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He straightened Standing in an archway, she gestured to him to join her When he rip white As he reached her, he could look right and see whatever it was that had ratcheted up her tension a hundredfold But first, he leaned down, pressed his ainst her face, his fingertips in her hair
He’d learned to pay attention to those e, to be sure he did what he wanted to do on the deciding side of that line Because once he stepped over, ive her all the passion and esture
She ripped his shoulder with her free hand like a person floundering on a cliff edge He brought her against hi in his throat, and deepened the kiss The torch quivered in her hand, the heat corip over her wrist without looking, steadied it Her every curve was against hiainst his leg His woman For better or worse No matter what lay behind this door He conveyed that and h this
Giving her one last look, he turned to face as in that cave
It was ser than her one-bedroom apartment Like the latter part of their descent, the folds and lines of the walls were created by water and heat, not chisel and blast Her torch showed hi but an eaze coursing over the walls, his senses reaching out Nothing… No Picking up on so visible, he nodded toward it The signature was similar to as upstairs However, he wasn’t entirely sure he would have found it unless he’d felt it fro shifted in her countenance He’d passed soested she preferred failure Still, she drew hi to the back here he’d indicated When she ht, he realized it was an optical illusion There was another chaht squeeze for a h it with practiced ease She doused the torch, left it on the ground next to the opening He was in total darkness as he navigated the snakelike passage
When he h, he realized why she’d done it Where they were going, a diht was already provided Because of that dile of entry, this chaht out into the next one The serpentine approach doubled back and was blocked by another rock outcropping, adding to that optical illusion
He registered the cleverness of it, but it wasn’t theto a halt just inside its entrance, he fixated on the thing that was
Vaguely, he noted Ruby hadherself between hiht That constriction in his chest increased to the point he couldn’t speak
It was the vision he’d seen during the Great Rite, only eventhe ic he’d ever detected He’d thought what she’d done to protect and reinforce this chamber was incredible This was beyond it, a miracle A wondrous, terrible miracle
The sphere floated with apparent aimlessness across the room, like a child’s balloon When he’d pulled hiet the breadth of his chest through, Derek sensed a ate of sorts, to keep the sphere here A child gate
Soft green, blue, lavender and pink colors swirled in the light of that sphere What ehter… quiet
Looking around the cave, he saw the sphere wasn’t the only thing here He found the things he would have expected in Ruby’s room above Crystals and favorite pieces of jewelry were tucked into natural hollows in the rock Unlit candles were clustered here and there with a variety of compatible scents Vases of dried flowers and herbs added color These weren’t randoreat sentimental value that could be infused with power and intent, a continuous feed for that sphere Seeing a faded stuffed dog with a wrinkled face, he recognized the second toy he’d ever given her, for her seventh birthday
Studying the layout, he detected the five points, the bisecting lines The pentagraics, but what each had in coredient This here Ruby had woven the power she’d gained froether Dark and Light, and created a mother’s wo The colors swirled,However, the pale pink, the color of innocent, new flesh, stayed the sah it bobbed around in the sphere, a tiny astronaut holding her toes to do slow somersaults in what appeared, to her, as lihter She still held the last shape she’d had in the woers and impossibly small toes If he’d had any doubt, the spirit shi him it was of course not the physical body However, to help the ic, maintain the focus, Ruby had likely visualized her as she’d been when she’d died Which meant…
"You saw her," he realized