Shelly and Cynnia were seated cross-legged on the bed with playing cards when I entered the room using the key I had gotten off of Danaus. Judging by the way Shelly was continuously looking over at Cynnia’s cards, it appeared that she was attempting to teach the naturi how to play gin with mixed results.

“We need to change rooms,” I said, slamming the door shut behind me. Both women looked at me a little strangely, each tensely clutching their individual hand of cards.

“Come on! Let’s move! They could be in the hotel already,” I snapped when they didn’t move. Taking the cards out of Cynnia’s hands, I dropped them on the bed and grabbed the chain linking her wrist irons. She stumbled behind me as I pulled her to her feet, with Shelly following.

“I don’t understand,” Shelly said. “Who’s here?”

“The naturi,” Cynnia answered before I could.

“Where’s Danaus?”

“On an errand.” I halted when we reached the door and looked down at her. “Do you sense them? Are they here?”

“Mira, with the manacles, I can’t clearly sense much of anything,” Cynnia explained. “I can feel the power in the air, but I can’t use it to clearly sense my own kind while I’m in the hotel.”

“But earlier you said that you had sensed them.”

“It was when I was standing on the ground outside, while we were traveling,” she argued. “When I’m in this hotel with concrete separating me from the earth, I can’t feel anything but the energy in the air.”

“Grand,” I snarled, my gaze sweeping around the room to snag on the one window against the far wall. “Shelly, I want to you keep an eye on that window until I say to follow me.” The witch nodded, and I moved back to the door with Cynnia in tow.

I opened the door and quickly palmed my knife with my right hand. Peering down the hall to the left and then to the right, I saw that it was empty and felt some of the tension in my chest uncoil.

“Is someone coming after us?” Cynnia asked

“Possibly.” I jerked the door open wider and pulled her into the hallway with me and down to the next door, where Danaus and I shared the windowless room. “Shelly, come on!”

“Is that why you’re wounded? You were attacked by a naturi,” Cynnia said, trying to take a step back from me, but her manacles were tightly held in my grip. Unfortunately, I was out of hands to set the key into the lock. I wasn’t willing to let go of the knife either, as I felt safer with it close at hand. Frustrated, I buried the tip of the knife into the wooden doorjamb, earning a gasp from both Shelly and Cynnia as I fished the room key out of my pocket.

Once the door was open, I grabbed the knife and ushered both women quickly into the room. Shelly and Cynnia huddled together against the far wall after I locked the door and conducted a thorough search of the room to ensure that we were truly alone. I liked this room better—there was no window, and only one entrance, only one door to defend if someone had followed me to Cynnia’s location.

“What happened?” Shelly inquired when I finally seemed satisfied that we had the room to ourselves. “Your arm is covered in dried blood.”

I sat on the edge of the bed, while Shelly took the one good seat in the room, leaving Cynnia to once again curl up on the floor against the wall. “I met up with an old friend of mine named Rowe. He seemed really anxious to find you, Cynnia.”

“Does he mean to kill me?” Cynnia said, wrapping her arms around one of her bent legs while keeping the other out straight.

“I don’t know, but I gave him an ultimatum. If he walks away from the ceremony, I’ll set you free. If not, you’re dead. I thought it was what we both wanted.”

“Not the dead part!”

“He has to be given a reason to cooperate.”

“Couldn’t you think of something equally persuasive other than ending my life?”

“No, because I mean it. I have no use for you if I can’t use you to stop the sacrifice from being completed. You’re just another naturi that wants to kill nightwalkers and humans, then.”

“No, that’s not true! You know it’s not true,” she argued. She lurched forward so that she was on her hands and knees before me. “I can help you. I don’t want this war. I don’t want to fight with the nightwalkers and I’d be happy to find a way to live in peace with the humans.”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Rowe is willing to put aside his plans just for the sister of the queen. He plans to go forward with the sacrifice tomorrow night.”

“No! Mira, please, we can find another way. I can be useful to you,” Cynnia desperately argued.

“You are in luck, because someone else appeared before I had a chance to return here,” I said, causing her bent head to snap up. “It seems you’re rather important to your sister. Enough so that she may be willing to try to stop Rowe’s plans in an effort to save your life.”

“Nyx wants me alive?” Cynnia whispered. She sat back again, tears slipping down her pale cheeks. “I was afraid that if she was here, she had been sent to kill me as well. But Nyx wants me alive.”

“So it would seem,” I murmured.

“You have a plan?” Shelly asked, drawing my attention to her. She had been a quiet companion on this trip, seeing to Cynnia’s needs while Danaus and I made what plans we could for Machu Picchu. Hopefully, she could block the naturi earth magic.

“If our little Nia wants to stay alive, then it seems that she may have to provide some assistance to us, and by extension, to her sister Nyx.” I paused to be sure that I had Cynnia’s complete attention. Her wide, wet eyes were locked on my face as she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away her tears. “We have to keep the door closed.”

“I agree,” Cynnia said with a nod. “I don’t want to see Aurora hurt, but she can’t be allowed to return to earth.”

“Then I need you to teach Shelly and me how to use earth magic.”

“I already know how to use earth magic,” Shelly argued, moving to the edge of her chair.

“Maybe, but not to the powerful levels that are available to you right now,” I said with a shake of my head. “I need you to be able to wield this power. The Sacred Valley is flooded with energy, more so than what I experienced at Stonehenge or the Palace of Knossos. This place is different, and I need you prepared to take advantage of it.”

“Besides, nightwalkers can’t use earth magic,” Cynnia argued. “It’s against all the laws.”

I smiled and pushed off the bed to walk over to her. “All laws can be broken. Rowe has been using blood magic. I know a warlock that has been wielding both blood and earth magic. I can manipulate fire, which seems to have given me some kind of in when it comes to using earth magic. I need your help in learning to control it.”

“There is no controlling it.” Using the wall behind her, she pushed to her feet. “It’s energy that is there for your use, but to actually control it and wield it is not something we believe in.”

“Look, Cynnia, I’m not in the mood to debate semantics with you. I want you to teach me to be able to use this power that is flowing about me. Teach me to be an earth witch, if you must.”

“It’s not that simple, Mira,” Shelly chimed in.

Turning back around, I flopped down on the edge of the bed and put my head between my hands in frustration. “It’s like we’re talking different languages—we don’t have time for this.”

To my surprise, Shelly stepped forward. She left the chair and came over to kneel before me, taking both of my hands in her warm hands. “We’re not trying to make this difficult, but it is a matter of semantics, in a way. I don’t know about blood magic, but earth magic comes from one single, living source. The power itself has its own consciousness and identity. You can’t control it because it doesn’t want to be controlled. You can’t wield it the same way that you wield a sword because it’s not a thing.”