Corey hadn’t noticed the similarities when he’d first gotten in the car. Liberty had the same shaped nose, the same dark eyes, lips, chin … but Liberty
Liberty’s skin was lighter and her hair wasn’t as black as Zyanya’s. Still, they could be sisters.
“Where are you headed?” Zyanya asked.
Corey cleared his throat. “Cedar City
“I thought you wanted a ride south,” she said.
Corey shook his head, swallowed hard and said, “Isn’t Cedar City south?”
Zyanya kept her eyes on the road. “Southwest.”
“That’s where I want to go then.” Corey clung to the straps on his backpack as it rested on the floorboard between his feet.
“Why’d you leave your friends?”
“They’re not my friends,” Corey said.
She raised an eyebrow. “Not even Garrett?”
Corey scooted closer to the door, his unease growing. “Who are you?”
“I told you when I picked you up. My name is Zyanya.”
“You know Garrett? Are you working together?”
She shrugged. “We’ve met, briefly.”
“So you are working together.”
She shook her head. “You and I have met too, or don’t you remember?”
Corey scratched his head with one hand while retaining a firm grip on the backpack with the other.
“I thought I would have left more of an impression,” she said.
“Let me out.”
Zyanya kept driving, her speed steady.
“I mean it. I want out.”
“You want it badly enough to give up your most prized possession?” Her voice purred, but didn’t mask the barbs in each syllable.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Zyanya glanced down at the backpack and Corey shifted his legs to trap it between them and the seat.
“Pull over or I’m calling the police,” Corey said, pulling out his cell phone.
Zyanya pulled to the side of the road and Corey reached for the door handle before the car came to a stop.
“Do you love her, Corey?”
He flung the door open, the ground still gliding past.
“Maddy,” she clarified. “Do you love her?”
Corey froze. “Where is she?”
The car stopped. “Do you love her more than the medallion?”
Corey’s stomach lurched. How many people were looking for that stupid medallion? He pulled it from around his neck and held it between them, the chain firmly wrapped around his fingers. “It’s yours as soon as you give me my wife.”
Zyanya nodded, her eyebrows arching. “Deal.” She reached for the medallion and Corey jerked it away.
“Where is she?”
Zyanya motioned to the back of the car. “In the trunk.”
Corey pursed his lips together and closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths. “Is she alive?”
“She’s fine.”
“I want to see her.”
Zyanya stepped from the car and opened the trunk. Maddy looked to be sleeping, her eyes closed, hair curved against high cheekbones. He reached out to touch her but Zyanya shut the trunk, knocking his hand away.
“What have you done to her?” he asked.
Zyanya returned to the driver’s seat. “Get in.”
“We made a deal.”
“I need your help before we make the trade.”
“I don’t trust you.”
Zyanya started the car back up. “Do you trust anyone, Corey?”
The car pulled away and Corey ran for it, nearly diving into the passenger seat. Whether he wanted to help her or not, he couldn’t let Maddy out of his sight like this. He closed the door behind him and Zyanya sped away. “What is it you want?”
“I want you to read the map.”
“Map?”
“Codex.”
“How do you know about that?”
“We’ve been connected, here,” Zyanya paused, touching her forehead, then Corey’s, “since you stole my medallion.”
“I didn’t steal anything. I found it when I was a kid …” His voice trailed off as he pictured the little girl in the woods, the dark eyes and the voice that called down the rocks that had nearly killed him and Garrett in the old mine.
“You remember me.”
Corey nodded. “Can you read all my thoughts?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to read all your thoughts, Corey.”
He stared out the window, feeling naked to his soul. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the medallion dangling from his fingers. “Why don’t you do it?”
Zyanya turned onto the highway that would take them to downtown Cedar City
“How will that help you?”
“I see what you see.”
“Have you seen them before, my visions?”
She shrugged. “The blind man should have kept his mouth shut.”
“You were there?”
“I arrived a little late, but finally made it with your help.”
Corey braced his chin on his fist against the doorframe. “Did you stab him?”
“He would have died anyway.”
The valley flew by in a blur of wooden fence posts, the tires humming against the asphalt. “You want me to tell you the location of the treasure?”
“I don’t want the treasure.”
“You don’t?”
She shook her head. “Victor will want a few pieces, but I want only one artifact.”
“How do you know it ever left Tenochtitlan
“I know.”
Corey pulled the codex from his backpack and spread it across his lap. He held the medallion above the codex, waiting for instruction. “Where do you believe it was buried?”
“Because of the power it possesses, it should be hidden with the most sacred artifacts, in the new temple of Quetzalcoatl
Houses appeared on either side of the road as they passed through a small town on the outskirts of Cedar City
“But its alliance with Tezcatlipoca may have required a different place. They were enemies, you know.”
Corey clutched the medallion in the palm of his hand as they crossed over the freeway and rounded the bend into the city. “I want my wife back.”
“We can’t make any mistakes, Corey. We can’t go back once we’ve been to one location.”
At least she answered that question, but he really didn’t care anymore. He wanted the entire ordeal over with. Now. “What is it you’re looking for?” he asked, not trying to mask his frustration.
“The flute of Tezcatlipoca.”
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