs to move faster. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to crawl with enough speed. Was Demyan coming after them? She strained to hear movement, but over her own harsh breathing she could make out nothing. She bit her lip, resisting the urge to look back. Looking back would only waste valuable time.
“How’d he know?” she asked, mostly to hear Colin’s voice. “How’d he know it was here and how’d he know we would come?”
“I don’t know,” Colin grunted, the exhaustion evident in his tone. He hadn’t fully recovered from saving King Henry. She’d been selfish, so bloody selfish demanding he save the animal, but she couldn’t stand to see the beast hunted for sport!
Shouts rang from behind, the voices echoing after them.
“They’re coming!” Panic pushed her onward.
“It’s there, just ahead. I can see the light.”
She lifted her head. Colin was right. There, just out of reach, was that gray square that hinted at escape. Sweat beaded on her back, and with a completely unladylike grunt, Bea jumped through that opening. The moment she hit the floor, she rolled to her side. Colin landed beside her, panting.
“Come, Colin, hurry.” She took his hand and helped him to his feet.
He stumbled. Bea slid her arm around his waist and together, they navigated the room, darting around the broken statues.
“The sun,” Colin explained, pushing away from her. She knew he hated the fact that he had to lean on her; she could see the shame in his eyes. Talking was obviously his way of ignoring his lack of strength. “The light from the sun came through, it hit the statue. He knew it would pierce that window at a certain time.”
He pushed aside the vines and they climbed through the opening, into the main corridor.
Together they burst down the hall. There, at the end, the setting sun allowed light to pour into the temple. Their escape. Their freedom. “The sunlight, that ray, produced the beam that lit the map?”
They made it to the opening and stumbled down the steps, jumping over the last few. The sun was a fiery ball that hovered on the horizon. Once it dipped below, they would be harder to find.
Colin took her elbow, steering her toward a clump of trees. “Yes, the light pointed to the map.”
There, tethered to the branch of a fig tree, was a brown mare. Demyan’s or Stephan’s, it didn’t matter. Relief was immediate and sweet. Never had a horse been such a blessing. Colin pulled himself into the saddle and reached for Bea. With what strength he had left, he pulled her up behind him. Bea wrapped her legs around the beast’s sides and clung to Colin’s waist.
“But the ring,” she whispered.
“Forget it.”
She could forget the ring, but could Colin? They both knew that with Demyan holding the ring, they were as good as dead. She wanted to argue, but she couldn’t because she was a coward. With a cry, Colin dug his heels into the horse’s sides. They burst across the field, the thud jarring Bea. She gripped Colin’s shirt and buried her face into his back. She didn’t dare look behind them.
Chapter 18
They’d escaped. Even now, hours later, Colin was shocked by that realization. They’d escaped, they still lived, but without the ring, for how long?
“Are you going to tell me what it meant?”
Bea’s soft voice broke through Colin’s numb mind. Her grip tightened around his waist, and she shifted her face so her warm breath fanned against the back of his neck. He glanced over his shoulder and met her gaze. Those eerie amber eyes had turned into melted gold under the light of the moon. If he wasn’t careful, a man could drown in her gaze.
He was surprised she’d been quiet as long as she had. Hell, after what they’d experienced, he was stunned. They’d been riding for hours and he’d fully expected her to ask him questions the moment the temple was out of sight. Perhaps fear, or shock, had kept her unusually silent, the soft thump of the horse’s hooves and the turmoil of his mind Colin’s only companion for the past hours.
“What what meant?” he asked, knowing full well what she asked, but hoping she’d drop the subject.
“The map on the ceiling, the statue. All of it.” She tilted her head farther, her lush lips parted, so close that if he turned, he could press his mouth to hers.
He jerked his gaze forward, ignoring the tendrils of excitement that swirled through his body. How easy it would be to lose himself in her, to forget everything.
“How should I know?”
She frowned and shifted again so her soft breasts crushed to his back. Colin gritted his teeth as heat shot straight to his groin. How much was a man supposed to endure?
“You know,” she said in a sure voice. “You wouldn’t have left so quickly if you didn’t know.”
It annoyed him that she thought he was so interested in the statue he’d chance her safety. He wasn’t a greedy monster, for God’s sake. Then again, both her grandfather and cousin Henry would have tossed her to the very devil for a penny. Perhaps she thought all men were alike. “I would have left for your safety.”
“Perhaps. But you do know what it meant?”
She was certainly persistent. And she was right.
Colin sighed as he nudged the horse left. He’d kept to the fields so they wouldn’t be seen. But it was time to find a place to bunk down and rest. They couldn’t go on any farther. He couldn’t go on any farther. His hands stiff from lack of use, he stretched his fingers around the reins. His limbs buzzed with the vibration of the horse’s movement, and he itched to leave his mount, to walk and move his legs.
“Colin?” Bea audaciously reached around and rested her hand on his. “What was in that temple?”
He sighed, long and loud. He’d have to explain. She wouldn’t let up until he did. He pulled back on the reins and turned in the saddle to look at her. Her hair hung in waves around her face, dark half moons covered the area under her eyes, those lush lips were pressed tense with worry. How different she looked from the pampered, perfect miss he’d met in Delhi.
Could she handle much more? Did she have a choice?
“Colin?”
He didn’t miss the way her voice quivered. She needed the truth. She deserved the truth. “A map of India, and I have no doubt the bastard knew it was there. But he couldn’t do a damn thing until we arrived with the ring and opened the statue to the sun.”
“The light shone on something, off the coast. What was it?”
“I don’t know.” He hated admitting that. Hated admitting that he hadn’t a clue. “It’s obviously pointing to something, some place.” Was it the location of the statue he searched for? Could he really finally have answers?
Bea didn’t respond, either deep in thought, or realizing he was a damn idiot and it was pointless to ask anymore. “Now, come. We need to set up a camp.”
She looked dubiously around the field. “Where, exactly?”
Colin nodded toward the scraggly trees that followed the creek. “There. Along the river.”
“What if they travel by water?” Bea asked.
He faced forward and tapped his heels against the mare’s sides, urging her forward. “It’s a tributary. They’ll be following the main river.”
At least he hoped. Hell, what choice did he have? He couldn’t keep this pace much longer … he couldn’t keep pretending he knew how to protect her, or pretending to know what he’d do if they were attacked. His body ached with the need to sleep and his mind had grown numb long ago. But how could he sleep and protect Bea at the same time?
He shook his head, focusing instead on the temple and the ring, substituting one impossible problem for another. It had killed him to leave that ring behind, and if he was honest with himself, he’d had his doubts about doing so. But then he’d thought about Bea.
He couldn’t endanger her life. He’d had a chance to escape and he’d taken it. And now … Hell, now they could lose everything because of his soft heart. The worst of it was, he knew he’d do it all over again. But perhaps they didn’t need the ring any longer.
The map led somewhere. No doubt Demyan knew where.
Demyan.
Thoughts of the Demon sent his stomach churning. He finally had a name for the bastard who’d killed his mother. How many years had he imagined meeting the man? The man who had ruined his life. Destroyed everyone he loved. He swallowed over the lump in his throat, his fingers tightening around the reins. When the man had touched Bea … How badly he wanted to wrap his hands around Demyan’s throat …
He forced himself to relax his grip. It wouldn’t help to focus on the impossible. And killing Demyan was impossible at the moment. But the man had to have a weak spot. No one was invincible. Everyone’s power had limitations. What were his?
“Colin?” Bea interrupted his musings. “Will this do?”
With disinterest, he glanced around the small grouping of trees that formed a half circle near the river. “Yeah. Sure.”
Almost of its own accord, his body slid from the mount, his feet landing with a thud that stirred the dry dirt into the air. He’d had just enough energy to keep from whacking Bea in the head with his boots. Bea, fortunately, didn’t wait for his help, but slid from the animal.
Colin flipped the lid of the leather bag strapped to the mount. There had to be something they could use … food, a weapon. “Search the bags on the other side, Bea.”
Without argument, she moved around the beast. She didn’t complain, although she had to be nearly as exhausted as he. She really was a daisy, the way she fought, the way she stood up for what she believed in, the way she gave him hell. A reluctant grin tugged at the corners of Colin’s mouth. Certainly not the prim, proper woman he’d thought. Not Sarah. He knew that now. How ironic that when he’d asked Sarah to travel to India with him, she’d scoffed.
Only three months ago, when he’d arrived, he’d met her on the streets of Bombay. They’d paused, neither speaking.
Both shocked. Never, in his life, had he thought to meet her again, in India of all places. But he knew she wouldn’t have traveled here alone.
“You married him, then?” Colin had asked.
“Yes,” Sarah had said, tilting her chin high and daring him to comment.
He hadn’t spoken another word to her, merely moved past. And he sure as hell hadn’t looked back. She hadn’t wanted to travel with him, a poor American, but she would with a wealthy Brit.
“Netting,” Bea called out, interrupting his musings. “I have netting and a reed mat.”
He nodded, stuffing his hand in the bag on his side. Bea had seemed to hate India, too, at first. Oddly, she seemed to thrive now. In the sun and nature, she was in her element. Paper crinkled under his fingertips. Carefully, Colin pulled the rolled missive free. With his brows drawn together, he moved to a stump and settled down, unrolling the waxed paper.
“What is it?” Bea asked, edging closer.
“A map. Europe and Asia.”
She frowned and settled next to him. “It’s marked.” She leaned closer, her scent whispering to him … that sweet clover, heady lavender. Lifting her arm, she pointed to the X’ed spots. England, France, Spain. He frowned, trying to connect, but nothing made sense. With a sigh, he rerolled the map.
Exhausted. He was damn exhausted. The soft buzz of insects hummed in the distance, mixing with the buzz in his brain.
“It’s the route we traveled.”
Colin jerked his head toward Bea. “What?”
She grabbed the map and unrolled it again. Her long delicate finger pointed toward the first spot. “Here. We were here.” She pointed to the next. “And here.”
There was a long moment of silence. Finally, she handed it to him. “I thought it odd that we didn’t sail the entire way.”
Colin rubbed his jaw, rough with whiskers. “Leo knew they’d look for you on the waters. He took another route. But they knew anyway. They were following you.”
Bea shivered and crossed her arms over her chest. “Just waiting for the right opportunity to get the ring. And now he probably has it, or will soon.”
“He still needs blood, family blood.” But he knew that wasn’t true. Henry was most likely working with Demyan, and if so, they’d use Henry’s blood.
The question was, how had the man known their route? Leo would have realized if someone was following them. Colin’s jaw clenched tight, his mind spinning. His gaze slid to India, that triangular shape. Where had the light been pointing? Using his finger, he found Bo
mbay, then moved upward and out. The Seven Islands?
“Why?” she finally asked. “Why’d he bring me here?”
Colin tore his gaze from the map. “Leo?”
She nodded.
He shrugged and rerolled the map. “I told you, he thought you’d be safer with us. He worried they’d come after you. He was right.”
“He was protecting me?”
Colin nodded, but she said no more. Was she angry? Annoyed? She looked merely thoughtful but her silence unnerved him so he decided to change the subject. “We should set up camp.”
She nodded and jumped to her feet. Too fast, too soon. She wavered, pressing her hand to her head. Colin slipped his arm around her waist, holding her upright.
Slowly, her gaze lifted to his. For one long moment they merely looked at each other. He wasn’t sure what she was searching for and he wasn’t sure he wanted her to uncover the truth. His heart beat frantically against his chest. His body begging him to pull her closer, his mind warning him that getting closer would only court trouble. This was no woman to dally with. So why, then, couldn’t he leave her in peace?
His fingers tightened on her arms, his gaze dropping to her lips. Her hands flattened against his chest. She wanted him to kiss her. He felt it in his soul. He wanted to kiss her. So why didn’t he? Because he wanted more than just a kiss. He’d had a taste of her luscious lips and it had driven him mad for days.
His blood roared with need. There was no ring to remind him she was Leo’s cousin. There was no stuffy English clothing to remind him she was a titled lady. There was only them, in the wilds of a foreign country where no one knew them and their only link was each other.
“I’m sorry,” Bea whispered. “I guess I’m rather exhausted.” All too soon, she stepped away and brushed her hands against her trousers as if to rid herself of his touch. “What should I do?”
Colin dropped his arms, his fingers stretching as he resisted the urge to bring her back. “Go, clean.”
She flushed. “Do I smell that bad?”
A smile flittered across his lips. “No. You smell … lovely.”
She blinked, surprise evident in her wide gaze. Even in the moonlight, he could see her blush deepen, and her attention dropped to the ground as if she wasn’t used to compliments. “Thank you.”