Ethan’s head was swimming, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay on his feet. He might be useless when it came to protecting Destiny, but at least he wouldn’t let himself become a liability. He was so focused on forward momentum that he almost pitched over when she came to a stop.

They were standing at yet another fork in the stream. One ran down a steep hill over a bed of slimy-looking green rocks. The other vanished into a dark, ominous-looking cave. He didn’t like the look of either route.

“Downhill, we break our necks,” he muttered. “Into the cave, and we get eaten by a grue.”

Destiny’s clear laugh made him feel better, just by hearing it and knowing that whatever else happened, she was at his side. “Why am I not surprised that you play dorky old computer games like Zork, nerd boy?”

“Why am I not surprised that you recognized the Zork quote, nerd girl?” Studying the routes more closely, he said, “There’s no water coming out of the cave, so it has to go somewhere. I vote we face the grue.”

“Better than the hell hog.”

Destiny passed him her flashlight, and he lit the way as they ventured into the cave. The rippling stream echoed eerily across the black and empty space, which smelled strongly of earth and moss and bats. When he shone the light upward, a thousand pinpoint red eyes stared back at him, and the flock of roosting bats chittered angrily. He quickly moved the beam back down to the ground.

“Thanks a lot,” Destiny said. “I’m much happier now that I know there’s about a million rabid bats nesting ten feet over our head.”

“Would you rather have them lurking on the ceiling and not know they’re there?”

“Yes. Yes, I would.”

They followed the twisty tunnel downhill until it suddenly dead-ended in a pool. Ethan shone his flashlight on a wall of solid stone.

“Oh, damn,” she said. “Worst of both worlds: we have go back past the bats again, then down the slippery slope, and we lose time.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” he said, more to himself than her. “Water flows in but not out. It has to go somewhere.”

“Down? The pool must be deeper than it looks. Or maybe there’s some tiny crack in the wall, below the surface, and it flows out from there.”

“Or maybe that’s not a wall,” Ethan said slowly. “Let’s keep walking. I want to see it closer up.”

The cold water was ankle deep, then calf-deep, then knee-deep by the time they reached the wall on the other side. Ethan felt so hot that he would have expected it to feel refreshing, but instead he felt simultaneously overheated and chilled: a deeply unpleasant combination. The only sensation that wasn’t awful was the warmth and solid strength of Destiny’s body next to his.

He reached out to run his hand over the wall.

It went through.

He felt as well as heard Destiny’s soft gasp. But it was one of wonderment, not fear.

The “wall,” he realized, was made of some kind of hanging lichen the same color as the cave itself. It hung in long narrow sheets, like flypaper, but appeared to be one solid mass until you actually touched it. Now that he was pushing one sheet aside, he could see more of the forest, the stream running along the moss…

…and a glint of gold.

Not metallic gold, but a warm smooth amber shade. Gemlike.

A golden city lay before them, nestled into the cup of the valley. Slender towers, delicate minarets, homes and temples and palaces and streets, were all carved from the same lovely amber stone. Ethan’s heart leaped. This was no simple village, but a sophisticated city. It would have cell phones, a hospital, hot food and warm beds…

And then he registered the lack of human voices and saw the empty streets. Rainbow-colored parrots flew in and out of windows, monkeys swung from the arched bridges, and a tiny spotted deer bolted down a street, its hooves clattering. But there were no people. The city was deserted.

Destiny exclaimed, “The Golden City!”

“You know where we are?”

“Not exactly. But I know what it is. Hundreds of years ago, a maharajah—that’s an Indian king—had a dream of building a golden city in the wilderness. He hired all the best architects and city planners and stonemasons, and they built this city. He was going to move his entire kingdom here. But before he could, he dropped dead of a heart attack. His son thought the whole thing was weird and impractical. He not only scrapped the plans to move the kingdom, he was so embarrassed by his dad’s weird idea that he destroyed the maps showing where it was and banned it from even being mentioned. After a generation went by, no one knew where it was. Explorers have searched for it. But we’re the first people to find it!”

“That’s amazing,” Ethan said. “History nerd. And the other nice thing about it is that if no one’s found it yet, it’s invisible from above.”

Destiny nodded. “I’m pretty sure I flew right over it, and I didn’t spot it. It must be completely hidden by the tree cover.”

“I don’t suppose the maharajah put in any beds before he dropped dead?” Ethan asked hopefully.

“Let’s find out.”

They pushed through the vines and stepped into the Golden City. Once he was actually in it, he could see that it hadn’t been lived in for many years, if ever. Dry leaves blew across the roads, flowering vines twined up the towers, and the patches of greenery that he supposed had once been parks or gardens were tangled thickets. Ornamental ponds and fountains were still full of water, probably replenished by rain, but it was green and murky. Huge, bulgy-eyed frogs sat on lilypads and hung motionless in the water, then leaped away with shrill squeaks and plops when they came close.

But the marble itself was perfectly preserved, without cracks and or stains. Many buildings were beautifully carved, and the fountains were decorated with statues of lovely women, handsome warriors, or wild animals. The humid air was scented with the perfume of tropical flowers and the tangy scent of ripe fruit.

Ethan forgot his illness and exhaustion, and felt that he was walking through paradise with the one woman he’d want to share it with.

“Mangoes!” Destiny exclaimed with glee, pointing to a tree laden with orange-yellow fruits. “Oh, I haven’t had a good one since I was eleven. The ones you get in the US are from Mexico, not India, and they’re just not the same.”

Leaving Ethan sitting on a bench of golden marble, she ran to the tree, swung up into the branches with agility that reminded him of Merlin, plucked a few fruits, gracefully dropped back down, and sat beside him.

“Think you could eat something?” she asked.

He’d had no appetite for days, and when he’d forced down the granola bar, it had felt like sandpaper on his sore throat. But Destiny had been right that he had to keep his strength up. And though he still wasn’t hungry, the mangoes smelled wonderful. He nodded.

She took out a pen knife, neatly cut one up, started to offer him a slice, then pulled it back. “Your hands.”

Ethan glanced down at his hands. His left was covered with blood, the fingertips still swollen and painful, and his right was black with soot from rummaging through the burned-out wreckage of the plane. “Can’t be helped.”

“Sure it can.” Destiny sliced off a smaller piece. “Open your mouth, jarhead.”

Ethan opened his mouth. Though he saw it coming, he still couldn’t quite believe it when Destiny put the chunk of mango between his lips. He had a wild temptation to catch her fingers in his mouth… but no. She’d said no. Nothing had changed since then.

He’d eaten mangoes before, but Destiny had been right: the ones in America weren’t the same. This was soft and silken in his mouth, ripe and juicy, with a peach-like scent like that long-ago cobbler, but with a sweet and tangy flavor that was all its own.

Destiny sat there and fed him the entire mango, bite by bite, before she even tasted her own. She was just showing him a soldier’s camaraderie, helping out a buddy who was hurt, he supposed. It shouldn’t feel as tender, let alone as sensual and romantic, as it did. When he imagined himself doing something similar for any of his men in a similar predicament, though, he immediately thought of three or four different ways he could get them some mango without letting it touch their filthy hands, starting with handing them the knife so they could use it like a fork.

“Thanks.” He felt awkward, because what he really wanted to thank her for was the exact thing he couldn’t mention: her treating him like a lover rather than a buddy. To cover it up, he said, “So you’ve been to India before?”

She shot him a strangely nervous look, then nodded. “My family visited once, when I was a kid.”

“That’s a long way to go for a family vacation. Did your family have friends here?”

“Umm.” Once again, she gave him that furtive look. It didn’t suit her. “Not exactly. More like friends of friends. Hey, let’s see if there’s any clean water. A bath and bed would hit the spot, right?”

Ethan nodded, a little bewildered. Why was she acting so weirdly evasive about a childhood visit to India? The only times he’d ever seen her be anything less than completely straightforward were when they’d first met and she hadn’t told him she was a shifter—but that had made perfect sense in retrospect—and when she’d been forced to mention her embarrassing female problem.

Which also made sense, he supposed. Women usually didn’t like to talk about their periods with men. He hoped she wasn’t going to come down with excruciating cramps. Though if she did, he hoped she wouldn’t be too embarrassed to tell him. Maybe he could rub her stomach or apply hot compresses or even just distract her with conversation—whatever would make her feel better.

But what could possibly be embarrassing or a secret about a family vacation twenty years ago?

And, he suddenly realized, why in the world had she hiked with him in an Indian jungle for two days without ever mentioning that she’d been there before?

“Ah-ha,” said Destiny, interrupting his thoughts. “I knew it. We have an actual bath!”

Ethan blinked down at a shallow swimming pool divided by a delicate sheet of thin marble. It was fed by the stream, and the water was clear and inviting.

“How’d you know there’d be something like this?”

“They were popular in India at the time this city was built, so I figured a maharajah would put one in. Look, it even has a privacy screen, so we can both bathe at the same time.”

“I won’t peek,” Ethan promised, and looked away. But Destiny stuck around to help him pull off his boots, which was hard to do when it hurt to both use your left hand and bend over. He shooed her away before she could do more. “I got the rest.”

He had to peel off his clothes, which were covered in mud and blood and river gunk. When he saw the disgusting heap they made, he felt bad for Destiny for having to touch them—and him. That bath was coming not a moment too soon.

He slid into the water. It was lukewarm, a little cooler than the air, but incredibly refreshing. When he sluiced off all the mud and dust and blood and river water, he felt as if he was also washing away his pain and weariness, leaving him clean in every way.

He could hear the cheerful splashes of Destiny bathing beside him, and see the shadows of her curvy body through the paper-thin marble. No details, or he’d have felt like he was spying and turned away; just the shape and movements of a gorgeous, sexy woman.

A gorgeous, sexy woman who doesn’t want you, he reminded himself. So hands off.

He pulled his filthy camouflage uniform into the pool and scrubbed it against itself, watching as swirls of mud were caught by the current and rinsed away, leaving the water in the pool as clear as ever. When he was finally sure it was as clean as he could get it without soap, he laid it out on a sunny patch of marble. It would dry soon enough, and in the meantime, he could just stay in the water.

“Ethan?” Destiny called. “I’m going to poke around a bit. Do some reconnaissance. I’m leaving you the gun.”

“Sure,” he called back. “I can’t get out anyway without flashing you and all the monkeys.”

Her laugh echoed in his ears as her footsteps receded.

“Ethan? Hey! Ethan!”

He woke up, startled, and floundered for a moment before he remembered where he was. “Yeah?”

Destiny was crouched by the side of the pool, carefully staring out and over his head. “Your clothes are dry now. I’ll just turn my back.”

Ethan dragged himself out of the pool, feeling like he weighed as much as the hell pig. It took forever just to get dressed, and he was trembling from exhaustion by the time he was done.

“Okay,” he said, still sitting by the edge of the pool.

Destiny turned around, and seemed to see him for the first time. Creases of concern appeared around her beautiful brown eyes. “I wish I hadn’t left you here. I didn’t think you’d just sit in the water this whole time!”

“I didn’t mean to. I dozed off.”

That only made her look more worried. “Ethan… Don’t take this the wrong way, but you really don’t look good.”

He opened his mouth to deny it, then reconsidered. She was his friend and his partner on this mission. She needed to know what he was and wasn’t capable of. Pretending he was stronger than he was to save his pride could put her at risk.

“I don’t feel good,” he admitted

She squatted on her heels beside him and laid her palm on his forehead. It was cool and soothing. “You’re so hot. Damn, I wish the med kit hadn’t come open.”

Absently, he said. “Wish in one hand, shit in the other. See which fills up first.”

Destiny made a face. “What a charming image. You learn that saying in the Marines?”

“Worse. My dad.” He wanted to bite his tongue as soon as the words were out of his mouth. As far as he was concerned, and definitely as far as Destiny was concerned, that asshole didn’t exist. “Hand up?”

She put her arm around his waist, he draped his arm across her shoulders, and they stood together. The world swung around in a sickening yellow blur, then stabilized.

“I found a good place,” Destiny said. “Secure. And not far. It even has beds!”

“With mattresses?” Ethan asked.

“Yup. They’re kind of dusty, but I pulled a couple off and banged them around some, so they should be good.” She met his incredulous gaze, and said, “I’m not joking. Apparently the palace got furnished first—which stands to reason, right? No gold or anything. Looks like the real valuables got cleaned out. But the furniture and some of the furnishings are still there. You’ll see.”

He knew she wasn’t making it up, but he still didn’t quite believe it until he saw it for himself. The palace was unmistakable for anything else, a beautiful confection of ornately carved towers and elegant domes, and surrounded by a moat with an actual drawbridge. The stream which flowed from the baths was channeled into the moat, though the water wasn’t as clear as it was in the baths. Lilypads floated in the greenish water, and fish swam lazily within the depths. And—

Ethan recoiled. “Is that a snake?”

“Yup. Very poisonous. Don’t fall in.”

He looked back down, careful not to lean. Several white snakes hung in the water, writhing unpleasantly. As he watched, one made a sudden sideways dart and snapped at a big silvery fish three times its size. The fish thrashed for a few seconds, then went belly-up. The snake undulated up to it, unhinged its jaws until they were a gaping abyss lined with needle-sharp fangs, and engulfed the entire fish in a single gulp.

“Yikes,” Ethan muttered. “Guess we won’t be taking any refreshing swims around the palace.”

Destiny grinned. “Maybe not around, but in. It has an indoor swimming pool.”

“It does not—” Ethan began, then decided that he should believe everything Destiny said no matter how insane or unlikely it sounded. She hadn’t steered him wrong yet. “Snake-free, I presume.”

“Completely.” She laughed. “It’s not literally a swimming pool. It’s a giant bath, like the one outside but fancier. But it’s deep enough to swim in.”

They crossed the drawbridge, and Destiny pulled it up after them. He would have felt guilty about not helping her, but it was on a pulley system that was clearly designed to be easy to handle from the inside. Besides, he liked watching the play of muscles on her shoulders and back. A light mist of sweat lay over her brown skin, making it gleam like polished wood.

I could watch her pulling weights forever, he thought. I could watch her do anything forever. The way she moves is so beautiful. Like a dancer. Like a martial artist. Like a tiger.

He needed to stop obsessing over what he couldn’t have and count his blessings that he had her at all, even if it wasn’t the way he wanted. She was the best friend anyone could ever want, and he could count on her to help him rescue his men. It was better to be able to look at her beauty, even if he couldn’t touch, than to have never seen it at all.

Yeah. He’d just keep telling himself that.