The Dove (Prophecy Series) (27 page)

Tyhen arched her back as she rose to meet his thrusts. Having him inside her was like holding fire. He made her hot. He made her hurt. He made her burn. Watching the changing expressions on his face as their bodies danced was a joy all on its own. She liked knowing she had the power to give him such pleasure.

Cayetano was so caught up in the feel of being inside her that he didn’t notice her intense regard. His focus was to hang onto his own sanity until he brought her pleasure to a peak, and so the rain came down as they came undone.

The shift from feeling good to climax came between one breath and the next. Tyhen was looking at the shape of Yuma’s mouth and remembering what it felt like on the nipple of her breast when she suddenly shattered. She closed her eyes to ride it out, letting wave after wave of the intensity roll through her until she was left weak and shaking beneath him.

Then she rode it all over again when Yuma let go and gave in to the explosion of pleasure that swept through him. When it was over, he collapsed on top of her in a shaking heap, too exhausted to speak.

Time passed. The guards at the entrance changed shifts. The rain ended. The sounds of the jungle came back to life as daylight hovered in the East.

She was still wrapped within Yuma’s embrace when the ground beneath them shook so hard it threw her out of his arms. He reached out and grabbed her to keep her from rolling away.

“It’s happening. Get up!” she cried as she jumped to her feet. She grabbed her shift and pulled it over her head as she ran, with Yuma right behind her.

People were on their feet, some shouting, others already crying.

“We are safe! We are safe!” she yelled as she ran toward the entrance to the cave. “It’s not here. It’s Naaki Chava. The mountain is dying.”

****

They weren’t the only ones awakened by the noise.

Little Mouse had made a shelter inside the palace rubble and when the ground began to shake, it rolled her off of her sleeping mat and across the floor before she managed to get to her feet.

She ran to the window, saw the horror of what had begun, and turned and ran. She ran out the back of the palace into the jungle as the burning rocks began to fall all around her. Twice she fell, and each time she got up, she left a piece of her burning clothing behind.

She wanted to scream, but that would have taken too much breath. Everywhere she looked, fire was falling. She paused once to look back and saw a running river of fire coming down the mountain and into the rubble of what was once Naaki Chava. She could not outrun that. Where to go? What to do?

And then she noticed that the fire was running with the flow of the land, which was toward the river, so instead of running away from the mountain, she would take a long way around and run toward it to get to the other side. Fire was still falling from the sky and everything was burning, but the river of fire was going the other way.

She didn’t call for help. She didn’t tell the fire god that she was Little Mouse, and that she was here running away from his might. She just kept slapping at the fire falling in her hair and ran as she’d never run before.

****

Even though the cave where the New Ones stopped was far below the tops of the tallest trees, they could see a bright red glow in the southern sky.

There were no words for what Yuma was feeling. They’d come into that place in fire. Now that the city had burned, it was being buried in more fire. Would the cleansing of the past never end?

Tyhen slipped her fingers through his as people crowded around them, some talking, others, like him, too shocked by what they knew was happening to speak.

“Oh no! Look! Look!” someone cried.

Suddenly the sky was awash in burning debris as the volcano began spewing burning rock and molten lava straight up into the air. The ground was shaking beneath their feet and there was a growing tower of smoke and fire silhouetted against the burgeoning dawn.

She thought of her mother and Cayetano. Did they get the others far enough away before this happened or were they once again running from a world on fire?

Adam! Evan! Talk to me. What is happening where you are?

“
We are running! I can’t find Evan. Can you see him? Help me, help me, help me!”

“No, no, no,” Tyhen moaned and then dropped to her knees and closed her eyes.

Yuma grabbed her, thinking she was going to faint, then realized something else was going on.

“What is it? What’s happening?”

“The others are in trouble. They didn’t get far enough away.”

Yuma groaned. “Can they still make it?”

“Wait. I need to help.”

She had never spirit walked except when her body was asleep and didn’t know if this would work, but she was about to find out. She grabbed Yuma’s forearms, fixing him with a look that nearly stopped his heart.

“Hold me. Don’t move me. And have faith I will be back.”

Before he could question what she meant, he watched her take a deep breath and close her eyes. A heartbeat later, she fell into Yuma’s outstretched arms. It appeared she had fainted, when in reality, her spirit left her body and was already gone.

He sat down on the ground with her, holding her firmly in his grasp. He didn’t know what was happening, but she told him to hold her, and they would have to kill him before he’d ever let her go.

****

She used her connection to her mother to find them, and she did easily because their tie was strong. One second she was in Yuma’s arms and the next she was with the others and shocked by what she saw. The New Ones who had been too old to go with her, were now running again for their lives along with the ones who had been born in Naaki Chava. The jungle was on fire behind them, and the burning rock was falling all around them. It was like running from Firewalker all over again.

Adam. I am here.

“Find him for me. Please! He wasn’t beside me when the volcano blew. We started running. I thought he was with us but then I couldn’t feel him. I know now that he’s not.”

My mother and Cayetano?

“Right in front of me, leading us to safety. Hurry.”

Yes, I will hurry.

She was hovering above ground as she looked behind her. There was nothing but smoke. She heard a high-pitched whine and looked up just as another burning rock flew over her head. Even though she knew she could not be harmed, it took everything she had to stay put.

Evan, Evan, talk to me, my brother. Where have you gone?

****

Evan woke, saw the sleeping camp around him and felt pressure on his bladder. He got up with the intent to relieve himself, which he did without incident, and was on his way back when the mountain blew. He turned around just as the first wave of burning rock spewed into the air. Then the ground rolled beneath his feet and he fell forward, hitting his head against a tree and knew no more.

He came to in a world on fire. There was blood in his eyes, smoke in his face, and no thought in his head but an inborn sense of self-preservation that made him run. But he was running the wrong way. While everyone else was running South, Evan Prince was running North into hell.

****

Tyhen knew that if he wasn’t with the others and that if he was still alive and able to move, he had to be running like the rest of them, trying to get away. She closed her eyes and said his name again and again, but he didn’t answer.

She went up higher to cover more ground, moving like smoke with the speed of light, scanning what was below. Just when she began to fear the search would end badly, she saw him, running in an all-out sprint, but in the wrong direction. She dropped down in front of him and held out her hands.

Stop, Evan! It’s me, Tyhen.

He ran right through her.

Shocked, she spun around and flew past Evan again and tried to stop him, and again he ran past. That was when she saw the blood on his face and the gash in his head. She groaned. It was the head wound. He had forgotten how to hear. He didn’t know how to see her anymore. What to do, what to do?

And then it hit her. She was the Windwalker’s daughter. Even in spirit, she was stronger than man and equal to weather. She put her arms up into the air and made the wind come, and then made it spin around her. Faster and faster it spun until it was alive on its own, sucking smoke and fire into the funnel as it took her up into the treetops and then flew above the smoke until it dropped down on Evan Prince. It sucked him up into the vortex in mid-step. He screamed, but it was only from fear. He could thank her later.

****

Adam was running with both his pack and Evan’s on his back and a four-year-old girl in his arms, so sick at heart he could barely breathe. Her mother was in front of him carrying her baby. They’d left the father a good half mile behind, crushed beneath a burning rock.

Adam saw it happen, heard the mother screaming and stopped long enough to grab the little girl who’d fallen out of her father’s arms. The mother didn’t even see him. She just kept screaming.

He slapped her. Pointed at the baby in her arms and screamed.

“Run, woman, run!”

Still reeling from the blow, she turned and ran.

He was right behind her.

****

Cayetano and Singing Bird were running hand in hand. He wouldn’t let her go, and she wasn’t about to stop. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her again and very angry with the Old Ones. They could have changed this outcome. They
should
have changed this outcome.

Her feet were burning and sparks were falling in her hair. More than once Cayetano gave her head a quick thump with the flat of his hand and she knew he was putting out fires. She could hear people screaming all around her. They were death screams. She’d heard them before. She wanted to scream, too, but was afraid if she did, she’d never stop.

She didn’t know where the twins were or if there would be enough people left alive after this to even make a new city, and right now she couldn’t let herself care. As long as Cayetano was beside her, she would bear what came to pass.

Cayetano felt like he’d lost his mind. This had to be a nightmare and when he woke up it would be gone. But the screams were too loud, the fire was too hot, and the falling sparks on his arms and legs were causing too much pain to be a dream.

The ground was moving beneath them with such force that it was difficult to keep his balance. Twice he had stumbled and gone to his knees, and both times Singing Bird had been the one who pulled him up. He didn’t know her like this. She’d fallen back into the woman who’d run from Firewalker. It was yet another thing to fear. If they lived through this, which woman would stay?

After a time, Singing Bird became aware that they were now ahead of the fire rather than caught in its midst. With that realization came another, that no fiery rocks had come this far. She wanted to look behind her, to see if they were actually outrunning the danger, but was afraid to slow down. Her chest was burning, her sides aching, and her muscles were in spasms.

Finally, she began slowing down from sheer exhaustion and was about to take a chance and look back when she caught a glimpse of movement to her right. Then she saw what it was, and when it sailed over their heads and kept going, she stumbled and fell to her knees.

“What was that?” Cayetano shouted as he jerked her upright.

She leaped forward again without answering, couldn’t bring herself to say the words that would break his heart. But the last time she’d seen anything remotely like it was when the Windwalker had rescued her from her attackers on the streets of New Orleans. Now she couldn’t slow down. She had to know if she’d been seeing things or if another miracle was about to occur.

****

Adam Prince was still a hundred yards behind and still running with the little family that he’d saved, but with joy in his heart. He had never cried in his life, and up to this moment, he had been convinced he was incapable of emotion. But he was crying now and with his heart in his throat. Tyhen had just sent him a message.

I found him.

Despite the mortal danger they were still in, his heart was so full of joy he believed he could run forever.

****

Tyhen stopped the wind when she saw the ocean. She lowered her arms and dropped to the beach, then caught Evan before he fell. He was unconscious, which was just as well. She knelt beside him and heard his heart thump, although his skin was pale.

When he began to moan, she stood and moved straight into his line of vision. His eyes opened.

Evan, it’s Tyhen, can you hear me?

She watched his eyes widen as he began to look around in confusion.

Look at ME. See ME.

He crawled backward.

“Where are you? Who’s talking?”

She sighed. The blow to his head had played havoc with his psychic self.

It’s Tyhen. Adam is coming. Cayetano and Singing Bird are coming. You are safe.

“Adam! Where’s Adam,” he mumbled, then stood up too fast, staggered forward, and fell back down on his hands and knees.

He’s coming, my brother. Just wait.”

“Brother? I am your brother?”

Tyhen saw movement up in the trees beyond the shore and stood up as Cayetano and Singing Bird appeared, with hundreds of others close behind them. They ran all the way to the water and then fell into it in exhaustion, grateful for the cool wet relief on their scorched skin and aching bodies.

Singing Bird ran straight to Evan and fell to her knees.

“My son, my son! You’ve been hurt.”

The ache in Tyhen’s chest grew with each moment she waited. She was this close to her mother and Singing Bird did not know that she was there.

Mother, I am here.