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Tanit looked toward the cave "It’s a Temple of Death Only the Master is allowed inside" He tre-shih He has killed thousands We will die if we go inside Please We must - "

"Look atthe day We’ll stake him, and then you’ll be free"

Tanit’s eyes filled with tears "It’s too late I saw you shift into a cat, and I told the professor He ordered me to stay with you until the Guardians coed a worried look with Carlos Why would a vaed Tanit to his feet "It doesn’t matter By the time the Guardians find ame will be over"

Tanit whimpered "It is impossible to kill Master Han He can live forever"

"We shall see" Carlos shoved him toward the mouth of the cave He skidded to a stop in the pebbles

Carlos wedged Tanit’s knife under his belt Caitlyn handed hiht and shouldered his backpack

She did the same while her heart raced She didn’t want to admit it, but she was as scared as Tanit

"Ready?" Carlos asked her

She glanced at the sun It was low enough to paint the sky pink and gold "We’d better hurry" And get this over with

Carlos grabbed Tanit by the arm and escorted hi sun shone inside for a short distance The interior was a large rooht picked out a narrow opening This rooht be the first of ht overhead Ropes crisscrossed the ceiling over theled from the ropes

"Those are prayers," Tanit whispered "Buddhist prayers to keep the evil in this cave fro"

Caitlyn looked around the eht beae robes identified him as a Buddhist monk

Caitlyn drew in a sharp breath A spear protruded froe "Someone murdered him"

"I told you!" Tanit cried "Any who enter this cave will die!"

"Relax It looks like it happened years ago" Carlos shone his flashlight at the narrow opening in the distance "We need to go through there" He walked forward

Caitlyn followed closely Tanit hung back, his face deathly white

Carlos took a step and froze when a h the cave "Booby-trapped"

"What?" Caitlyn didn’t have tiround shuddered under her feet Carlos grabbed her and leaped forward,forward

She glanced back and saw the ground caving in, taking Tanit with it He screamed, then disappeared A cloud of dust rose from a ditch that now pided the cave rooe of the ditch and gasped Iron spikes shot up from the bottom of the ditch, and Tanit was impaled on one of therabbed her and held her tight "It’s all right"

"He’s dead!"

Carlos grabbed her by the upper arms "Caitlyn, we have to stay calm The cave is booby-trapped I think we made it past the first one because the Buddhist monk set it off"

She drew in a shaky breath "We wouldn’t have survived the second one if you couldn’t leap like a cat"

"There could be a third one We have to be careful"

She started to shake They could no longer get to the cave entrance It was cut off by the ditch with spikes And they couldn’toff another death trap "How can we move?"

"Don’t worry, sweetheart" He squeezed her arh this" He took off his backpack and tossed it forward a few feet, angled to the right

Nothing happened

"Okay, that space is safe" Carlos stepped close to the backpack and picked it up He held out his hand to Caitlyn

She grabbed his hand and stepped close to hih the narrow gap "Do you think the next rooned to take out an entire group"

She shuddered, and the beaht quivered Poor Tanit They shouldn’t have forced hiain, and it landed just to the right of the entrance When nothing happened, he lunged toward it and picked it up He reached for Caitlyn

It was a jump for her She leaped, but overcompensated and bounced into hirab her

Click

A spear flew froht toward them

"Get down!" He pushed her down and jumped in front of her

She fell on her rump and looked up just in tih his sto to a stop inches from her face

She screamed Carlos shuddered, his face pale, his eyes ith shock He collapsed to his knees

She scrambled to her feet The spear had impaled him from the back "Oh God, no"

He crumbled onto his side

"Carlos" She knelt beside him She could see him before her but didn’t want to believe it He couldn’t die Not Carlos

With shaking hands he grasped the spear that protruded froritted his teeth and attempted to break the shaft of the spear He cried out in pain

"Carlos, what are you doing?"

"Have to break off the point Helphis hands