Once Upon a Valentine (20 page)

“I’ve always kind of figured Atlantis was over here,” he admitted. “That somebody just got their stories crossed.”

“Me, too.”

He looked away, staring out into the forest. Raine was silent for a long moment, evaluating, considering the options. As if her revelation had changed everything.

Well, it had. For both of them. She knew Raine was determined to protect her. She even suspected he was no longer doing it just for money. So it wasn’t as if she could continue her quest without him—he would insist on seeing her back to her home in Riverdale.

Now, with his knowledge of the fourth quarter of the map, and the fact that she’d opened herself up to him the way she never had with anyone, there seemed to be only one option.

“So, Raine Fowler, finder of many things. Do you want to join me?”

“Join you?”

“Will you help me find Sleeping Beauty’s castle?”

Their stares locked. The excitement she felt was mirrored in his expression. And he answered with no hesitation.

“Yes, Ashlynn Scott. I will definitely help you.”

RAINE HAD WANTED ASHLYNN from the minute he’d seen her. He’d desired her, admired her. Lusted after her. And
had
her.

But as they set out on their quest, he realized how truly remarkable she was. They walked for hours without rest. Stopped in villages only long enough to buy food, then kept going. They slept on the ground, with nothing but each other for warmth—oh, they definitely kept each other warm, especially trying out all those positions she’d learned on late-night cable TV.

Throughout it all, she never complained. Strong, relentless, she matched him stride for stride, her enthusiasm when they would spot a familiar landmark from the map absolutely contagious.

The map.
He hadn’t totally wrapped his head around it. Still, he had no doubt that the men who were after her had the fourth quarter of it. When he sketched out everything he remembered, the lines matched perfectly with those that trailed off the edge of hers.

They soon realized how fortunate it was that he’d seen it. Because if Ashlynn had gone with her original plan, to find the castle using just her three pieces, she would have failed. There was one very tricky crossroads—shown only on the quarter she
didn’t
possess—that would have tripped her up. So, despite having come in late on this venture, Raine felt they were equal partners. He had brought something to the table, too.

As for what they’d find when they got there, he honestly didn’t know. Part of him worried they’d find nothing, that the whole thing was an ancient prank…some mass-produced map sold in joke shops many centuries ago.

Another part—the instinct that served him so well when he was on the hunt for what others said was unattainable—told him they were on the path to something magnificent. In his mind, that meant gold and jewels. In hers, it meant a remarkable archeological site. He hoped they were both right.

It was late afternoon when they reached a lake that, in America, would probably be full of toxic runoff or sewage. This one didn’t look as green and fresh as most others he’d seen in Elatyria, but it was water. It should at least wash off sweat.

Reaching into his pack, he pulled out a bar of coarse soap he’d bought in the last village. That seemed like forever ago. They’d walked for nearly two days since then, not seeing a soul, or a cottage, or a single plowed field. The landscape had grown more rough, thick trees giving way to skeletal stumps, and the temperature felt as if it had gone up fifty degrees.

“Want to take a dip?” he asked, gesturing toward the small body of still water. “Wash off some of the dust?”

“Absolutely.”

He extended the soap toward her upraised hand, but instead of taking it, she slowly dropped that hand to her side. Ashlynn was looking past him, staring rapt at something in the distance. Her mouth slowly fell open.

“Ash? What is it?” he asked, swinging around, his heart pounding. Had the thugs caught up with them? He’d thought more than once in recent days that someone was following them.

Nobody was there, but he didn’t let his guard down. This was no longer about getting paid, or finishing a job. It was about protecting Ashlynn.

Because he was falling for her. Big time.

Every hour they spent together drove that certainty harder into his mind…and his heart. Raine had never paid much attention to that particular organ before, but since the other day when he’d wiped off her dirty face with his shirt and finally tasted that beautiful mouth, he’d known Ashlynn Scott was someone he could care about. Every minute they’d spent together since had pushed her just a little deeper into his life.

He didn’t know how he was going to say goodbye when this was all over. And a big part of him hoped he wouldn’t have to. Hey, people had relationships across the U.S. He knew a guy from New York whose wife commuted out to L.A. every week. So why not an Earth to Elatyria relationship?

Relationship? Get real, dude.

But he was being real. Maybe for the first time in his life.

“Am I really seeing that?” she asked, sounding dazed.

“Seeing what?”

“Look at that hillside.”

He followed her stare, seeing the rocky outline of a hill in the distance. The day had grown cloudy, the air moist, and he couldn’t make it out very well at first. Then a breeze shifted some of the clouds, and he saw what she was talking about.

“It’s a dragon,” she whispered.

It didn’t take much imagination to see what she meant. The rocks and ground had arranged themselves into a shape that resembled a dragon, head back, wings unfurled. If it had remained cloudy, or if they’d gotten much closer before seeing it, they probably wouldn’t have been able to make out the resemblance at all. Right now, though, it was obvious.

Ashlynn grabbed the satchel, yanking it open and retrieving the map pieces. She quickly leafed through them until she found the one she wanted. He knew what she was looking for even before she unfolded the thing and tapped her finger on an image.

“The Dragon’s Lair,” he said, his excitement growing.

“I always thought it was figurative—everyone knows dragons don’t live near the sea.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, sure. Everybody knows that.”

“So, I assumed whoever this mapmaker was had intended to make the trip look as dangerous as possible, to discourage those with bad intentions from trying to find the castle.”

Hmm. Bad intentions. What, he wondered, did that mean?

He didn’t have any bad intentions. He just wanted a few fistfuls of diamonds and rubies. Maybe a gold mug to carry them in.

He wasn’t a tomb raider, though some people thought otherwise. He didn’t have to be. Raine knew full well that the rules here were similar to the ones on Earth. A ten-percent finder’s fee was pretty standard. Should he and Ashlynn discover this mystical lost site, they would be rewarded by every monarch in her world, even if it contained no riches at all.

Besides, deep down, he really wanted her to succeed. Wanted her dream to come true. Ashlynn deserved to find her castle and do all her archeology and history stuff.

“If that’s really the dragon on the map, then the entrance to the secret pathway is right through its mouth,” she said.

Meaning all they had to do was climb that hill, walk into the black cave that served as the creature’s mouth, face whatever came after it…and hope they didn’t get chomped on by any real fangs. Dragon’s, or otherwise.
Piece o’ cake.

His desire for a bath suddenly outweighed by his sense of adventure, he dropped the soap into his bag, slung it over his shoulder and reached for her hand. “Ready?”

“More than you can possibly imagine!”

They smiled at each other and, though his feet were almost tapping in impatience, Raine couldn’t resist sliding his hands into her hair and tipping her head back. “I’m happy for you,” he said before dropping his mouth onto hers.

As the kiss ended, she looked up at him, her eyes dreamy and soft. “Thanks. And, Raine? I’m happy you’re with me.”

“Me, too.” He winked, then dropped an arm across her shoulders. “Now let’s go slay that dragon.”

6

IT WAS A DAMN GOOD THING Raine was with her.

Not because of any dragons—there had been none. Though, when they’d passed through the cave that led to the path, Ashlynn would swear she’d seen a few glittery objects that might have been scales from some ancient, long-dead creature.

The real issue was the sneaky twist in the path. If she’d been alone, she might not have noticed it. And since it appeared to double back the way they’d come, she almost certainly wouldn’t have turned. Raine, however, was sure of what he’d seen on the other piece of the map. And, judging by the sea of thorny brush they had to hack their way through, she knew he was right. The hedge was just how the legends had described it—secretive and close, wicked and twisted. It would discourage anyone from traveling on, especially someone not sure they were going the right away.

“You doing okay?” he asked as he used a hunting knife he’d produced from his pack to cut their way through.

She carefully plucked a branch out of the way, her fingers already bloodied from the dozens she’d already moved. “I’m fine.”

“Luckily, it’s getting thicker,” he said.

She snorted. “Luckily?”

“That means we’re getting close. It’s always worse right before you break through. Remind me to tell you about the pendulum that swung down about an inch from my face once.”

Despite the circumstances, she had to smile. Raine had told her many stories as they’d traveled. Tales of his adventures, his near misses, his successes. Each had thrilled her, charmed her, opened a door to a lifestyle she’d never conceived of. She studied history, looked at artifacts, carefully uncovered them at precise dig sites, then put them on display.

Raine actually fought for them. He’d strode through jungles, explored ancient temples. He’d battled angry natives and dishonest bureaucrats and had emerged triumphant at times, beaten at others.

While she’d been studying life, he’d been out there—to use an Earthen expression—grabbing it by the balls.

It was exciting. Thrilling. Just like Raine. He excited and thrilled her down to her toes. More, though, during the past few days, he’d surprised her with his tenderness. He’d been kind and playful, sexy and steady, daring and protective. The kind of man she’d dreamed of finding, in the outward package she’d never have expected.

He was the man she’d been waiting for all of her life. And every step they drew closer to the end of their quest was another step closer to his departure from her life.

Ashlynn had never felt so torn. This wasn’t the first time she’d thought about how much she dreaded the thought of him going back to where he belonged. But it was the first time she realized just how soon that moment could come.

“Stay right behind me,” he ordered. “It’s getting darker.”

Definitely darker. The hedge had gone from a daunting chest-high barrier to a nearly impassable over-the-head one. The twisted shrubs had folded over on themselves, forming a canopy that blocked out the sky. Inside the dark, treacherous tunnel Raine created with every slash of his knife, the air was stale and thick. Unpleasant. And the farther they went, the closer the wicked plants came, until it was impossible to move without brushing against one. Usually painfully.

This vicious barrier could not have come naturally. Someone had put it here. Which meant there was something worth guarding at the other end of it.

Ashlynn cursed the fact that she hadn’t brought home a pair of those sneakers people in his world wore. Her sandals were sturdy and comfortable, but she’d taken more than one thorn to the toe. “Ouch!” she muttered as a wicked, needle-sharp point scraped across her calf.

She should have brought home some jeans, too. Next time, she needed to make a list of things to bring back from Earth. Unfortunately, her number-one obsession—a confection called Chunky Monkey, which, she had been very relieved to learn, did not contain any real monkeys—would probably melt in the borderlands. But potato chips definitely would not.

Huh, funny that she was thinking about her next trip to Earth. When she’d arrived home last week, she had thought she’d never go back. Yet, every day she spent here at home reminded her of something she had liked back there.