at all.”
“What about Wade and David?”
“They know where we’re going. They can join us if they’re able to.”
She hated the dark tone of Connor’s voice.
Kat said, “I think Connor’s right. We can give this a shot and see if it works. Just write Wade a note that you’re going on the tour by yourself. That I’m not feeling well and Connor’s staying at the cottage with me. That you’ll meet him for dinner. That way, when he gets here, he’ll know we left on the tour. He’ll know Connor and I wouldn’t have let you go alone. And if someone else reads the note, they won’t realize that Wade and David intended to watch our backs. Or that we won’t be with you.”
Unsure about the whole plan, Maya hastily wrote a note for Wade and left it on the coffee table.
“Go. The group and guide are ready to hike. We’ll join you in a minute,” Connor said, lifting his backpack to Maya’s shoulders.
Maya kissed him on the cheek, gave Kat a hug, and then Kat said, “Be careful, okay?”
Heading outside, Maya hurried to join the excursion group.
She greeted the guide and the twelve other cave tubers, and then they began their hike through the jungle. The guide, Francisco, had near-black hair and eyes and a big white-toothed smile. The other cave tubers were of various shapes and sizes.
The men and women were quiet as Francisco walked ahead of the party, talking about the jungle, pointing out the importance of the plants, and identifying birds, insects, and reptiles. He guided them along the semi-worn path—as worn as any jungle path could be where the vegetation grew wild and couldn’t be tamed, even by man.
Maya soaked up the feel of the hot, muggy rainforest as she tuned the guide out and watched for any sign of Lion Mane. Her brother and Kat would also be in the rainforest, but they would be elusive, trying to keep out of another jaguar’s sight, if Lion Mane was following her. She would have been comforted to know that they were close by, but she couldn’t stop worrying about Kat.
The tourists in front of them eyed the trees as the tour guide pointed out a bright green, poisonous tree frog, a boa constrictor coiled nearby, and colorful parrots high above. The tourists immediately began plying him with questions, but the chatter died down quickly because the men and women had to save their breath for the rigorous hike.
Maya thought she spied a jaguar’s movement. She stopped, staring into the jungle, but it was too late. Whatever movement had caught her eye was now well hidden in the foliage.
By the time they reached the cave nearly an hour later, everyone was sweaty and breathing hard, except for the guide and Maya. No one had attempted to attack her, and she hadn’t heard any fighting in the jungle.
She left the backpack hidden off the trail for her brother and Kat to find and rejoined the others.
The guide said they had reached the spot, and they could see through the blue-green water clear to the rocky bottom where fish were diving for food. Maya took a deep breath and stared at the pristine beauty.
“For over two thousand years, the Mayans used these caves for ceremonies,” Connor said, taking in the wondrous site.
She whipped around to see him and Kat together, hands entwined and Connor now wearing the backpack. He gave her a small smile.
Maya was so glad to see them safe that she immediately embraced them both. “What did you see?”
“Trees,” Connor said. “Nothing else.”
Then the movement Maya had seen must have been Kat or Connor. She was glad Kat and her brother hadn’t encountered any trouble.
“It’s beautiful.” Kat looked as though the long hike as a jaguar hadn’t bothered her in the least as she peered down at the water.
The jungle and whitewashed cliffs surrounded the river, boulders rising high above where the group climbed before removing their outer clothing and shoving it into packs. They each grabbed an inner tube and tossed it into the placid water. Then one after another, they jumped in to join their tubes. Each also had a life jacket and a headlamp to use in the darker parts of the cave.
The melodious mix of bugs chattered, mosquitoes buzzed, monkeys howled, and colorful birds of paradise sang, while gray doves cooed.
“Ahh,” Maya said, as she settled into the tube and paddled over to where Kat was sitting in her own tube, a big grin on her face. “This feel so good. How are you doing?”
“Wonderfully,” Kat said. “I couldn’t be better.”
“No sign of anyone?” Maya asked.
“No. We didn’t smell any other jaguars in the area.”
“Good.”
They floated with the others into the cave. Water dripped from stalactites hanging down from the cave ceiling, and stalagmites poked out of the water at intervals. Sometimes the water flowed and they didn’t need to paddle. At other times, it was still as glass.
Francisco pointed out stones that appeared to be in the shape of animals and humans. “The Visual Serpent,” he said at one point. “The Celestial Bird,” he remarked later. “And there, pottery shards from ancient civilizations. Do not touch. It is against the law. They are considered national treasures.”
Natural windows carved into the rock allowed sunlight to pour into the cave, penetrating through the wet mist in the air. The tourists continued their way down the river until they reached a waterfall.
Here, everyone played in the waterfall, splashing and having the time of their lives, and then they continued into the crystal cave, where the walls glittered like diamonds.
A small colony of bats clung to the ceiling high above, twittering a little when the people’s voices echoed off the cave walls, and a woman gasped.
“They eat fruit and insects,” Francisco assured the group. “They’re not vampire bats.”
Maya caught sight of a spider crawling across the cavern wall and crustaceans feeding nearby, while catfish swam in a pool of water.
“Jaguars sometimes come in here to drink the cool water rising from underground springs or to hunt a gibnut, a nocturnal rodent,” the guide said.
Maya looked at Connor. He was frowning. Would Lion Mane have come here in search of a jaguar? Certainly not during the day, because jaguars wouldn’t hunt in the cave while people were around. She relaxed. She hated that the shifter had turned against their jaguar cousins and that he might make Kat and Connor worry during their otherwise enjoyable outing.
The group spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and floating on the inner tubes until they had to make the long hike back.
The guide spoke privately with Connor, glanced at Kat and Maya, then nodded at Connor. Francisco didn’t seem really happy, but Connor had paid for their special accommodations. Connor and Kat headed into the jungle with his backpack, just beyond the tourists’ and the guide’s view. Then while everyone finished turning in their life preservers and tubes, Maya hurried off to grab Connor’s bag and return to the group.
Maya was torn between wanting Connor to take care of Lion Mane, should he come after her, and craving one last quiet jungle hike, though she would have preferred touring the jungle as a cat, not stumbling over tree roots and vines as a human.
Wade and David had never arrived, at least that she knew of, and that made her worry even more.
Ever vigilant, she remained at the tail end of the group, watching for any signs of danger.
With the weight of Kat’s and Connor’s clothes and especially his big sneakers stuffed inside, the pack felt fuller and heavier, Maya thought, particularly after the day of exercise. She was unintentionally falling behind.
They still had another half hour or so to go when someone shouted, “Jaguar!”
“Stay together,” Francisco told them. “Don’t run. Just stay together. They don’t go after humans.”
Maya was looking around, trying to see if another cat was in the area besides her brother or sister-in-law —an all-jaguar cat or Lion Mane.
Her heart was already pumping hard from the exertion, but she felt a little hope that the jaguar might be Wade or David.
The pink ribbon of sky peeking through the thick canopy had all but faded, leaving a dark blue ceiling
