She removed her soaked blouse and turned away from me. That was when I noticed something new. Right in the center of the map, a single word had appeared in Apache. What does it say? I asked.
Seiya traced the raised marks with her fingertips. Blood. I stared at her. Blood. The door opens with blood.
She swallowed my blood. A knot twisted hard in my stomach. No, Seiya. I'm not letting you hurt yourself. There has to be another way.
There isn't. The map is clear. Then we find another entrance. There is no other entrance. Her voice echoed through the cavern.
We stood facing each other, soaked, exhausted, and frustrated. Seiya, please. Cade, I've spent my whole life running, hiding, looking over my shoulder every day. Her voice shook, but she didn't look away. I'm tired of being afraid.
I want this finished. I want to be free. Not if freedom means hurting yourself. It's one drop of blood. Are you sure?
Completely. I let out a long breath. All right. Then I reached for my knife. But I'm doing it.
I pulled out a small sharp blade and took her hand as carefully as I could. Ready? Ready. I made the tiniest cut at the tip of her finger. A single red drop appeared.
Seiya walked toward the stone door and pressed her bleeding fingertip against the symbol carved at its center. The stone seemed to drink the blood. For several seconds, nothing happened. Then a deep grinding sound rolled through the cavern. It sounded like enormous stones shifting somewhere beneath the earth.
The door began to move slowly, heavily. Stone scraped against stone until a narrow opening appeared. Behind it stretched a dark tunnel, long, tight, unknown. "The second trail," Seiya whispered. We looked at one another.
"Do we go in?" she asked. "We go in together." I took her hand. Then we crossed the threshold. We had no idea what waited beyond that door. Maybe the treasure, maybe death.
But whatever waited for us, we would face it side by side. Together, always together. Because Seiya was no longer simply a woman carrying a map across her back. She was my partner, the woman I loved, and I was willing to do whatever it took to stay beside her, even if that meant walking straight into the unknown. The tunnel stretched on for what felt like forever.
It was damp, narrow, and so dark it seemed to swallow every trace of light. I walked in front, holding a crude torch we had fashioned from dry branches we found inside the cavern. Seiya followed close behind, one hand resting on my shoulder so we wouldn't lose each other in the darkness. "How much farther?" she asked. "I don't know." I raised the torch slightly.