Visions of Skyfire

Chapter 55

Teresa spun around to face the man who had forced them here. He looked stunned as he once again tried to walk into the temple—and once again came up against an invisible barrier.

Miguel’s features twisted in fury as he slammed his hands against air and found something solid. “What is this, Teresa? What the hell are you playing at?”

Teresa didn’t answer—she was shocked herself. She just left him shouting furiously as she tugged Rune farther back from the doorway. Everything made sense now. Why her abuela had sacrificed her life for them.

“My grandmother sent us here, Rune.” She looked around and above her, gaze sweeping over the cold stone as if seeing an old friend after a long separation. “The whole site of Palenque was sacred to the Mayans, but this particular temple is the one built to the moon.” She smiled for the first time in hours. “And I was the moon priestess. It’s welcoming me, Rune. I can feel the power here strengthening me.”

He scrubbed his big hands up and down her arms and the heat of him was a welcome rush.

“The temple is warded magically,” she said, shivering as another wave of mystical power eased inside her. “Protected by powerful magic. Nothing evil can get in.”

As her words sunk in, Rune turned to watch Miguel throw one of his thugs against the barrier, only to see the man bounce away like a rock off the surface of a lake. A few more tries were just as unsuccessful. Rune smiled, slow and wide, keeping himself between Teresa and the doorway. “Your grandmother, Teresa, was almost as amazing as you.”

She grinned back at him, feeling the mystical energies swarming around them. The chilling cold of the white gold was muted as power rushed through her. “Do you feel that?”

Outside, men were shouting and a gun was fired. Bullets, too, bounced off the energy barrier, ricocheting from its surface to other targets. Someone screamed.

“The magic is pure here,” Rune said, taking a breath as though a heavy weight had been rolled off his chest. “Rich and timeless. Even the white gold won’t hold us in here.”

“I know.” Teresa could already feel the truth. That her powers were bubbling back to life as though the necklace around her throat didn’t even exist.

She looked down at her hands and willed the lightning to life. At first, there was simply a sputter of sparks dazzling the tips of her fingers. But as the power of the temple soaked into her skin those sparks flared and grew, in spite of the white gold’s dampening effects.

“Can you get the gold off my neck?” Rune asked.

“Yes.” She lifted the chain and felt the cold of the metal against her skin, trying to dwarf what was inside her. But Teresa held on, and with the surge of strength she had gained from the temple’s interior, she succeeded.

Concentrating her power, she shot a small blast of lightning at the links of the chain around Rune’s neck and sighed in satisfaction as the thing shattered. Quickly, she dropped the white gold and watched as it fell to the dirt at their feet.

He stretched his arms out wide and pulled in a great breath, as if he had been released from a box three sizes too small. Smiling, he said, “Now you.”

Rune used the fire of his touch to melt the links at her throat, then brushed the offending necklace aside and let it land on the floor beside the first one.

Only then did he turn to face their enemies again. Miguel hadn’t given up. He kept firing at the doorway, despite the ricocheting bullets that continued to endanger both him and his men. The barrier held, permitting no entry. Miguel’s men were gathered into a knot, hiding from the bullets and from a power none of them understood but all of them feared.

“We need to leave, Teresa,” Rune told her, face grim but determined as he narrowed his eyes on the man still screaming threats and obscenities at Teresa. “I’m going out there to clear the danger. Then I’ll come back for you.”

But she grabbed his hand and shook her head. “No, there’s a better way.” Threading her fingers through his, she looked up at him and let him read the idea in her eyes. Rune glanced at the sunlit, grassy area, then back at her. When he nodded, he squeezed her hand tight, stepped to one side and waited.

Teresa inhaled sharply, deeply, and lifted her free hand. With Rune’s and her powers recharged from the temple, with the strength of her mate pushing through her as a focus, she drew down the lightning.

A tremendous jagged bolt shot from the sky with unerring accuracy. It slammed into the ground beside the group of thugs huddled together and three of them dropped instantly, dead before they hit the ground. Another bolt chased the first, but by that time the survivors were on the run.

Men screamed.

Miguel cursed.

Chico whistled and shrieked, his cries audible above the furious blast of the lightning.

Teresa filled the area with lightning. Her power sang inside her as it never had before. Magic coursed through her veins, alive, bristling with energy. Rune was her stalwart. Beside her, clutching her hand, he gave her the focus and concentration she needed to target her magic with efficiency. She felt his pride in her abilities. Felt his strength. His faith.

The sizzling bolts crashed to earth one after another, cutting off escape routes, driving the men as if they were being herded. And still she called for more, filling the heavens with her fury. With her need for justice. With the magic that was the very core of her.

As for Miguel, another wicked bolt of energy hit too close to where he continued to attempt to force his way into the temple. He slapped both fisted hands against the barrier keeping him from what he most wanted. “You bitch! This isn’t over, Teresa! I’ll find a way to end you!”

Teresa watched with a cool detachment and sent another jagged bolt toward him that slammed into the ground by his feet. Knocked over by the powerful blast, Miguel screamed. Fury claimed her and with that emotion spiking inside her, Teresa’s ability to aim was compromised.

Finally, he seemed to realize that if he stayed, he wouldn’t survive. So he ran like the dog he was and Teresa’s lightning chased after him, crashing again and again into the earth and trees.

When the esplanade was empty, Teresa quieted the lightning and all that was left was the sun, shining down on the ancient site. Hands still locked together, she and Rune stepped outside the temple. The dead lay scattered on the grassy surface and the others—like Miguel—were gone.

She hated that the man who had killed her grandmother had escaped. But she wouldn’t waste precious time chasing him down. Miguel had said himself that if he failed, his superiors would finish him. She didn’t wish death for anyone—but she couldn’t bring herself to feel sorrow for him, either.

“Wait for me here,” Rune said tightly, gaze narrowed in the direction that Miguel had fled. “I’m going to finish this.”

“No,” Teresa told him, releasing his hand long enough to wind her arms about his waist and hold on. Grief for her grandmother was still welling inside her. She felt the burden of what she’d done here with her magic. Men were dead. Yes, they were evil and probably would have killed her with no remorse if given the chance. She had done the only thing she could do to save both herself and Rune. To make sure they lived to complete the quest that was so important, not just to them but to the world. Still, guilt and regret pinged around the pit of her stomach like steel balls in an old pinball game.

Defending themselves was one thing. Deliberately chasing someone down—even Miguel—just to kill him was something else.

“Don’t, Rune. Just … let Miguel go to whatever end is waiting for him. He’ll be in hell soon enough.”

He shook his head and blew out a breath. “It’s a mistake to let him go. He’ll only report to whoever’s in charge of this mess exactly what happened.”

“Let him,” Teresa argued, burrowing closer to Rune’s solid strength. Tears filled her eyes and choked her voice. Grief for her grandmother warred with pride in what the old woman had done for them. She’d sent them here, knowing that Palenque’s magic would be enough to free them.

Although her abuela had known that the cost would be her life, she had set Teresa on the path she needed to walk.

“It doesn’t matter what Miguel does anymore,” she said, swallowing back the tears. She wouldn’t dishonor her grandmother’s sacrifice by weeping and wailing over it. Teresa knew that her abuela was now on another plane and wherever she was, the old woman was watching.

Teresa would make her proud.

She looked up at her mate and waited until his gaze met hers. Those gray eyes swirling with power and emotion stared back at her.

“Miguel means nothing,” Teresa said. “It’s more important that we go to retrieve the black silver. The Artifact is out there and until we get it back, no one will be safe.”

The warrior in him wanted to argue. She could see that easily in his clenched jaw and the flash of his eyes. But after a long moment of tense, strained silence, Rune bowed his head briefly. “You’re right, of course. Your grandmother sacrificed herself to see that we could do what we must do.”

Teresa smiled, loving that he understood her so well and that he was willing to set aside his own need for retribution.

Chico swooped in, landed on her shoulder and screeched, “Run for it!”

Rune frowned at the creature.

Teresa grinned and reached to stroke its brightly colored chest.

“So,” he said, “Spain?”

“Spain,” she agreed, hooking her arms around his neck. “Get us out of here, Eternal.”

He called on the fire and first took them to the van where their duffel bag had been abandoned. Rune wasn’t going anywhere without his knives.

When he was armed and ready again, he flashed them away from the ancient site of death and renewal.